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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Q & A: For Practitioners About Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Trauma-Informed Care
Trauma is all around us, with most of it being dealt with just fine by the person having experienced it. However, some trauma is not so easy to shake, and it can mean life-altering changes that...
Managing CPTSD Symptoms in the Workplace – Part 1
In the first article in this series, I introduced you to my experience with suddenly having to manage the effects of CPTSD in the workplace. Today, I would like us to explore the symptoms of...
The Never-ending Loop of PTSD and Chronic Pain
On bad days, I don’t know where the anxiety stops and the chronic pain begins. The tightening in my chest could be a warning of a panic attack or of a fibromyalgia flare that will spread across...
The Importance of Psychoeducational Material that is Trauma-sensitive for the Survivor and the Practitioner
Complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) is a common disorder altering the lives of millions of people. Yet, there is little training available for survivors or practitioners. This article...
A Child Lost in Time: Trauma and Chronic Pain
As I sit here with several benign tumors that are causing constant pain, I realize how chronic medical problems have followed me throughout life. I was always the sickly, hand-shy kid....
Coming Off of Mute
With the advent of working from home during COVID, we have all seen and chuckled at the videos going around of people either not being on mute and wishing they were, or people being on mute and...
The War at the Border and Its Effect on Adolescent Mental Health
Media in many instances, in the US, has a way of capturing news that grabs the attention of its viewers. The headlines must immediately grab you or the news story may not be worth...
The Importance of Becoming Trauma-Informed
Many people are ill-informed or know nothing about mental health disorders, including complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) and how it affects those around them. There are hundreds if...
Make A Decision
The greatest power each of us has is the power to choose. May we wield it with clarity and purpose.
The Reality and Non-Reality of Pre, Post and Complex-PTSD
Scenario: You find yourself in a private or business situation where mental and/or physical abuse is the order of the day for a very, very long time. It took you a while but slowly awareness is...
Why We Need to Change Our Stories About Addiction
Why are we so reluctant to let go of outdated ideas and concepts, terrified that we will relapse if we don't maintain the status quo? Recovery is about stories. Stories of hope,...
An Analogy to Explain CPTSD
People often find it difficult to explain, or to understand Complex PTSD. I often find myself falling into metaphor or analogy to explain the experience. The reason for using an abstraction is...
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”.
