Ego States, Dissociative Symptoms, and Parts Work Therapies Do you ever feel as though only some of your emotions or needs are acceptable? Do you push away parts of yourself that you do not want others to see? In truth, … Continue reading
Category Archives: Emotional Intelligence
Learning to Love after Loss Having a history of trauma can lead to challenges in our relationships. Perhaps you have habitually avoided conflict, withdrawn out of fear, felt intolerant of rejection, or pushed people away when they got too close. … Continue reading
Reclaim the Life You Want to Live A common goal in therapy is to learn how to handle painful emotions skillfully. We refer to this as building distress tolerance. It is important to learn how to be with difficult feelings … Continue reading
Empathy (or how to adjust your faucet…) Empathy is a key element of the work that I do. As a psychotherapist, I am literally trained to not only listen to another but to sense and feel their experience with them. … Continue reading
Boundaries and Relationships This post addresses the role of boundaries as instrumental to healing trauma, especially childhood trauma. Boundaries are the limits that help to define the self. They create the distinction, “this is me and that is you.” Boundaries … Continue reading
The Complex PTSD Workbook: A Mind-Body Approach to Regaining Emotional Control & Becoming Whole Those affected by complex PTSD (C-PTSD) commonly feel as though there is something fundamentally wrong with them-that somewhere inside there is a part of them that is … Continue reading
Demystifying Mindfulness What is mindfulness really? In short, it is the practice of paying attention. But, we tend to “jump ship” from the present moment when we feel uncomfortable emotionally. We avoid feeling our discomfort by distracting ourselves or pushing … Continue reading
Healing Emotions Healing trauma involves reclaiming a sense of choice about how, when, and where you feel your emotions. For example, you do not want to process traumatic memories in the grocery store or when you are parenting your children. … Continue reading
Finding Balance The only constant in life is change. This wisdom can be found across traditions. Ancient Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, illuminated the world with his scientific and philosophical understanding that “life is flux.” Within Buddhism we are reminded of the … Continue reading
Going Back Home Going home is complicated. Preparing for my trip home I felt familiar emotions, a mix of gladness and worry. Will I be seduced by my memories of who I once was? My young heart once ached for … Continue reading