TRAUMA BLOG POSTS
Why Does Past Trauma Affect My New Relationships?
Our brains recreate the familiar conditions from our childhood. This means that in relationships, we tend to choose partners who reflect characteristics from our past, just as we reflect parts of theirs. Then, we tend to trigger behaviours in each other that recreate...
When the Past Feels Like the Present: Understanding Trauma, Memory Time, and Now Time
I use the word trauma a lot. It’s a loaded word, and for many people, it makes them think of war, abuse, or catastrophic accidents. So when I say to someone, “You’ve experienced trauma,” they are often unsure what I mean. Their reaction makes sense. The DSM-5-TR — the...
6 Ways Trauma Might Be Showing Up in Your Life Without You Realising It
Trauma symptoms and behaviour often look nothing like the original trauma, so it can be very hard to know they are directly connected, even when you know what your trauma was. When you are unsure if you have experienced trauma, but have a whole lot of distressing...
Why Logic, CBT, and Strategies Don’t Always Work When Trauma Lives in the Body
“I know it’s irrational. So why can’t I stop feeling this way?” I hear so many of my clients say this in exasperation. They’ve tried to change their thoughts and their beliefs, they’ve tried all the strategies, they’ve read lots of books, they’ve tried to stay...
Are you still hurting? Why the traditional approaches to mental health might not be enough
If you’ve spent years trying to understand and heal your pain, and you’re still hurting, you’re not alone. You’ve done what you were told would help: seen the doctors, taken the medication, changed your thinking, learned to cope—maybe even tried therapy. You might...
Why Mental Health Diagnoses Often Fail Trauma Survivors
Why Mental Health Diagnoses Often Fail Trauma Survivors When no one can agree on what’s “wrong” with you Have you got a list of diagnoses—or maybe a changing rotation depending on which professional you see? It’s not uncommon for me to see clients with a long list of...
When You’re Triggered: How to Ground, Soothe, and Come Back to Yourself
We often use the word triggered to describe moments when we feel suddenly and intensely overwhelmed — anxious, angry, scared, ashamed, or shut down — especially in response to something that doesn’t seem, on the surface, like it should cause such a strong reaction....
Feeling Too Much? It Might Be an Emotional Flashback
The word ‘triggered’ gets thrown around a lot. But what does it actually mean, and what’s really going on? Put simply, being triggered means you're having a strong emotional or physical reaction to something in the present that reminds your body of a past traumatic...
Why Do I Keep Ending Up in Relationships with People Who aren’t Good For Me?
Why do we keep ending up with people who hurt us, even though we swear we won’t fall for that ‘type’ again? Sometimes, the people we are attracted to aren’t just attractive because of who they are now. They of course must be attractive to us in the present, inside...
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