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...
by Roseanne Reilly | May 27, 2025 | CPTSD, Emotional Wellness, Guest Contributor
Restoring Safety to the Nervous System For many of us living with stress-related trauma—whether acute, chronic, developmental, or complex—the hardest thing isn’t the memory. It’s the body’s ongoing reaction. Our nervous system holds onto the past...
by Cyndi Bennett | May 26, 2025 | Complex PTSD Healing, CPTSD, CPTSD and PTSD, Occupational Mental Health & CPTSD
Introduction As survivors of complex trauma, many of us face unique challenges in the workplace. One of the most significant obstacles we may encounter is the presence of limiting beliefs — deeply ingrained thoughts and assumptions that can hold us back from reaching...
by Jack Brody | May 22, 2025 | CPTSD, CPTSD and Parenting, CPTSD and PTSD, Guest Contributor
Being a dad with CPTSD feels like starring in your own personal three-ring circus, except, of course, it’s not just a circus. It’s a high-stakes act with no safety net, and the crowd is loud and relentless. And when your daughter is soon to be 16? Well,...
by Rachel Grant | May 21, 2025 | ACEs, CPTSD, CPTSD and PTSD, Guest Contributor
I’ve been following Kristen Browde on TikTok for some time now and have found her to be so insightful and inspiring that I had to introduce you to her and the amazing advocacy work she is doing on many fronts.In particular, I want to share with you this amazing...
by Rebekah Brown | May 20, 2025 | Betrayal, Caregiving, Complex PTSD Healing, Core Beliefs, CPTSD, CPTSD and Narcissistic Abuse, Emotional Wellness, Estrangement, Family Estrangement, Feeling Good Enough, Gaslighting, Generational Trauma, Guest Contributor, Mental Health Professional, Narcissistic Abuse, Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Relationships, Trauma
It’s something every survivor of childhood trauma dreads: the death of their abuser. No one has any idea how they are going to react. Will you be awash in regret? How about grief? The losses incurred dealing with a narcissistic parent over a lifetime complicate...
by Cyndi Bennett | May 19, 2025 | Complex PTSD Healing, CPTSD, CPTSD and PTSD, Occupational Mental Health & CPTSD
Introduction As trauma survivors, we often focus on the challenges and obstacles we face in our personal and professional lives. This tendency is rooted in a concept known as negativity bias, which is our brain’s natural inclination to focus on and remember negative...
by Susan Gold | May 15, 2025 | CPTSD and PTSD, Guest Contributor, Mental Health Professional, Workplace Trauma
If you’ve experienced prolonged and repeated trauma, emotions can be difficult. Identifying emotions can be a challenge. Knowing the difference between the basic emotions—happy, mad, sad, and glad—may take patience to feel and recognize. Yet emotions are one of your...
by Jesse Donahue | May 14, 2025 | ACEs, CPTSD, CPTSD and PTSD, Dysregulation, Guest Contributor
The Heart of the MatterBy Jesse B. Donahue 2023 ©Hidden deep, and I mean buried at the core of my human soul, lies my “internal being,” repressed, shrunken, having been shattered by chronic trauma. How many years, how many moments of a wasted life have I endured and...
