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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Non-judgmental Self-Acceptance as a Shame-Shifter. Rivka A. Edery, Psy.D. (Candidate), M.S.W., L.C.S.W.
Based on the extensive research and data available, psychologists consider that shame cultivates the need for approval from others. Shame can result when a person senses, or experiences, that someone disapproves of them or something about them. Shame also can result when a person actually did something shameful, like doing harm or damage to a person, their property, or to animals. A person can also experience shame as an adult when something happens that they have little or no control over (Ungvarsky, 2019).
Emotional Flashbacks
You walk into your living room after getting out of bed in the morning feeling apprehensive and afraid, but there is nothing to be afraid of that you can observe. An overwhelming sense that...
Dear Sensitive One: Your Sensitivity is not a Curse.
Good evening. I see you’re crying again. Don’t worry about the sheets. I’ll wash them tomorrow. What do you need? Can I hold your hand? You don’t want to be touched? It’s okay. I understand. You...
Where’s the Bright Side?
Though I don’t like to think about it, I sometimes wonder how I went from enthusiastically running a service business that doubled every year from word of mouth alone to homeless, struggling not...
The Neurotransmitters of Seasonal Affective Disorder and Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
The brain is a very complicated organ that rules over our lives engendering how we move, think, and feel. The way our brain cells (neurons) communicate with one another is by the use of chemicals...
The Importance of Self Care When Coping with CPTSD
Trauma can affect a person’s emotional, physical, and psychological well-being in various ways. Because the trauma experienced may be unique to an individual, their response to a traumatic event...
3 Concepts to Help Trauma Survivors Move Forward Into Healthier Relationships
It’s good, healthy, and human to want love and seek it out. We live longer, healthier lives when we feel close to someone safe. Some people feel painfully disconnected, and long to open up to...
Saying Goodbye to 2020 and Surviving the Holidays with Trauma Histories and SAD
Healing from trauma is arduous at this time of year. The whole world seems to us to be joyous and happy while we feel exhausted and left out. We have struggled so hard on our healing journey that...
I Was Told One Time that I’m Worthless.
I was told one time that girls don’t play sports. So I stood outside of grocery stores at 14 and sold pizza cards until I had the 3,000 dollars to play volleyball. I was scoffed at one time when...
Sit Here For The Present
In the popular children’s book “Ramona the Pest” by Beverly Cleary, five-year-old Ramona is told to “sit here for the present” by her kindergarten teacher, Miss Binney. Misunderstanding the...
Seasonal Affective Disorder and Its Interaction with Complex Trauma
In the last article in this series of four posts on seasonal affective disorder SAD and its relation to complex trauma, we examined together with their definitions and each of their symptoms. As...
Living with Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
I startle easily, I’m hypersensitive, and I often feel as if I am floating above my body. I fluctuate between being here one moment and looking down on myself the next. Crying comes on randomly....
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”.
