When children are raised in homes where they feel loved, soothed and cared for, their parents are actually helping to regulate their immature nervous system. As they grow, they learn to do this on their own, and they form the ability to handle many different emotions. But when a child is neglected or abused, their [...]

Today, we know so much more about trauma therapy and the proper way to provide it than we ever have before. For instance, it was once assumed that trauma victims would have the words they needed to explain the traumatic event they endured. They simply lacked the chance to express them. But research shown us [...]

Unfortunately, we as human beings have been taught to believe that our minds are unitary. Our culture has led us to believe that any derivation from a solitary mind is called mental illness. It is quite possible that a lot of people have been wrongly diagnosed with multiple personality disorder (also called dissociative identity disorder). [...]

In the last post, we talked more in depth about the Parts, their role, and learning to empathize and understand them. In this post, I want to go a little deeper to help this concept make as much sense as possible. Everyone has Parts; but people who have lived through traumatic events are often more [...]

Witnessing can be a very important part of trauma therapy for those who want to tell the stories of their traumatic events. But please know that it is not always necessary or helpful for trauma victims to tell their stories. Sometimes there are benefits, and being witnessed is one of them. The reality is that [...]

The key to effective trauma therapy is helping clients learn the difference between a trigger and being threatened in the here and now. In order for a trauma victim to be able to process how unsafe they were when the traumatic event occurred, they have to be able to understand that they are safe now. [...]

Healing from trauma the right way requires people to learn how to “see from the Self.” This can take some practice, and it can be very helpful to do some exercises as a way to train yourself. This might not be something that you are able to do right away. But in time, you may [...]

There is no denying the fact that healing from trauma is a process. It can take some time, but there are different steps you can take – even baby steps – that will help move you closer to your goals. In his book, Introduction to the Internal Family Systems Model, Dr. Richard C. Schwartz discusses [...]

It can be very painful for trauma victims to explore the memories that are related to the traumatic events they lived through. Unfortunately, trauma therapy has largely focused on reviewing these events in the past. But for the most part, the only thing that really ever accomplishes is retraumatizing the person all over again. That [...]

A lot of trauma therapists focus on using talk therapy to help their clients work through the traumatic events they have experienced. But this method has not been shown to be very effective. This is why there has been a shift toward the internal family systems model. Today, we know that focusing on the event [...]