Many trauma survivors are annoyed by their therapists persistence in trying to teach them mindfulness. The exercises seem weird and we can’t comprehend how that is supposed to help us with our PTSD. We might not understand it right away, but mindfulness is the key to emotional regulation. As we have explained here, trauma changes […]
basics
The Rhythm of Regulation
My first encounter with the word resilience was not in psychology but in physics. In a psychological context the term is usually used to describe an inner strength that can prevail under a lot of pressure. So the goal of interventions is to make people more resistant to stress by adding positive resources. You can […]
Powerful people – powerful relationships
All people are powerful. But some don’t know it yet. Or they confuse being powerful with being controlling or intimidating. At the core of being a powerful person is self-control: the ability to make choices and follow through with them, to regulate our own emotions and needs and take responsibility for our own life. Self-control […]
Structured Journaling Exercises for Therapy
When people think of journaling they usually think of free writing, which is the most difficult way to work with a journal. Especially when struggling with grounding and self-regulation we need a more structured approach that offers safe boundaries and guidance. Journaling exercises are not typically taught in therapy, which is why I will share […]
The Journal in Trauma Therapy
Trauma therapists often recommend keeping a journal, especially when people struggle with dissociation or DID. But the great majority of patients experience difficult emotions, frustration or boredom when trying to write and quickly give up. The advice wasn’t bad. A journal can help with: grounding reflection system work emotional regulation memory work/ amnesia documentation of […]
Reality check
Making sense of the world is not one action, it is a chain of mental actions. We have to perceive something with our senses. Our brain filters what it considers important to reach our awareness. We compare our perception with our memories and experiences and the additional information the situation is giving us, put together […]
Calming your Inner Child: Help for stressed Littles
You don’t need to have DID to have younger parts inside of you who might sometimes get agitated, scared, confused and stressed. Ignoring them and pushing through will not solve the problem long-term. You use dissociation to even make it possible and it will only increase the inner despair. Calming Littles is not as difficult […]
Being with our Selves: Integration for structural dissociation
If we experience repeated and ongoing trauma, especially as a child, our ability to make sense of us and the world will get hurt. We can’t integrate our experience of pain and apparently normal life, a perpetrator being a caregiver and an abuser, us being innocent and feeling guilty, feeling shame and anger and helplessness […]
Staying with ourselves – integrating our trauma history
Trauma is full of pain and unbearable feelings. It is a natural response to not want to feel that. So we numb our emotions, disconnect from the awareness of our bodies and avoid the memories. This is a very useful strategy to get through the trauma without having to experience all of it. But it […]
Being triggered and what to do about it
Living with trauma means that we will be triggered. It is part of the definition of PTSD. If the question is not “if” but “when”, we need to find a way to deal with it. Step 1: Notice that something inside you was triggered and understand your current experience as a reaction to the […]
Organizing critical situations (difficult days)
We like to have an organized life. When things start to get difficult we have a phased plan for a structured retreat that makes it possible to keep up self-care and the most important duties, while reducing stress and saving energy. We think of it like a rocket that drops different parts at certain points […]
The polyvagal theory for PTSD
This post is based on „The polyvagal theory“ by Stephen Porges. The book describes a mostly scientific theory about the nervous system, specifically different parts of the vagus nerve and how it is related to stress and social interaction. The details on the anatomical side are boring and difficult. So we will butcher it, take […]