Tagged With "flight flight freeze appease"
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Trauma-Sensitive Yoga Can be a Great Coping Tool & Here's How to Bring it Into Your Practice [bustle.com]
By Jay Polish, Bustle, August 18, 2019 Whether you’ve never tried yoga or are deeply into your practice, you probably know that yoga has an intense way of integrating your body’s movements with your mind’s inner chatter. For some, that connection facilitates a sense of calm and restoration. For others, that peace seems far away, if not impossible, and yoga classes offer more fear than relief. When yoga calls unexpected attention to your mind and body — and when it involves subtle competition...
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Trauma tried to kick down the door. Compassion is helping me heal.
The artwork is an original piece titled "Someone at the Door" by Chicago artist Ken Shaw. I bought it about 35 years ago. (The first part of this piece was written in-the-moment, as an email to a friend following what, for me, was a traumatic experience. The second part of this piece was written about 10 days later, as part of a healing reflection. It occurs to me that this experience, and the reflections, might help someone else experiencing trauma and/or seeking compassion for self or...
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Wellness and Resiliency Toolkit for Kids with Trauma
I'm excited to share a booklet created for youth in Oregon foster care at a Wellness camp this summer. Youth were provided with these quick, easy and effective (and evidence based) "Mindful Moments" exercises in their Wellness Toolkits and they were practiced throughout the day at camp so that they could be remembered in times of stress and dysregulation. The exercised are designed to quickly bring them back to a state of calm. The youth really enjoyed them, and found them easy and...
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What is Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD)?
Most people have heard of post-traumatic stress disorder that afflicts many men and women returning from a war zone. It is characterized by flashbacks, unstable moods, and survivor’s remorse. However, many have never heard of a condition that often develops in childhood and changes the course of the child’s life forever, complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD). For a good definition of CPTSD, we turned to Beauty After Bruises, an organization that offers outreach focused on adult...
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6 Signs Your Past Childhood Trauma Is Making You Physically Sick [yourtango.com]
There may be more to your illness than you think. Can't figure out why you're always sick? Child abuse and neglect both contribute to childhood trauma, but what if the effects of these follow you to adulthood in the form of a physical illness? There is a scientific link between illness and childhood abuse and neglect — whether it's physical, emotional, or sexual. The effects of victimization are far-reaching — especially when it begins before the age of seven. Current science shows the...
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Calming Your Anxious Mind Through Rhythmic Movement
5 Rhythmic Movement Practices That Can Calm Our Anxious Mind
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CPTSD: How to Transform Fear, and Develop INNER STRENGTH
Now that the pandemic has us all in a crisis situation, we’re about to find out to find out who falls apart in a crisis, and who rises up to serve, lead and encourage others. The ones who shine are not always who we expected — have you noticed this? Here in California we’ve been sheltering in place for over two weeks now. Everywhere in the world, we’re trying to figure out how best to respond to the pandemic, how best to care for ourselves and the people we love. It’s a work in progress. For...
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How Tuning In to Your Body Can Make You More Resilient [greatergood.berkeley.edu]
Stuff happens. Another car suddenly swerves into your lane on the freeway. You misplace your keys and wallet two minutes before you need to catch your bus to work. You shred the wrong client file at the office. These mini-disasters create quite a startle in your nervous system—a rush of adrenaline that helps ready your body for “fight or flight,” our natural defense against perceived danger. But if your body is hit with adrenaline for every little thing that goes wrong in life, it can tax...
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“I Like to Move It, Move It!” – How Dance and Rhythm Can Reduce the Impact of ACEs (stresshealth.org)
As it is, more and more researchers studying the healing power of rhythmic movement on people who’ve experienced trauma from Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), such as abuse, neglect, or parental mental illness or substance abuse issues. Among these researchers is Dr. Bruce Perry, a psychiatrist and senior fellow at the Child Trauma Academy in Houston who advocates dance, drumming, walking and other rhythm-based movements to help kids with trauma. In a book about trauma and the power of...
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I’m Sick of Asking Children to Be Resilient [nytimes.com]
FLINT, Mich. — A baby born in Flint, Mich., where I am a pediatrician, is likely to live almost 20 fewer years than a child born elsewhere in the same county. She’s a baby like any other, with wide eyes, a growing brain and a vast, bottomless innocence — too innocent to understand the injustices that without her knowing or choosing have put her at risk. Some of the babies I care for have the bad luck to be born into neighborhoods where life expectancy is just over 64 years. Only a few miles...
