As a therapist specializing in trauma, I’ve seen firsthand how the impact of emotional and psychological wounds can manifest in the body, often as chronic pain. The body and mind are intricately connected, and trauma—whether it be physical, emotional, or psychological—doesn’t just leave a mark on our minds. It can deeply affect our physical well-being as well. Chronic pain is a common issue for those who have experienced trauma, and the relationship between trauma and pain is

Somatic Internal Family Systems (IFS) is an emerging approach that integrates traditional IFS with somatic, or body-based, therapeutic practices to address trauma and healing. Developed by Dr. Richard Schwartz in the 1980s, IFS offers a compassionate way to understand and heal internal conflicts by viewing the mind as a system of “parts,” each with distinct perspectives, needs, and roles. Adding a somatic dimension to IFS amplifies its effectiveness, helping clients tune into

Each year in this country millions of children are the victims of child abuse at the hands of parents, guardians and other adults. Whether this abuse is physical, sexual, verbal or emotional, it can leave scars on their heart and psyche for many years. Here are just some of the long-term effects of child abuse on adult survivors: Forming Healthy Bonds and Relationships The lingering effects of childhood abuse make it very difficult to trust others and form normal, healthy con

You know you got your hairline from your Dad’s side of the family and your eye color from your mom. You know diabetes runs in your family, as does heart disease and Parkinson’s. But do you know that many families also pass down trauma to their loved ones? It’s not just our physical makeup and risk of disease that we inherit from our family, it is also the emotional wounds as well. What is Transgenerational Trauma? Before you were born you were in your mother’s womb and ver

While most people will experience challenges and hardship in their life, some people experience trauma. We’re beginning to understand trauma better now and have recognized that trauma is actually a physiological process that impacts our psychological and emotional wellbeing. When trauma is suppressed, it often leads to mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, and even PTSD. While talk therapy can be effective at treating certain emotional and mental health issues, it

Relationships always start out on a high note. Your mutual attraction combined with your commonalities stirs up your feelings, while finding out about your differences and exploring the world together makes your relationship fresh and exciting. When your relationship starts to become more intimate, you may start to wonder when the right time is for you to open up to your partner about your past sexual abuse. Being a survivor of sexual assault is, unfortunately, not uncommon.

In the United States, one in three women and one in six men will experience some form of sexual abuse in their lifetime, according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC). When sexual abuse happens, many people don’t know how to cope with the event or express their feelings in a healthy way. The result is a life of feeling fear and shame as well as experiencing depression and anxiety. NSVRC reports that 81% of female victims and 35% of male victims will develo

Traumatic events such as war, rape, and severe accidents can lead people to suffer from symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). What we have recently discovered is that any event that is experienced as threatening can generate PTSD-like symptoms and negatively affect a person’s quality of life. Somatic Experiencing® (SE™) was developed by psychologist Peter A. Levine to address the effects of trauma. Levine developed this modality after noticing that prey animals,

In the early 2000s, Brent Bezo, a student in the doctoral psychology program at Carleton University in Ottawa, was living with his wife in Ukraine when they began picking up on subtle notes of resentment and skepticism from the native population. In his conversations with the locals, Bezo specifically remembers detecting references to the Holodomor, a historical event in the early 1930s that ended with millions of Ukrainians starving to death. Many considered it to be a delib

Racial trauma, also sometimes referred to as race-based traumatic stress (RBTS), refers to mental and emotional stress that is a result of racial bias, discrimination, and hate crimes. People can also suffer from institutional racism – governmental or organizational laws, policies, and practices that selectively disadvantage certain groups of people from access to goods, services, and opportunities based on race or other demographics. Those individuals who experience these ty

Meditation offers practitioners powerful benefits, yet many people are confused as to what exactly those benefits are. In a nutshell, meditation focuses attention in a deliberate manner, taking you from a state of noisy mental chatter to calm and quiet inner peace. And isn’t that something most of us could use? While meditation has been practiced for thousands of years in the east and – more recently – west as a way to grow spiritually, modern medicine is now finally extollin

Flashbacks are our brain’s way of processing traumatic events that we’ve experienced. But what tends to happen is, our subconscious goes to our storage cabinet to access some important memories regarding the event, and everything sort of tumbles out of the cabinet all at once. This falling out or flashback experience can feel almost as traumatic as the initial event. Flashbacks usually happen without warning. Most result from a “triggering” that occurs by an external experien

You have most likely heard the term Post Traumatic Stress Disorder – also known as PTSD. It is used to describe the mental and emotional anguish suffered by those who have experienced sudden trauma. PTSD is often experienced by soldiers as well as those who have been victims of rape and other crimes, and even victims of house fires and car accidents. Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD) describes a condition that very much presents like PTSD, the difference being t

When you think about someone experiencing trauma, incidents such as a violent or sexual assault or a terrible car accident might come to mind. But there are other, subtler forms of trauma that can negatively affect our lives and hinder our relationships. Emotional trauma is often overlooked and minimized, and we may think we’ve “gotten over” some emotional pain that we’ve simply buried, and not dealt with. A break up, being passed over for a promotion at work or even a simple

If you asked any of us a year ago what would life be like in 2020, it’s doubtful anyone would have guessed we’d be going through a global pandemic, replete with lockdowns and self-quarantining. At the beginning of the year, some families might have thought of being forced to stay home from work and school would be a fun little vacation. But as the weeks and months have passed, we’ve all learned this has been anything but fun. But how is COVID affecting families? Well, it affe

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, or EMDR, is a therapeutic protocol used in the treatment of mental and emotional trauma. It has been widely praised in the United States and is currently used by agencies such as the American Psychiatric Association, the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, and the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs. Those suffering from PTSD caused by major traumas such as sexual or physical assault, combat experiences, a

Most human beings have implicit biases. And that’s okay, as long as we are aware of them and aware of how our attitudes affect others. In the United States, black people have lived through a long history of violence and social injustice. With the recent deaths of George Floyd and Rayshard Brooks, the Black Lives Matter movement has organized many protests around the nation, inspiring people from all walks of life to take a long hard look at themselves and their own beliefs. T

When you live with an anxiety disorder, any moment can become one that creates a slow-rising panic within you. Life is normal one second and the next, you feel your chest tighten and your heart begin to race. You may begin to hyperfocus on future events and find yourself getting lost in “what-ifs.” To make matters worse, you may then begin to berate yourself for allowing the panic to get the best of you and begin to believe that all of those what-ifs are indisputable facts. L