Feb 16 2017
If you find yourself frozen in immobility, what should you say – and what should you not say – to yourself? What can you do to help yourself get out of it? Today I Felt Paralyzed This morning I felt like I didn’t want to get up. It wasn’t voluntary. I didn’t decide I wouldn’t …
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. …
Feb 24 2016
During the first three years of having PTSD (2007 – 2010), I felt like I had a Dinosaur Suit on that I couldn’t take off. My reptilian brain was controlling everything, so it was like wearing a suit that I was seeing out of and that was influencing everything in my life. In 2010, I …
Jan 29 2016
(This is Part 3 of the article How PTSD Can Block Successful, Effective Outcomes in Life that covers #4 The Goodness Aperture in more depth.) Peter Levine on Goodness Peter Levine talks about how building the capacity to experience goodness within the body is important for trauma recovery. Goodness represents a brand new group of …
Oct 31 2015
It’s Halloween, a day of ghosts, ghouls and goblins – but this image is not about the ghosts of Halloween. It’s about the “ghosts” of PTSD and how they interact with the “flowers” of posttraumatic growth. It’s an image showing how complex the whole concept of posttraumatic growth is in the context of posttraumatic stress. …
Jul 17 2015
I’ve been working on 3 articles about PTSD and the Healing Powers of the Breath. They are coming along, but I decided I first want to compile a bunch of actual exercises into a post and “Just Do It.” Do the exercises first and discuss the whole subject in depth later. Briefly, the basic principle …
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 15 2015
On February 28, 2014, I posted an article entitled Potential Psychological Dangers of Meditation – Especially Relevant for Those with PTSD in which I compiled a number of different potential psychological difficulties and challenges one may encounter when practicing meditation. I’ve always been a fan of meditation, and have meditated off and on with varied, …
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 …
Apr 28 2015
If you have PTSD you may notice you have an overwhelmingly negative outlook on life. You may see motivational messages about thinking positively and want to give it a whirl. I know I see people who are infectiously positive and I think to myself, “Wow, I’d love to be like that!” I think that learning …