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I Now Suspect the Vagus Nerve Is the Key to Well-being [thecut.com]
Laura's Note: I have no research citation to back this up, but I have a hunch that childhood trauma may do a number on the vagus nerve, at least in some of us. Isn't it reassuring to know that we can help stimulate our vagus nerves through simple, free or inexpensive methods such as deep breathing and yoga (both of which get a lot of good press in this community, and for good reason)? It's no panacea, but it's not nothing. Have you ever read something a million times only to one day, for no...
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Junk Journaling for Resilience (During COVID-19)
This is an activity that came to me during a time of incredible turmoil and hardship for my family, and it quickly became my go-to practice to shift out of fight-or-flight, gain perspective on my situation, find peace in the chaos, and sort through my many colliding thoughts and feelings about the impossible time we were in. It was how I metabolized, sifted, and found my right way through a significant family crisis. It honestly saved me/us, in part because it is so fun, easy and feels good!
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My Story about Healing Moving from “What is wrong with me” to “What is happening – how can I take better care of myself?”
When I was a little girl, I had a lot of ear infections. Did anyone else experience that? Every summer in the middle of the fun of swimming in the pool, I would get an ear infection and one year I got one on my birthday. Obviously, I still remember it. It was a sad time. I always felt like I was missing out on things. And it became a pattern. I would go to the doctor and get lamb’s wool and drops put in my ear. It hurt a lot. I can still remember trying to get comfortable lying on the couch...
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Need 45 Trauma-Informed Practitioners or Clinicians For Study on Using a Brain Regulation Headband-Bellabee Designed To Help Trauma Survivors Regulate Their Brains.
Need 45 Trauma-Informed Practitioners or Clinicians For Study on Using a Brain Regulation Headband-Bellabee Designed To Help Trauma Survivors Regulate Their Brains. All trauma informed practitioners who are suffering with or who work with adults or children suffering with C-PTSD, PTSD, Developmental Trauma, Depression, Anxiety, ADHD & Sleep Disorders are welcome to apply to be considered for this study. The deadline to request and submit your application is: March 20, 2020 As a trauma...
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Need 45 Trauma-Informed Practitioners or Clinicians For Study on Using a Brain Regulation Headband-Bellabee Designed To Help Trauma Survivors Regulate Their Brains.
Need 45 Trauma-Informed Practitioners or Clinicians For Study on Using a Brain Regulation Headband-Bellabee Designed To Help Trauma Survivors Regulate Their Brains. All trauma informed practitioners who are suffering with or who work with adults or children suffering with C-PTSD, PTSD, Developmental Trauma, Depression, Anxiety, ADHD & Sleep Disorders are welcome to apply to be considered for this study. We currently have 41 applicants, and applicantions are approved on a first come first...
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Next "A Better Normal" community discussion series: April 24, 2020: Using the Community Resiliency Model to self-regulate during the pandemic
Dave Granlund Friday, April 24, 2020 — Elaine Miller-Karas is founder of the Trauma Resources Institute and one of the key creators of the Community Resiliency Model (CRM). CRM is an ACES-science based model to help people become emotionally regulated during natural disasters and other dysregulating times. She will join ACEs Connection SE regional community facilitator Carey Sipp in an informal conversation with the ACEsConnection community. Elaine will discuss how to use the CRM for...
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Reconnecting to your Body after Peritraumatic Dissociation
In this article, we will talk about one of the most common symptoms of complex post-traumatic stress disorder – dissociation. We will explore different methods and tools that help us to reconnect with our body in the long term. Since one of those tools is therapy, we will also talk about the limits of talk therapy, and address how working with our body directly can teach us new and healthier responses when we are overwhelmed. Definition and Explanation of Dissociation For every trauma...
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Self-Compassion Calms and Soothes Fight-or-Flight Responses [PsychologyToday.com]
Exactly six years ago this week, I wrote a post, “ The Neurobiology of Grace Under Pressure, ” which offered some practical advice on different ways to increase parasympathetic activation within the autonomic nervous system (which counterbalances fight-or-flight responses) by engaging the vagus nerve . One section of that 2013 post recommended practicing Loving-Kindness Meditation (LKM) . Typically, during LKM you systematically direct warm-hearted thoughts of love and kindness to four...
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Take Care of You in Troubled Times
Self-care strategies work. In my book, “Goodbye Anxiety, Hello Freedom”, I share 35 different strategies, as one-size- doesn’t -fit-all! Today, I’ve got 5 simple tips to share that will help you relax and find your emotional balance. The #1 Most Important Thing to Add to Your Self-Care Routine Limit how much media you consume and how often. I’ve said this for years and now it is absolutely critical. Checking the latest news over and over again is like taking a jackhammer to our nervous...
