by Jennifer Lock Oman | Apr 17, 2024 | CPTSD and PTSD, Emotional Wellness, Guest Contributor, Mental Health Professional
In adapting to the circumstances of growing up with relational trauma, most of us had to give up our innate sense of personal power or sovereignty Generally, this meant having to forfeit our agency, vibrancy, energy, or creativity. Most of all, it meant no one was...
by Jesse Donahue | Apr 15, 2024 | CPTSD, Guest Contributor, Mindfulness
Obedience to the light, the authentic self-image felt from deep within, a calling. It is set against an illuminating seductive “delusion” developing, in a lifelong desperate striving to succeed, to become the ace in a gambler’s magic deck of cards… the false...
by Erena DiGonis | Apr 11, 2024 | CPTSD, Emotional Wellness, Guest Contributor, Mental Health Professional
In the therapy room, there’s a four-letter word that creates unease in my nervous system every time I hear it: “lazy.” Working with trauma survivors, I witness the fallout of abusive and neglectful households, and the last thing I want to hear is my...
by Susan Pollard | Apr 10, 2024 | CPTSD and PTSD, Guest Contributor, Mental Health Professional
What does CPTSD feel like? Although Complex PTSD is different for everyone, these are some examples of what it feels like when having a flashback: Imagine jumping out of bed screaming at 3 AM, wide-eyed, terrified, with no idea where you are. Imagine always having one...
by Lynn 18 | Apr 9, 2024 | CPTSD, Family Estrangement, Guest Contributor, Mental Health Professional
I am an estrangement clinician primarily working with parents who are estranged from their adult sons or daughters. My lived experience as an estranged parent is a far greater credential than my degree in psychology and my training as a life coach combined. Like many...
by Paul Michael Marinello | Apr 8, 2024 | CPTSD and PTSD, Depression, Emotional Wellness, Loneliness, Mental Health Professional
“I’m lonely. And I’m lonely in some horribly deep way and for a flash of an instant, I can see just how lonely, and how deep this feeling runs. And it scares the shit out of me to be this lonely because it seems catastrophic.”― Augusten Burroughs,...
by Rebekah Brown | Apr 4, 2024 | Anxiety, CPTSD, Emotional Wellness, Guest Contributor, Sleep
The good news is that trauma survivors can conquer insomnia. The bad news: it takes time. I’ve had insomnia for nearly fifty years. Habits that have gone on that long aren’t going to change overnight. But they are changing and that is what matters. The automatic...
by Roseanne Reilly | Apr 3, 2024 | CPTSD, Guest Contributor
In the quiet corridors of our souls, where echoes of forgotten laughter and the whispers of untold stories reside, lies the essence of our being—our core being. It is a treasure chest buried beneath the sands of time, waiting to be rediscovered and nurtured. In...
by Annette Greenberg | Apr 2, 2024 | ACEs, CPTSD, CPTSD and PTSD, Guest Contributor, Shame
A few weeks ago, I left one job to take on a new full-time job, which didn’t work out. Simultaneously, I finished a series of graduate education courses I’d been taking. This combination of events abruptly left a gaping hole in my usually full schedule. I...
by Lee Frost | Apr 1, 2024 | CPTSD, Guest Contributor, Trauma-Informed
I recently gave a keynote talk at the 6th Annual Medical Symposium on Human Trafficking, a combined effort by the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine and ImPACT Virginia, a nonprofit that helps victims of human trafficking. The purpose of the symposium...
