When Grief Has No Grave: Rebuilding After a Childhood You Never Got

When Grief Has No Grave: Rebuilding After a Childhood You Never Got

No one brings you a casserole when you’re grieving the childhood you didn’t have. There’s no funeral for the loss of safety or a sense of belonging. No sympathy cards arrive when the dreams you clung to slowly unravel. And no one tells you what to do when you...
What I’ve Learned About Trauma Survivors in My Quest to Demystify CPTSD

What I’ve Learned About Trauma Survivors in My Quest to Demystify CPTSD

After more than a decade of searching for answers within the traditional medical model, I found myself with more questions than when I started. Eventually, I realized that understanding Complex PTSD (CPTSD) and its intricacies required insights from those who truly...
Parenting Challenges for People with Complex Trauma: From Ferberizing My Baby to “Furberizing” My Puppy (A Personal Case Study)

Parenting Challenges for People with Complex Trauma: From Ferberizing My Baby to “Furberizing” My Puppy (A Personal Case Study)

On Valentine’s Day 2025, our 30th wedding anniversary, we celebrated by bringing home an 8-week-old labradoodle puppy. Thirty years together, and we’re still making questionable decisions… like starting all over with a dog infant. I dubbed her my “luvdoodle,” and we...
Transforming Tragedy, Secrets, and Lies

Transforming Tragedy, Secrets, and Lies

The imagined scene fades in: silhouette and shadow, sepia and blue-black charcoal. Fading dusk bleeds its final hint of burnt sienna. The rhythmic slap and skip-step of a single figure jumping rope. Those turning the rope and their haunting sing-song chant are just...
Safe Place

Safe Place

I have a wonderful therapist.  It’s not your usual “talk therapy,” though. We do talk, and I have come to trust him implicitly. He has helped me heal from PTSD and complex relational trauma, and the transformation since I began working with him far exceeds phenomenal....
The True Story of the Golden Buddha: How Breaking Brings Us Whole

The True Story of the Golden Buddha: How Breaking Brings Us Whole

Curious visitors come by the thousands to witness with their own eyes what a 5.5-ton golden miracle looks like, pondering the weight of what it means in their own lives The story of the Golden Buddha is thought to have begun around the 13th century CE, during the...