by Cyndi Bennett | Jun 12, 2025 | Complex PTSD Healing, CPTSD, CPTSD and PTSD, Occupational Mental Health & CPTSD
Introduction As leaders, many of us are driven by a deep desire to make a positive impact and support those around us. However, for those of us navigating the challenges of Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD), our journey as leaders can be significantly...
by Natalie Rose | Jun 11, 2025 | CPTSD, CPTSD Survivor Stories, Expressive Writing, Guest Contributor
TRIGGER WARNING: Writer’s Note: This post contains references to suicidal ideation, sexual assault, and psychiatric ward experiences. Names have been changed. Five words got me tied up on a stretcher in the back of this ambulance. Five words, starting with “I want”...
by Heather Jurvelin | Jun 10, 2025 | Cognitive Behavior Therapy, CPTSD, CPTSD and PTSD, Emotional Wellness, Guest Contributor
Vulnerability and Trust Can Be the Hardest Work We’ll Ever Do My therapist recently had the audacity to applaud my progress, reminding me that I’m “the one doing all the work.” A part of me internally screamed about how much I hated it when she said that. For the...
by Betsy Roy | Jun 9, 2025 | CPTSD, CPTSD and PTSD, Guest Contributor
Storytelling connects us to the world around us, to the forests and mountains and critters in our city parks I believe in storytelling to understand others and ourselves. Storytelling connects us to the world around us, to the forests and mountains and critters in our...
by Dr. Mozelle Martin | Jun 5, 2025 | Boundaries, CPTSD, Guest Contributor, Healing from Toxic Shame, Mental Health Awareness, Mental Health Professional, Polyvagal Theory and CPTSD, Self-Acceptance, Symptoms of CPTSD
It often looks like compassion. It often gets praised as loyalty. But for many trauma survivors, the behavior known as the fawn response isn’t about kindness—it is about survival. The fawn response is the least recognized of the four primary trauma reactions: fight,...
by Cyndi Bennett | Jun 4, 2025 | Complex PTSD Healing, CPTSD, CPTSD and PTSD, Occupational Mental Health & CPTSD
Introduction As trauma survivors, we often face unique challenges in the workplace related to managing triggers and intense emotions. The number one request that I get from trauma survivors is to teach them how to manage their workplace triggers. Experiencing triggers...
by Ramon Diaz | Jun 3, 2025 | Brain Chemistry, Guest Contributor, Mental Health Professional, Technology
The smartphone phenomenon has been impacting the milieu in the United States for well over 15 years. Some of us can remember what life was like before smartphones were put into the hands of Americans. Many of us were in college or had just graduated from high school....
by Jennifer DiOrio | Jun 2, 2025 | CPTSD, Guest Contributor, Healthy Relationships
“We are the cosmos made conscious, and life is the means by which the universe understands itself.” – Brian Cox, physics professor and musician Feelings of numbness, detachment, depletion, and pain can be mistaken for an inability to heal, grow, transform, and...
by Polly Hansen | May 29, 2025 | ACEs, CPTSD, Emotional Wellness, Guest Contributor, Healing from Toxic Shame
“It’s amazing you survived. How come you’re so…normal and happy?”That’s what people say when I tell my story: parental neglect, sexual abuse, homelessness, being trafficked. My answer? I never gave up on me. Why? Because I wanted me. I wanted to believe I was good,...
by Elizabeth Woods | May 28, 2025 | CPTSD, Emotional Wellness, Guest Contributor
Hey, how are you feeling today? Have you taken some time for yourself today? If you are a survivor of trauma and abuse, the answer is probably not. As survivors, the last person we think about is ourselves because we have spent years being suppressed into believing...