A child learning for the first time of an impending divorce of his parents, says, “The hardest thing about the divorce is the loss of my school and my house. I have known this neighborhood my

the definition of automatic obedience   Excessive, uncritical, or mechanical compliance with the requests, suggestions, or commands of others. Why is this important to understand??  Automatic obedience is the sixth movement through trauma.    You can review all 7

When exposure and re-exposure to pain needs to be managed The method known as titration is often employed by doctors and researchers to find the optimal dosage of a medicine. The method uses what is known

Three Ideas to Clarify the Meaning of the True Self #1The True Self is like a shy fox THE TRUE SELF THE BIG IDEA:YOUR INSIDES MATCH YOUR OUTSIDES You can’t direct it. Aim at it, or

The True Self  Defined Recently I saw a Facebook post that intrigued me.  Here is what was written, “It’s nice to be happy after being cut down by life.” I knew what had happened to my

Meet Patrick Teahan,Therapist When you find there are gaps in the timeline of childhood memories the most thoughtful discussion of this dilemma that I could find is within the video below.  Dr. Teahan shares an idea

I often join in the “chorus” when I hear someone lament that they don’t have many childhood memories.  In decades of listening to life stories it has always been true that those with pleasant memories and

Learning from First Hand Descriptions 1. Jimbo Hart- professional Musician OPENArticleHERE OLD SCHOOL Trauma Take Away:  I can’t speak with any authority about what this wonderful musician means by “old school traumas.”   But I believe

The drone of flying engines — is a song so wild and blue. It scrambles time and seasons— if it gets through to you. – from the song, Amelia Joni Mitchell Linear time We have all

Three Definitions We can’t cope with fear anymore. We disintegrate internally.  (Curt Thompson) We experience an acute or chronic shock to the system which affects our ability to calm ourselves down and see events from a

A DEEP MORAL CRISIS ACTIVATES THE SAME RESPONSES AS A TRAUMA INCIDENT  In the novel, Kite Runner (2003)  by Khaled Hosseini, you read of a young boy name Amir that spends decades trying to overcome the

Distorted Thinking Usually extends long After the Repair of the Life Altering Event There are many distortions that come on the heels of a traumatic experience. There are over two dozen types of faulty thinking but

A Paucity of Words: A person experiencing a life-altering event will likely have a reaction of being frozen in their speech.  We have many phrases that attempt to capture how it feels from the inside. Someone

Efficacy is the innate ability of both humans and animals to produce a desired result. In nature you might see the battle for efficacy when a tranquilized polar bear tries with all of his physical power