Part of the experience of a traumatic event is a disconnect between the brain and the body. This disconnect or dissociation can become established as a pattern that continues to happen occasionally in response to triggers long after that person has survived the trauma.
However, it’s really important to become connected to your body and its
Trauma is statistically underreported, not talked about enough, and, as anyone working on the addiction field will tell you, it’s everywhere.
PTSD stands for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. We often associate the disorder with combat vets returning from deployment deeply disturbed by events that have transpired overseas. We often picture irritable old man scanning his living
Despite the fact that we’ve come a long way in our culture regarding the de-stigmatization of therapy, it still seems as if reaching out and asking for professional help is the last option for millions of people.
There’s a list of strategies that come before therapy:
I am so tired of people lecturing about trust. About how it is the basis of relationships and what ‘3 things’ lead to trust. I’m tired of it because it is all too simplistic. I am tired of it because they try to make it sound neat and clean and easy. Something you can accomplish
It’s one of the worst feelings in the world: You hurt the feelings of someone you care about and you have no idea how to make it better. Maybe your stress level was running high and you took it out on them. Maybe you tried to make a joke, and it hit a little too
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 others. But then they stop themselves from reaching out.
As therapists, we want to empower people to build more meaningful connections.
I am often reminded that as a Psychologist, I take a lot of my knowledge as “common knowledge” and forget that many not trained in psychotherapy may not know the meaning of some of the terms I use or things I talk about in general.
When I ask people if they have heard of
I was somewhere in South America, traveling on a bright yellow bus, staring out the window lost in thought. What was I doing all by myself on this bus, on this continent, where I didn’t know anyone for thousands of miles?
I had thought that if I just packed up and ran away from my problems,
People seek therapy to get help making an important personal change, by their choice or urged by loved ones.
Maybe you are being proactive and preparing for a happy event such as a wedding or a new baby, and you want to get off to a strong start.
Maybe you are struggling with a relationship, a diagnosis,
I’d been studying for a doctorate in psychology for four years before I had any idea that nutritional deficiencies could cause mental health symptoms.
I wasn’t enlightened by a lecture or a clinical supervisor but from casually flipping through my cousin’s undergraduate U.S. History textbook late one evening during her Christmas break.
In a section on the