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Tapping through Panic into Peace
In these times of Coronovirus concerns, it is comforting to know we have an Emotional Freedom Techniques method of tapping that does not require touching the face. Click this link to see an illustration of a tapping protocol that is especially useful in calming fears: https://www.janebuchan.com/blog/ The Gamut Point, found on the back of the hand between the ring and baby finger tendons, sits on Triple Warmer, our fight or flight meridian. Our personal First-Responder, we need Triple Warmer...
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Why We Need Self-Compassion Now More than Ever (soundstrue.com)
Dr. Chris Germer and Dr. Kristin Neff.have been exploring self-compassion —the science behind its many benefits, the unconscious reasons why we don't allow ourselves to experience it fully, and practices to start bringing it to our aid during emotionally challenging moments. In this final video , Sounds True founder and CEO Tami Simon joins Kristin and Chris in conversation on " How Self-Compassion Changes Everything ." With them, you'll explore: Why we can meditate for years and still...
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Re: Trauma tried to kick down the door. Compassion is helping me heal.
Carey, this is a phenomenal piece. It's so raw and so true. We see how the woman pounding on your door and her actions trigger you, and how you find ways to work through the fight-or-flight response and the terror, and how you connect your reaction to that incident with your childhood experiences. And then you find compassion for yourself AND the woman who terrorized you. Not to mention your parents. And I don't know about you, but I'm reeling at the parallels between the woman at your door...
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Re: Why Trauma Survivors Can't Just "Let It Go" [themighty.com]
Oh. My. Goodness. You have no idea how this article rocked my world this past week. So I have this pesky little highway phobia I have yet to conquer. Emphasis on YET. After 4 years and 98 sessions with EMDR, we never did find the trigger memory. There I was in Denver this past week, having flown in on only half a Xanax (I usually require multiple Xanax starting the day before a flight), in my son's car as he drove down a crazy packed highway in downtown rush hour traffic. I tried every...
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Re: Why Trauma Survivors Can't Just "Let It Go" [themighty.com]
Wow! This is such a beautiful thing to read (not the part about the intractable highway phobia, of course ). You just never know what is going to come along out of the clear blue and give you the boost you need to overcome -- of course, you have been priming that pump for a long time with all that good, diligent self-care. I am thrilled to hear that you avoided a panic attack and flew Xanax-free (and that maybe this post played a role in that). In fact, as someone who's motto is "Xanax --...
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Re: Why Trauma Survivors Can't Just "Let It Go" [themighty.com]
This made my day! Thank you 😁 Your flying motto made me laugh out loud as it has been mine, as well, for thirty-something years. As a matter of fact, when I traveled to Mexico a few years ago with a group of 8 friends, they dubbed me Captain Xanax on the plane 😂 I'm such a fan of being drug-free though that I try my best to overcome without medication. Just my own personal goal.
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Re: Seven Strategies I Use To Reregulate As Anxiety Symptoms Surface
Great list, Teri! I'll add another: Knitting. It's my portable therapy. I tend to get anxious when there's turbulence on a plane flight so I always take a knitting project with me when I fly. It's meditative and soothing. Here's some information and research about the health benefits of knitting: https://well.blogs.nytimes.com...enefits-of-knitting/ Thanks again for your great and useful post!
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Re: Seven Strategies I Use To Reregulate As Anxiety Symptoms Surface
Wonderful! Thanks for the knitting suggestion. I have a friend who swears by knitting when she flies, as well.
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The Healing Effects on the Brain from Mindfulness, Prayer, and Meditation
In January, we have focused on how mindfulness, prayer, and meditation can help complex trauma survivors climb from the pit of despair into the sunshine of healing. In this last piece, we shall examine the neuroscience behind mindfulness, prayer, and meditation plus tie up any loose ends. Changes in the Brain from Complex Trauma Childhood trauma often leaves its victims with damages to the regions of the brain that control emotions, memory, and reasoning. These brain regions include the...
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Shame Resilience: A Critical Component to Anti-Racist Work
In a recent episode of the podcast Unlocking Us, Brené Brown discusses the power of shame and how it is not an effective tool for social justice. She goes on to explain that shame is in fact real pain that is defined as the “intensely painful feeling or experience of believing that we are flawed and therefore unworthy of love, belonging, and connection.” It is in fact so powerful that when we experience shame, it triggers a fight, flight or freeze response. She identifies shame as a tool of...
