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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Soulful Empathy
My term ‘Soulful Empathy’ arises from ‘feeling and listening at a soul level’ It is like one traumatized nervous system, soma (body) starts speaking to another and you feel seen and heard...
A Trauma Anniversary
Where was I on this date six years ago? No matter how many times I have tried to blur out the dates of March 27th – March 30th in my mind, the little tiny reminders build and build until the...
Positive Childhood Experiences, Resiliency, and Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
One might think of negative childhood experiences as intimately linked with complex trauma and complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD), and you would be correct. CPTSD is caused by a...
Safety First: A Trauma-Informed Approach for Couples Who Want to End Abuse In Their Relationship
If you and your partner want to pursue couples therapy, that’s commendable! There is so much hope and help available in therapy. What if you’re dealing with intimate partner abuse or violence...
Control As a Trauma Response: Knowing You Were Powerless Helps You Heal
After living through abuse, neglect, or violence, it’s normal to promise yourself you will never let that happen again. That promise seems to make sense. You need to feel safe, to find some sense...
What is Healing Through Parenting?
Healing Through Parenting is a trauma-informed approach to parenting that helps reduce misbehavior and increase cooperation using just 4 simple steps. Healing Through Parenting focuses on...
The Paradox
Strange is my life, when I glaze off into the distance looking at my willow trees in my childhood garden, in my mind, I know why I do it now so many years later. This wonderful brain gave me a...
Research on How Positive Childhood Experiences Change the Outcome of Children Who Experience Adverse Childhood Experiences
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are known to cause multiple types of illnesses and early death later in life (Felitti et al., 1998). ACEs cause untold misery and heartache because they shake...
The Threat of Peace
Hypervigilance: The state of being highly alert to potential danger or threat I sat on the floor practicing my trauma techniques as I rubbed my hands across the thick bedroom carpet. Grounding...
The diagnosis of Complex PTSD
I still recall with almost crystal-like clarity the day my therapist first said I might have a form of PTSD. I found the idea to be ridiculous. I was so very normal. Nothing had ever happened to...
This is What Triggered My Panic Attack!
Me: I am going to have a heart attack! Let’s get the ECG done, or else it would be too late. My rational mind: No, it can’t be a heart attack. RELAX! Me: I’m unable to breathe, and my chest...
Adverse Childhood Experiences and Positive Childhood Experiences: Can One Mitigate the Effects of the Other?
Childhood should be a carefree time full of learning and joy. However, many children aren’t that lucky and grow up in homes that are dysfunctional and abusive. These encounters are known as...
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”.
