Dec 01 2017
The Art of Healing Trauma Coloring Book is here! I haven’t been able to write for my blog for months as I created this coloring book. It’s been many, many hours of working on the illustrations and copy – definitely a labor of love! Here is the Book Description: Slow down, tune into yourself and …
Dec 30 2016
Help Now! Activities are ten quick, simple, practical and easy to remember activities designed to get you back into the Resilient Zone if you need help now! because you’re either too amped up (high zone) or too checked out (low zone). This helpful set of resiliency building strategies is taught in Community Resiliency Model (CRM) trainings. …
Jun 30 2016
Much of trauma healing is helping the nervous system become more “resilient.” Rather than spend a few hours or even days drowning in a state of terror, tension and nervousness after getting triggered, doing one or more of these exercises can help the nervous system shift into a different state sooner. Each time you do …
May 28 2016
I’ve been looking into getting trained in the Community Resiliency Model (CRM). CRM is a training anyone from the general public can take and covers 6 of the 9 Skills that are taught in the Trauma Resiliency Model (TRM) training (which is more geared to therapists and health practitioners). CRM teaches Tracking, Resourcing, Grounding, Gesturing, …
Apr 17 2016
Because my traumas were medical in nature, it has been challenging for me to handle any appointment with a doctor or dentist. Being Triggered Can Feel At Times Quite Obvious and at Other Times, Very Subtle At any moment in a medical appointment, I can suddenly begin feeling a bit dizzy or dissociated, spaced out, …
Jun 22 2015
I believe that the telling of one’s story of trauma can be a sacred and therapeutic act. But the story might need to remain untold for years. And, when it’s finally time to tell it, it might need to be told in a specific way and a specific context for the full therapeutic value to …
Jun 03 2015
Trauma is an obliterating experience. It obliterates important parts of our identity; our sense of place and purpose in life; sense of predictability, security and order in the world; numerous brain functions; hormonal health and balance and in many cases it destroys parts of the physical body as well (whether through the trauma itself or …
Jan 22 2015
Comments: Grounding is the practice of consciously and deliberately connecting to the earth and to one’s own body for self-regulation of states of activation. Extreme trauma and stress can throw the nervous system into states of, on one extreme, hyperaraousal and on the other, numbness and immobility. Grounding helps train the nervous system to calm …
Jan 17 2015
I love using pressure for grounding. In the above illustration, I show the way pressure can sometimes help to dissipate intense activation in the nervous system. The red lines in the picture represent “activation” – upset, distress, fear, panic, terror, or other kinds of chaos and overwhelm. The activation can be provoked by a memory, …
Jan 09 2015
When I do “Grounding Exercise – Feet, Seat and Back” my level of activation decreases to some degree, usually 10-30%. However, I have found that adding pressure to grounding increases the positive effects dramatically, reducing activation up to 90%. A month or so ago I was really activated – I was experiencing shortness of breath, …