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Using Self Compassion and Acceptance to Heal from Trauma and PTSD (wakeup-world.com)
If you have gone through a traumatic experience, then you have experienced something that is extremely difficult and may have symptoms of PTSD. Symptoms of PTSD include: 1. Intrusive thoughts, memories, flashbacks or nightmares about the traumatic experience 2. Avoidance of internal and external reminders of the traumatic experience such as memories, feelings, people, places, or things. 3. Negative thoughts and emotions related to the traumatic experience such as believing the traumatic...
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If you want to heal childhood trauma, you have to heal your body.
356 pounds?! Are you kidding me, Michael? What the fuck are you doing to yourself? Every morning I would wake up and watch the number on the scale tick up as I slowly allowed obesity to run wild and consume my body. Fat . I was always the chubby kid. I shopped in the boy's husky section at Walmart as a preteen. Husky for the unware is the polite nomenclature for fat kids. I spent summers running around with my shirt on. I ate entire boxes of gummy bears for dinner. I never ordered just one...
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The Connection Between Emotional Flashbacks and the Inner Critic
It was Pete Walker, an M.A. in psychoanalysis, who first coined the phrase emotional flashback to describe the gut-wrenching experience of reliving the helplessness and dissociation caused by trauma. In his book, Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving , Walker describes many aspects of emotional flashbacks and how the inner critic holds people hostage. I shall be referencing this book throughout this work. In this piece, we shall examine how the inner critic and toxic shame create the...
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Getting Back Up on That Horse: The Struggle for Resilience in 2020
It’s little contested 2020 has been a sh*# show for most every American. It has personally knocked me down countless times. There are so many aspects of this pandemic and 2020 that have challenged my resilience as an individual, a mother, a small-business owner, and a female leader in my field. Despite what people assume, resilience-lacking 2020 hasn’t been a personal failing. Resilience is not a choice. Resilience is not an attitude or a mindset. Resilience is a physiological phenomenon. I...
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8 Ways to Combat “Working From Home Fatigue” and Boost Your Energy (thriveglobal.com)
When many of us began working remotely at the start of the pandemic , there seemed to be some advantages to working from home : no lengthy and costly commutes, more family time, greater flexibility, and more time to exercise. Since then, though, we’ve discovered there are downsides. The truth is, working from home can lead to overwhelm , exhaustion, and even burnout . That’s partly the result of blurred lines between our work and personal lives. “‘Working From Home Fatigue’ isn’t all in your...
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Your Healing Narrative: Write-to-Heal With Neural Re-Narrating
Happy 2021! 2020 was a year unlike any other. But it also brought home for many of us what matters most, including the importance of nurturing and harnessing the power of our nervous system and brain toward equanimity so that we can flourish even in the face of adversity. Your Healing Narrative: Write-to-Heal With Neural Re-Narrating i s my 2021 offering for individuals, parents, teachers, social workers, therapists, and health care professionals, to help ease a little bit of the anxiety,...
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Resilience
This is a blog I posted a few years ago which I hope might be helpful to others, I have learned so much on my journey of healing childhood wounds and am so happy to see resources like this group available to help others. 15/11/2017 “If the only thing people learned was not to be afraid of their experience, that alone would change the world“ – Sydney Banks. While there are many words to describe resilience such as spirit, strength, toughness, buoyancy, no one truly understands just how many...
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Longing for Change and Finding Hope Again...
So happy to collaborate with Andi Fetzner, Psy. D, with this Free Webinar that introduces my new course, 'The Changemaker: It Starts With You'. Origins Training & Consulting provides education on becoming trauma and resilience-informed as well as the training needed to bring a trauma-informed approach to your community, company, school or organization. My online course is a bridge to the personal growth and healing needed to sustain the energy it takes to inspire and implement positive,...
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Healing the Hidden Wounds from Childhood: The Promise of Healing, Part III (by Glenn R. Schiraldi, Ph.D., Lt. Col., USAR, Ret.)
So many people are struggling with unhealed, hidden wounds from toxic childhood stress. For some, the pain is obvious. Others might look outwardly strong, capable, and in control. However, unhealed inner wounds cause needless suffering and can lead to a dizzying array of psychological, medical, and functional problems. Fortunately, there is hope for healing—even decades after traumatic wounding from ACEs occurs—enabling us to be 100% there for ourselves, our families, and others we work and...
