I want to tell you a true story about something that just happened to me a couple weeks ago. It might be a bit triggery for a few of you — so please know right upfront that I am okay. This story will get a little scary, but it ends okay. I will spare you the nitty-gritty details, but I want to say enough about what happened so we can have a good discussion. Please know to have your older system … [Read more...]
What Does Long-Term Family Violence Do to You?
What happens when you live with violence for years of time? When violence happens every day, or every other day, or every week? How do you cope with that much fear and chaos? How do save yourself from falling into a deep, dark depression? What happens to your sense of trust? What do you do with your own huge feelings? What if you are trapped in that situation and don’t know how to remove … [Read more...]
10 Steps for Doing Healing Work with Your DID System
Have you just discovered that you are multiple? Do you have new insiders surfacing and creating havoc? Is this a tough time of year for you? Are you feeling highly triggered right now? Is your system struggling, feeling dark, chaotic, and separated? Are you experiencing memories, flashbacks, nightmares, and other PTSD symptoms? For the dissociative survivor, the process of healing from severe … [Read more...]
Doing Lots of Hard Work, in the “Hidden Areas”
Hi Everyone, I'm letting you know I'm still here. :) I'm actually spending hours and hours each and every day working on the "behind the scenes"work that needs to be done to update this blog. It might not look like much upfront, but I promise, I'm here! I'm here! That's not me up there in that picture. Frankly, I look more like this. Ha! . . Many of you have sent in excellent comments and feedback to my … [Read more...]
The Emotional Container of Abuse
Emotional abuse. This is a complicated topic. It's a topic I've tried to explain to many dissociative trauma survivors many many times. The concept of emotional abuse can be hard to grasp. This is because the trauma survivor often internalizes the perpetrator's offensive verbage, believing it to be true. But it's not true. Not at all. In this article, I will describe one example of the dynamic of a … [Read more...]