Sep 29 2018
“It wasn’t your fault.” This is such a healing, repairing message for trauma survivors. In our society, all too frequently the conversation around a traumatic event shifts to the victim’s character, choices, faults, etc. as if to imply that something done to them was their fault. This is almost always untrue and it is harmful, …
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 …
Mar 20 2015
Synonyms: Self-relaxation through Visualization Healing Mechanisms: Visualization, Active Imagination Comments: This exercise is just one example of how to use visualization to relax the body. It is meant to open up your imagination to the many possibilities for using active imagination to change states in the body. This exercise is meant to encourage creativity and …
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 06 2015
Grounding is a powerful tool in the trauma healing toolkit because it generally reduces states of activation, sometimes quickly and significantly. Experiencing an almost total reduction in activation just through grounding can be surprising, since grounding is very simple. Definition: Grounding is the act of connecting more deeply and completely to the body, strengthening the …
Oct 23 2014
After 3 years hiatus, I am finally continuing Somatic Experiencing (SE) therapy and the first session was amazing. Takeaways — In this article you will: Learn 2 ways to re-associate triggers – the first I call Brain Reprogramming Via 2 Lists and the second, the way used during the SE Session, I call Exploring The …
Sep 13 2014
The 5 Step Self-holding Exercise is an exercise I compiled from various sources that has been really helping me a lot lately with anxiety, stress and symptoms related to PTSD. Synonyms (alternate titles): Extended Sequence Self-Holding Exercise, 5 Step Self-Soothing Exercise, 5 Step Self-Calming Exercise Comments: Sometimes, when I am in a very high state …
Jul 06 2014
Pendulation is a healing tool that is part of Somatic Experiencing therapy developed by Peter Levine. In my experience as a SE client working on healing PTSD, I have found that pendulation can help us with the following: Embodiment – Being In The Body. Pendulation helps us to gain a deeper and more intimate awareness …
Jul 06 2014
This blog is a place where I tell my story of healing from trauma through my artwork. For this post I created a painting and a drawing depicting my experience of pendulation, which is a healing exercise frequently done as part of Somatic Experiencing therapy. There are more pieces of art depicting other aspects of …
Jul 03 2014
As I wrote in Pendulation Article 1, I have been doing the Pendulation Exercise lately because of dealing with a lot of triggers. Here are some of my own results from doing the Pendulation Exercise: Sometimes after about 10 minutes of doing Pendulation I feel a 30% reduction of activation. Sometimes there is a moment …
