Essential Trauma Concepts
Basic theory and concepts that are essential to all trauma-informed care.
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Building a Somatic Vocabulary
You might be familiar with the “feelings wheel” – a helpful tool in building awareness of emotions that bring more specificity to our experience, especially when trying to communicate it to another person. Identifying our feelings can also help us identify our needs, ways to cope, increase our understanding of self, sense into boundaries, or…
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Starting Small: Building Capacity for Present-Centered Awareness
A history of trauma can make it difficult to feel present. Often in an effort to stay safe, our mind and body pull us into our past or become hyper-vigilant about our future. Though these strategies are adaptive and often helpful in surviving traumatic experiences, when they become habitual we can be left feeling out…
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What’s in a Gender?
Recently, a cis person introduced me with the sentence, “This is Hannah and she uses they/them pronouns.” The man who said it is kind and well-intentioned; it wasn’t a malicious incident, but it does exemplify a slippage that a lot of cis people get caught in. He knew that gendering me correctly was respectful and…
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Self-Compassion During Complicated Holidays
With Mother’s Day having passed recently and Father’s Day around the corner, it is important to touch on the fact that these celebrations do not land the same with everyone. Being a therapist gives me the privilege to witness how painful these two days can be for someone who has experienced loss or who has…
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Setting Boundaries During the Holiday Season
Heading into the holiday season can bring with it a multitude of conflicting feelings, particularly when caregivers or other family members were the source of painful or invalidating experiences. I often find clients struggling with exploring their own needs and boundaries with their families, or feeling guilty when they do. These struggles and difficulties…
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CCIH Statement on Racial Trauma
We at CCIH find ourselves compelled to reflect on what it means to be a trauma-informed therapist during the current times. The pandemic has shone an ugly light on the reality that there are wide disparities across race and identities in our country. Illuminating very painfully what happens in a country built on principles of…
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Notes From a New Clinician
As a new clinician interested in working with survivors of complex trauma and dissociation, insight from experienced practitioners is invaluable to me. Recently, I connected with Amy Zajakowki Uhll, LCPC, a psychodynamically trained therapist with over 25 years of experience, to learn more about her work in the field, current treatment approaches, and her thoughts…
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COVID-19, Essential Trauma Concepts, IP-Integrated Practices for Healing Trauma Groups, Trauma-Informed ServicesIntegrated Practices in the Time of Coronavirus
In the 10 years I have been facilitating Integrated Practices (formerly Becoming Safely Embodied) group, before this past March I had not considered providing them online. I have run groups consistently throughout these years as a part of my practice and I am deeply connected to this aspect of my work. Due to the…
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The Power of Bearing Witness
Over the past week, I have been reflecting on the article Holding, Containing and Bearing Witness: The Problem of Helpfulness in Encounters with Torture Survivors by Dick Blackwell (1997). In the article, Blackwell (1997) explores the role of the therapist in supporting our client’s wants and needs in therapy, especially with respect to survivors of …
