Today I want to drop a little bonus content based on my own lived and learned experience with coercive control. It’s an example of the material we have been covering so far. Stage 1: love bombing and stage 2: intermittent reinforcement with gaslighting and isolation and enmeshment. I am a firm believer that academic understanding …
He was Narcissus Incarnate: How I Survived My Abusive Ex Read More »
The holiday season and other special occasions are for celebrating togetherness with family and loved ones. That’s why survivors of toxic parents and/or partners tend to feel holiday blues instead of holiday joy. There’s no one to celebrate. Some had to go no contact with their parents for very good reasons. Then they were forced …
How to Create Holiday Joy in Your Online Support Group Read More »
“Less and more?” you may ask. “Don’t you mean less is more?” Well, if this was a topic on minimalism, we would be discussing the latter. However, this is a tool for increasing our bandwidth to see our goals as more within our reach. First we declutter the mind and address, “What is it I …
Less and More: A Self-Exploration Tool for Improving Habits Read More »
I spoke of the healing powers of creativity and how to unlock your own last week. One sure sign of healing is when our creativity starts to flourish. But in what direction varies from person to person. Just as no two healing journeys are the same, the same applies to our creative journey. So, since …
My Creative Journey So Far: A Heal-Along with Jaena Read More »
Death of a loved one, a relationship ending, or loss of a job are life-changing events that can be devastating. When grieving a major loss, we tend to feel more than just sad. We may also feel fear, anger, shame, guilt, abandonment, or we may even get defensive. But in times like these, there is …
Grieving a Major Loss: An IFS Heal-Along Interview Read More »
Last week’s heal-along was my example of how to heal our parts when access to the Exile is denied. This one is my IFS work on freeing one of my Exiles. And so, it’s a companion piece to our third article in this IFS series, which is on healing the Exile (here). Interestingly enough, the …
My IFS Work: A Heal-Along with Jaena Read More »
This is a companion article to this week’s topic in our IFS therapy series. That article is on Polarized Parts, what they are and how you can mediate your own. Now I’m sharing the work I’ve done with my own Polarized Parts. From how I discovered them, to how I got to know them, to …
My Polarized Parts: An IFS Heal-Along with Jaena Read More »
As I’ve said before, whenever I have a personal experience that goes with a topic we are covering, I share. It’s a great way to connect with my readers on a personal level. And since we tend to learn from each other’s stories, I like to think that my heal-alongs can do that. Since we …
Processing My Trauma: A Heal-Along with Jaena Read More »
So, here were are again with another companion article. I do these whenever I have a personal story that can help shed further light on our main topic. Since this week’s topic is on Alexithymia, what it is, how it develops, and (as always) what we can do about it, I have my own experiences …
My Alexithymia Journey: A Heal-Along with Jaena Read More »
Hello trauma warriors! My name is Jaena and I am a workaholic. If you read my last Heal-Along, you know that I am also a reformed book hoarder. Both addictions developed in 1996 when I was twenty-two years old. That’s when I started “recovering” from my depersonalization period (Trauma Glossary 2). I felt so fatally …
Confessions of a Workaholic: A Heal-Along with Jaena Read More »
