Dec 15 2019
Summary: I tell the story of the day I first learned how to do the “felt sense” that Peter Levine teaches and writes about in his books. In the Discussion section after the story, I cover the following topics: (1.) Believing Yourself to be Dead. Feeling dead and developing the belief that you are actually …
Nov 17 2019
In this blog post, there is a short story about riding the train to a therapy appointment and afterwards, there is a Discussion about the following 5 Topics related to PTSD: (1) Merging with the Environment / Unity Consciousness coupled paradoxically with a sense of Disconnection and Alienation from other people and the process of healing Boundaries and Relationships, (2) The Wiped Memory / Amnesia of one’s past prior to the traumatic events and how it gradually comes back, (3) A Heightened Sense Of The Danger and unpredictability of reality, (4) Sensory Hypersensitivity, and (5) Therapist Search – the challenges related to trying to ind a trauma therapist.
Dec 21 2018
Healing Trauma with Guided Drawing, A Sensorimotor Art Therapy Approach to Bilateral Body Mapping, by Cornelia Elbrecht, is an in-depth instructional textbook for the somatic therapeutic approach Guided Drawing. Based on leading edge understandings about trauma healing and the body (sensorimotor psychotherapy, somatic experiencing, etc.), this book is a treasure trove of trauma healing knowledge, insights and clarifications. Guided Drawing …
Oct 08 2018
Blame the victim mentality is very subtle. It’s sneaky. It doesn’t ever announce its presence. It just sits there like a black cloud, draining you. This is because we’ve been taught to accept it much more than we realize we have been. This is also because we have never been taught to pick things apart …
Oct 08 2018
“Nothing can be loved into something” (song lyrics to Breathe by Seinabo Sey) To me this means that after removing the stain, the shame, of trauma there is nothing. In that empty space truth comes in and purity and from nothing grows something to be loved but before that the survivor feels unlovable. *** This …
Oct 08 2018
What if the Victim Did Make Mistakes? Sometimes, trauma survivors do play some role in getting into situations in which they end up being traumatized, and it can be important to examine potential mistakes, naiveté, and self-sabotage, as one stage of the therapeutic process (generally after other, much more important, symptoms and issues are worked …
Oct 08 2018
Why Do Trauma Victims Blame Themselves? Here are 16 possible causes of Internalized Blame the Victim Mentality 1. Perpetrators Feel Better Emotionally Perpetrators may shift the blame over to the victim because it makes the perpetrator feel better by removing their own culpability, guilt, responsibility, and shame. They may actively and/or subtly shift blame onto …
Oct 08 2018
The daily battle trauma survivors are engaged in is many times completely not understood by people who have not been traumatized. The thing is, this lack of understanding makes total sense. It Makes Sense for a Non-traumatized Person to Blame a Traumatized Person for Their Symptoms It would be natural, without the proper training, for …
Oct 08 2018
Although they can be Managed, Ongoing Trauma Symptoms Are Also Technically Not The Trauma Survivor’s Fault There are patterns in the way human physiology responds to trauma. Research suggests the nervous system was created with in-built mechanisms that get turned on in response to trauma. Physiological reactions to triggers, even years after the events, are …
Oct 08 2018
Have You Unconsciously Internalized Blame the Victim Mentality Without Knowing It? This is a checklist of items to reflect on for trauma survivors. They don’t mean you necessarily have internalized any blame for the traumatic events or for your symptoms, but it’s possible. These are just things to think about. You could possibly have internalized …
