When you think of a trauma flashback, you likely picture a cinematic scene: images flashing, a character freezing in place. For many trauma survivors, however, the most common and confusing flashbacks aren’t things they can see – they are things they feel. Sometimes when we recall memories, we can remember facial expressions and what our surroundings looked like. There are many instances, though, that give us a very different experience in recalling a memory.   What Somatic F

Noticing the C in front of the PTSD acronym (which stands for posttraumatic stress disorder) may seem like a minor difference at a first glance. C-PTSD is not separately identified as distinct from PTSD in our current diagnostic manuals. Clinical psychologists and therapists alike are still debating whether it needs to be, and whether or not a separate treatment is necessary. While I understand the efforts to avoid making things too convoluted in our DSM, I do believe from my

People-pleasing is something a lot of us struggle with, and the reason it is such a difficult habit to break is because it's actually often encouraged in society. People-pleasing, in essence, is the act of us disconnecting from ourselves for the sake of some kind of interpersonal gain. We are asked to give our time, attention, and resources - and our automatic response is 'yes' despite maybe not having the focus, energy, or motivation to do so. Many people may be painfully fa

Often, the clues that bring you to the revelation that you are experiencing a shame response, is the response itself. We engage in interactions often as social creatures, and there may be times that certain interactions feel more negative and intense. Let's say you get a performance review at your job, and some things are marked as "needs improvement" or "unsatisfactory". There is a wide spectrum of responses to this rather common experience. You may feel some disappointment,