by Robyn Brickel | Mar 21, 2023 | Combat Trauma, CPTSD and PTSD, Emotional Wellness, Guest Contributor
One of our most popular articles of all time is on Loving a Trauma Survivor. This article continues that idea — how to help a trauma survivor, in a healthy, positive way. Loving a trauma survivor may mean you also want to help them in many ways. You may want to help...
by Shirley Davis | Mar 20, 2023 | Complex PTSD Healing, CPTSD
Core beliefs are vital to who we are as humans, guiding how we treat ourselves and those around us. When a person has suffered complex trauma, these critical internal viewpoints often become skewed. This is especially true when one has formed complex post-traumatic...
by Elizabeth Woods | Mar 17, 2023 | CPTSD and PTSD, Emotional Wellness, Guest Contributor
Belonging – the feeling of being comfortable and happy in a particular situation or with a particular group of people, and being treated as a full member of the group. Source: Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. A child suffering abuse in their family...
by Cyndi Bennett | Mar 16, 2023 | Complex PTSD Healing, CPTSD, CPTSD and PTSD, Guest Contributor, Life Management Skills, Occupational Mental Health & CPTSD, Post Traumatic Growth, PTSD, Workplace Trauma
Photo by Campaign Creators on Unsplash In 2015, Google released the results of a two-year study on team performance. They found that one of the common attributes of all high-performing teams is psychological safety or “the belief that you won’t be punished when you...
by Heidi Fischer | Mar 15, 2023 | CPTSD, Guest Contributor, Trauma-Informed, Triggers
***Trigger warning*** This guest post discusses specific, explicit, aspects of a personal trauma story. Please be kind to yourself as you read. A letter to the doctor who almost killed me: There I sat, in a small room, and in walked you, the doctor. I’d shown up to...
by Madelon Wise | Mar 14, 2023 | CPTSD Survivor Stories, Grief, Guest Contributor, Relationships, Toxic Relationships
We were newlyweds living in Missoula, Montana. I loved the funky town. But the best part of being there was that it was 1,300 miles away from Waterloo, Iowa, where Tom’s parents lived, and 862 miles from Greeley, Colorado, where mine lived. I didn’t know much, but I...
by Shirley Davis | Mar 13, 2023 | CPTSD and PTSD, Self Care, Self-Acceptance
In this series on core beliefs, we are discussing how these self-imposed and self-defining thought patterns can either help or hinder you and your life. Because of childhood maltreatment, many survivors are left struggling to find who they are and struggling with many...
by Sunny Lynn, OMC | Mar 10, 2023 | Abandonment and CPTSD, CPTSD and PTSD, Guest Contributor
Surviving While Trying to Thrive: Life with CPTSD (as published in The Friday Edition of HeartBalm Healing at https://heartbalm.substack.com) “Surviving while f*cking trying to thrive” was the initial title for this piece but it is a better explicit beginning...
by Cyndi Bennett | Mar 9, 2023 | ADHD, Complex PTSD Healing, Occupational Mental Health & CPTSD, Post Traumatic Growth, Workplace Trauma
When I talk to trauma survivors about their experiences in the workplace, I often sense that they are more interested in changing their work environment than in changing themselves. This might seem like a bit of tough love, but changing your experiences in the...
by Sylvie Rouhani | Mar 8, 2023 | ACEs, Complex PTSD Healing, Guest Contributor, Sexual Abuse
The recent news of David Carrick’s arrest sheds light on why it is so difficult for victims and survivors of violence and rape to disclose abuse. We are encouraged to call the Police but, very often, we aren’t believed or heard, even worse: some of us...