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A Season to Focus on Growth
By March, I sometimes feel as if I am marching through winter. It has been cold long enough that the novelty of snow boots and mittens has worn off. Sledding, skiing, and skating have been fun but navigating the ice from the house to the barn for my daily farm chores gets wearing. March marks one long year of quarantining and social distancing, and it’s still an altered way of life we are required to continue. I noticed, however, that the purple and yellow crocuses have already bloomed in my...
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Fatigue, Trauma and The Pandemic 4 Talks at the Fatigue Super Conference (Free Online Summit April 19th - 25th, 2021)
Fatigue is one of the most common symptoms linked to the stress and trauma of the pandemic, along with anxiety, depression and problems with sleep. 40 specialists in fatigue describe tips, tools and resources for decreasing stress-related exhaustion as well as fatigue in chronic illnesses such as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) which is the chronic disease I've been working with from trauma perspectives and the science explaining how it's not psychological.
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De Jur V Jones
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Horses Teach Us How to Connect on a Human Level
I have always loved horses. When I was a young girl I collected plastic Breyer model horses, read books about horses, and even watched television shows that had an equine theme. I think it is their exquisite beauty, their inherent wild nature, and the vulnerable and trusting relationship between horse and rider that is the attraction. I purchased my first horse when I was twelve, spending a year cutting lawns, weeding, and babysitting, eventually raising enough money along with my parents’...
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The Science of Shame (elemental.medium.com)
Systemic racism isn’t anything new, but many white people are newly grappling with their complicity in white supremacy — which can lead to some complicated emotions. While a healthy dose of guilt over the collective role in anti-Black racism can motivate people to listen, learn, and do better, experts say wallowing in shame could accomplish the opposite. Both guilt and shame stem from a perceived s ense of wrongdoing, but understanding the difference can affect your ability to disengage from...
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12 Commonalities A Harvard Doctor Found In “Health Outliers” Who Had Radical Remissions [lissarankin.com]
By Lissa Rankin CURED Tip #1 Activate The Relaxation Response As I described in detail in my book Mind Over Medicine, one of the keys to mind-body-spirit medicine in general and the field of psychoneuroimmunology specifically relies on making lifestyle changes aimed at creating nervous system regulation, flipping the nervous system from disease-inducing “fight or flight” sympathetic nervous system stress responses or “freeze” dorsal vagal parasympathetic responses to the homeostatic healing...
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My Biggest Insight of the Summer (Healing Complex PTSD and Chronic Illness)
Spring in my garden is a riot of color. I caught the above pic of my poppies just past their peak after deciding to replace them and wanting to document the process. Because uprooting a cheery, bright colored plant that makes me happy in order to take the chance that something else might do an even better job can feel, as a friend of mine once quipped, "fraught with peril." And that's what it can feel like when we are in the process of healing. When, instead of believing that this is the...
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7 Tips to Reach Someone During a Trauma Response
Last week, we discussed how to recognize trauma states at work. The classic fight, flight, freeze, and appease trauma responses can reveal themselves in subtle ways, and other lesser-known trauma states can plague professional environments. Now that we know how to spot when someone is stuck in survival mode at work, it’s time to talk about how to help someone get out of that mindset. Today, we’ll explore the answer to the question: how can we respond to someone when they’re stuck in trauma...
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Re: 7 Tips to Reach Someone During a Trauma Response
Michele, many of Shenadoah's articles are posted on the Becoming Trauma Informed and Healing Centered communityt. Check them out here: https://www.pacesconnection.co...ming-trauma-informed you can also search articles by Shenadoah's name.
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Re: 7 Tips to Reach Someone During a Trauma Response
Such useful information. Thank you. Where can I find the previous article mentioned?
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How to Increase Your Sense of Control and Boost Your Resilience
When I look back, I am amazed at how differently I dealt with adversity during the first few decades of my life. Growing up in a stressful home primed me to experience life with caution. Whether it was being afraid of physical harm, loneliness, or failure, I’ve lived my life with an exaggerated fight-flight response to everything. Adversity seemed around every corner, and no one was ever there to save me. I developed maladaptive mechanisms to minimize, avoid, or go around the things I was...
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Therapist Explains the Trauma That's Caused by Narcissistic Abuse (pairedlife.com)
To read more of Ash Pariseau's article, please click here. As awareness around Narcissistic Personality Disorder and symptomatic behaviors continues to rise, so does the understanding of the traumatic effects that victims suffer as a result. Many continuously strive to learn more about their emotions and actions, and essentially, why we are the way we are, and some people may come to find a shocking discovery - that they have endured narcissistic abuse. In this clip, TikToker and trauma...