Essential Trauma Concepts
Basic theory and concepts that are essential to all trauma-informed care.
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COVID-19, Essential Trauma Concepts, IP-Integrated Practices for Healing Trauma Groups, Trauma-Informed Services
Integrated 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 …
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What if there’s nothing wrong with your body?
“What if there’s nothing wrong with my body?” This is an astonishing question – or at least it felt that way to me the first time I asked it of myself. It’s a question that multiple and interlocking systems of oppression such as racism, misogyny and fatphobia rely upon us not asking ourselves. Not to…
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Why I Believe 4-7-8 Breath is a Good Daily Practice
Deepening our capacity to mindfully attend to internal experience (thoughts, feelings and sensations) in the present moment is an important part of healing from the effects of trauma. Various mindfulness practices (of which there are no shortage these days) can be useful in this pursuit. However, some mindfulness and meditation practices…
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Why I Love Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Approaches
Like many therapists, my education and training in clinical psychotherapy primarily comes from a psychodynamic framework. I learned all about relational and attachment psychotherapy, family systems theory, as well as some cognitive-behavioral approaches and basic mindfulness techniques here and there. I am so grateful for all of this foundational framework and I consider it all…
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A Tale of Three States
We live in a story that originates in our autonomic state, is sent through autonomic pathways from the body to the brain, and is then translated by the brain into the beliefs that guide our daily living. The mind narrates what the nervous system knows. Story follows state. (The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy, p. 35)…
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Window of Tolerance
You might already be familiar with the Window of Tolerance (WofT) from Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, as developed by Pat Ogden. It is an amazing tool for navigating our own inner sensory landscape as we move through life! WOT also provides a great framework for thinking about mindfulness practices, including iRest Yoga Nidra. Through deeper self-understanding, we can explore…
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Sex – a Mindful Exploration of the Experience of Pleasure in the Body
Bringing mindfulness to your sexual experience can begin to offer a more nuanced understanding of your own experience in your body. It’s often true that unless something is wrong, we don’t spend much time noticing what’s right. And when it comes to sex, our feelings and experiences can be complicated by trauma or fear, which…
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Mental Health, Nutrition, and Depression
As mental health treatment becomes more integrative in its approach, diet, along with such other lifestyle factors as exercise and sleep is now being studied. Recent studies, especially one randomized controlled study, are supporting what many have known, at least anecdotally, all along: food affects mood. Any discussion of mood must begin with the brain…