The concept that problems can happen ‘because of the nervous system‘ is getting a bit overused these days by people who barely know what that even means. That should not distract us from the fact that chronic trauma does change the brain and it is important to know that when we face specific problems. […]
Self-regulation
Epiphany #12: Ubi es?
On the hunt for the elusive ‘felt sense of safety’ we might notice that we can only feel safe within the space we are actually in. Our consciousness is a wanderer. It wanders through thoughts emotions the body memories the space we are in an inner world When it is in one […]
Inner Storytelling and Missing Information
Our brain is a storyteller. It continuously receives information about the world through our senses and puts them together to create a picture of the reality around us. These pictures are put together to create a story that we tell ourselves to make sense of the world and ourselves. These stories are personal. Our brain […]
Co-regulating stress responses of inner parts
Parts can have vastly different experiences at the same time. While we are calm and oriented, other parts might be highly dysregulated. Their dysregulated states can leak into our experience and make us feel uncomfortable and sometimes it can outright flood us so that we lose our own regulation. It is also unpleasant and unfair […]
Somatic Experiencing – Good for DID Treatment?
Somatic Experiencing is a body-focused trauma therapy that was developed by Peter Levine. It is based on the idea that trauma is not mainly a problem of memory or attachment. The theory is that survival energy that was mobilized during dangerous situations could not properly dissolve (usually because of limited ability to move the way […]
Separating inside and outside reality
One of the tricky problems with complex trauma is that our healthy separation between inside reality and outside reality is under-developed. We struggle with both sudden overwhelm from outside events and a tendency to take our inner experience as a literal reflection of outside reality. Separating ourselves from outside events You might know […]
Grounding Meditations (advanced)
I have recently switched out the mindfulness app on my phone. I used to use Smiling Mind, which is a mental health focussed app meant for people who want to reduce stress and stress-related symptoms. It offers very clear instructions with the purpose of stabilization and grounding and it is ideal for beginners and […]
Increasing capacity
Capacity is a crucial concept in trauma treatment. It describes the zone in which we are regulated and able to regulate ourselves after we get stressed. In a way that makes it more important for daily life than the Window of Tolerance, which puts a greater emphasis on noticing our dysregulation. It is normal […]
Managing Emotional Flashbacks
The tricky thing about flashbacks that are purely emotional is recognizing them for what they are. We are stuck in an emotional experience from the past. Yet the nature of the trigger would often justify that kind of emotion, just not the level of intensity and the duration. Over time we can learn to […]
The Problem with the Faux Window of Tolerance
We all know the model of the Window of Tolerance. There is an area of relaxed regulation, the polyvagal theory would call it the safe&social system or ventral vagal activation and we traditionally mark it in green. We can handle a bit of activation (yellow) without getting into a difficult situation. When stress gets […]
But words will never hurt me
Language is fascinating. It is enough to hear one word to bring up a complex experience within us. When I say ‘beach’ it creates inner pictures of the beach. There might be a yearning or a sense of joy or other emotions. Maybe you remember being at the beach. Your body might relax a tiny […]
Separating facts, feelings and fiction
This exercise is a specific form of a reality check that can help us when we are not stuck in a full flashback but something got triggered and we get confused about reality. Maybe our emotions are too intense and hijack our mind or we entertain fantasies about how the situation will continue, make up […]
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