Slowing Down to Move Forward: Pacing and Dosing in Trauma Therapy
As therapists, when working with clients who grapple with trauma, whether it’s developmental trauma or shock trauma, avoiding retraumatization or emotional overwhelm, poses a challenge. Tempering Language in Therapy It can be tempting to allow clients to “vent” or proceed full-speed into re-enacting or reliving their most traumatic moments and the accompanying emotions. What we truly want to accomplish in [...]
The ACE Study and Developmental Trauma’s Impact on Shock Trauma
We understand through medical studies that certain health conditions, exposures, and lifestyle factors make us more susceptible to diseases and conditions such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes. But what makes us more susceptible to shock trauma, an impaired connection in relationships or having less resiliency as adults? While trauma therapy is a growing field with varied treatment modalities, our [...]
Video Blog: Connecting with Your Future Self in 2021
We have all had plenty of time to reflect as we spent much of 2020 in isolation. I have heard so many of you say you’re really looking forward to 2021 and all of the possibilities it will bring. Our tradition is to set personal and professional goals each New Year, but what if we focused on connecting with our [...]
Pandemic Holiday Greetings
Happy holidays to all! No matter what you celebrate this time of year, it’s particularly challenging because we cannot gather in-person due to the pandemic and the need to stay safe. I want to remind you that you can still reach out, especially to friends and family who seem more introverted, as this isolation drags on. Even though we don’t [...]
Video Blog: Happy Thanksgiving from Diane
Thanksgiving is a time to acknowledge that we are grateful for everything we have, especially the gift of life. The idea that our ancestors (parents) brought us into the world and that alone is a reason to honor them and be grateful aligns with the Family Constellation perspective. The Family Constellation is associated with the Zulu tradition in Africa. Zulus [...]
Video Blog: Gratitude for Our Veterans
Thank you to our veterans worldwide and honor them for the security they selflessly provide to our nations and here in the United States. Secure attachment means you feel protected and have a sense of safety in your everyday life. Please take a moment to pause in appreciation for those soldiers around the world who have contributed to our sense [...]
When Therapists Wear Bullet-Proof Vests: Interview with Andrea Battle
In this video interview, Diane talks to Andrea Battle, LPC, who works in tandem with the Houston Police Department in an innovative and collaborative partnership program, Critical Intervention Response Team (CIRT). CIRT is a co-responder program which partners a masters-level licensed clinician with a Houston CIT (crisis intervention team) officer who ride together in a patrol car and perform roll-call [...]
What Is Secure Attachment? Learn More in Module 1-7 (with Slideshow)
Slide 1 – So, this is a quick review… Secure attachment: • positive enough holding environment creates basic trust • parents are present, protective, contingent, available, respectful of boundaries, right? Space… • parents take the position of being master regulators of the household; the adult couple regulating each other and regulating their kids out of that connection. Slide 2 [...]
Strategies for Working with Boundary Rupture and Repair in Clients
Freud’s definition of trauma included a break in the stimulus barrier, and that characteristic of trauma is still relevant today. Boundaries are ruptured in many ways – from too-loud sound to too much energy, too much arousal, or victim/perpetrator dynamics infringing on your actual physical body with violence. David Wallin says that many therapists have some level of disorganized attachment, [...]
Types of Trauma and Identifying the Signs
Trauma is the emotional and psychological reaction to a negative event. According to Peter Levine, the founder of Somatic Experiencing, trauma is experiencing fear in the face of helplessness. Fear plus helplessness equals trauma. While many experiences might trigger trauma, individual responses vary dramatically and cause a range of personal suffering. Different financial means, medical conditions, living situations, family landscapes, [...]