Let’s clear up a popular lie in trauma recovery: “If it works, just keep doing it.” Sounds good… until it stops working. And suddenly, you feel broken again. But here’s the truth: Your nervous system isn’t static—so your healing strategy can’t be either. That’s why building a trauma healing rhythm is so crucial. You’re not …
How to Create a Trauma Healing Rhythm That Works Read More »
Have you heard of Pete Walker’s 4F trauma types? They are: Fight, Flight, Freeze, and Fawn. Hence its name, 4F. You may know them as our trauma responses, and they most certainly can be. However, Pete Walker refers to trauma types because for those who were raised by cluster B disorders, we tend to develop …
Where I Am and Where to Grow Using the 4F Trauma Types 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 »
Maximize creativity does not mean perfecting a skill. At least, not where healing is concerned. It’s safely practicing new things, recovering from mistakes, and learning to associate our creative lessons with life. Not all healing work has to feel like work. In fact, this article addresses the magical healing powers of right-brain work. Creativity, that …
Maximize Your Creativity for Maximum Healing Read More »
Our emotions are our signals for meeting our needs. Our uncomfortable emotions are simply telling us that one of those are unmet. When we understand what our emotions want, we can learn how to work with them instead of against them. These visual aids are a wrap up to the past five weeks, where we …
What Do My Emotions Want? Answers in 14 Visual Aids Read More »
I’ve mentioned the Father’s Day rap that I wrote and performed which helped me master my rage flashbacks. It still serves as a great example of what creativity can do for our healing. But something never occurred to me until writing Anger and the Fight Response. That painful flashback year was acting as shock therapy …
A Year of Rage Flashbacks: A Heal-Along with Jaena Read More »
I’ve mentioned the value of the cognition sheet several times before. It’s listed in Master Toolbox 1 twice: both as a tool for alexithymia and again for transference. (Both underlined terms are in Trauma Glossary 2.) I even included it as a troubleshooting tool for working with our Broca’s Area (Trauma Glossary 3 under parts of …
The Cognition Sheet: More Reasons it’s an Important Tool Read More »
“Pardon my Broca” should become a thing, since it’s a common side effect of CPTSD. What is this Broca, you may ask? Well first, its official name is Broca’s Area. It’s a part of our brain that acts as our communication center, specifically, how we send and receive information. It ensures that our conversations flow …
Pardon My Broca: Troubleshooting in the Now Read More »
The Branches of Healing shows how we can open neuropathways. Doing so helps us work through the emotion overwhelm. This tree also represents the right side (creativity) and left side (logic) of the brain. The more pathways we use, the better we are at managing our flashbacks. Even mastery is possible. Using the tree analogy, …
The Branches of Healing: How to Open Pathways for Emotional Flow Read More »
Theater is the most overlooked branch of creativity, especially when using it to work through our trauma. There are many good reasons it goes unnoticed, of course. For one thing, drama therapists are not available in every city. Another reason is that we don’t all have immediate access to a stage. Lastly, both social anxiety …
Theater Therapy: Unlock Your Inner Thespian Part 2 Read More »
