Trauma-Informed Blog
New content weekly! Survivor Stories, Research Articles, Poetry, and more written by clinicians, coaches, survivors, and mental health professionals.
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When the Past Keeps Chiming: Boundaries With Someone Who Lives Outside of Time
Each year during the Thanksgiving season, I open my storage unit to retrieve my Christmas ornaments. Next to the boxes sits an antique grandfather wall clock that once belonged to my former...
Breaking Free From Trauma: Three Simple Rules of Starting Again
Do you believe that we are put on this earth for a reason? You don’t have to be "spiritual" to believe. I believed in something more when I was growing up. It was my way of surviving my...
How Writing Helped a Survivor Heal – and Find Joy!
Give yourself the pleasure of a functional life filled with people who believe you, who trust you, love you, and who accept the beauty and the wonder that is your strength. I recently connected...
What is the Point?
WHAT IS THE POINT?By Jesse Donahue © 2023 Love, the theme of many songs and found in the words of poets, theologians, and philosophers alike, is too often hidden from man by his experienced and...
The Knock on the Door that Changed My World: Domestic Violence can Happen to Anyone
It was late, and my kids had gone to bed a few hours before. I was tired and getting ready to call it a night. A sudden knock on the door made me look up from my keyboard. It was a gentle knock,...
Cassandra’s Legacy: A Brief History of Gaslighting
Cassandra, the Prophetess of Troy, whose name in Greek means “she who entangles men,” rejected the sexual advances of the god Apollo in his temple. As punishment, Apollo invalidated Cassandra’s...
Meeting the Bear: What Nervous-System Healing Looks Like in Real Time
I am a mountain climber at heart, and I live in California, home to the Sierra Nevadas. I’ve spent much of my life moving through the backcountry with a pack on my shoulders. Over time, I learned...
My Skin Knows I’m a Survivor
One sweltering July when I was fifteen, I was camped out on a shaded picnic bench at nerd camp. While furiously pushing the buttons on my calculator and drilling exercises for my upcoming exam, I...
How to Set Therapy Up for Success — Especially for Trauma Survivors: 5 Ways to Create a Strong Foundation for Healing
Therapy can be life-changing — especially when it’s set up with intention, structure, and the right support. For trauma survivors in particular, creating the right conditions for healing is...
What are Trauma Triggers?
***TRIGGER WARNING*** This article discusses trauma, including sexual references that may not be appropriate for all. My name is Lizzy, and I am a survivor of unimaginable trauma. I have lived...
Staying Connected When You Disagree: A Trauma-Informed Approach to Navigating Political Differences with Loved Ones
In today’s polarized world, it can feel especially painful when the people we love hold political beliefs that contradict our values—especially when those beliefs impact our identity, rights, or...
Rewriting the Script: Changing the Song and Scenery of Our Now
Part I: As I listen to Elton John’s “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” on a loop, I mentally counter the lyrics with the fantasy that the sun will just fall from the sky. Can’t it do me the...
What is Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder?
“Complex PTSD comes in response to chronic traumatization over the course of months or, more often, years. This can include emotional, physical, and/or sexual abuses, domestic violence, living in a war zone, being held captive, human trafficking, and other organized rings of abuse, and more. While there are exceptional circumstances where adults develop C-PTSD, it is most often seen in those whose trauma occurred in childhood”.
