I have sticky notes all over my journal, with ideas for posts. I have posts half-written in Word. I have so much I want to say. But I am just SO TIRED. SO triggered.So Empath-drained (yes, I just made that up)and my trauma brain is working overtime. with back up. I don\’t know if \”trauma …
This week I posted on my Facebook page three metaphors to try to explain to people what it can be like to be Highly Sensitive, an Empath, and/or live with a trauma history. here is the post. First of all: This is a sharing of my own experience and what works for me. It may …
How to THRIVE as Highly Sensitive people, Empaths, and trauma survivors (or all three!) Read More »
a life devotedto helpingthe longer I do itthe more mysterious life seems to beit was, at first, unsettlingbut nowit comforts me. It’s like starting overa new placenew ways to servenew policies, new clientsI bring with meall of my past experiences But, lucky for meit all seems fresh, in a wayI’m back to square onethe Buddhists …
A global pandemic is a trauma, on every level. Collective. Family. Community. Nation. Individual. It’s an unprecedented event, in our lifetime. And you may be having unprecedented feelings, moods, reactions, even physical sensations. You may feel:*anxious*depressed*agitated*listeless*unmotivated*vigilant*tired*achy*unable to sleep*irritable*guilty if you feel okay*scared if you feel okay These are all normal, for the current very ABNORMAL …
Yes, all that weird stuff you are feeling *could* be from the pandemic Read More »
I said in my last post that this pandemic, this global crisis, was easier in some ways because it was not new or crazy for me to feel anxious and unsafe much of the time. That\’s true. But what is also true is that in many ways, we trauma survivors may have it much harder …
Surviving Trigger and Anxiety in the Age of COVID-19 Read More »
(cover image is of a tiny plant sprouting up through a sidewalk crack) There is a global pandemic. And we don\’t have enough masks. Not just for us, the people.We don\’t have enough masks for health care workers.Everything feels quite serious and overwhelming and scary. Because it is. It seems surreal-right? A friend messaged me …
Why COVID-19 is Easier For Me (or, Functioning While in Distress) Read More »
When I was just starting my last semester of grad school, at the ripe old age of 23, I went to my first therapist. my reason: I couldn\’t write a cover letter. I had never had a grown-up job before; I went straight to graduate school (social work) out of college. Part of the reason …
I\’ve been sitting here pounding away at this keyboard for way too long, with a bunch of trite bullshit coming out (that I keep deleting). I\’m trying too hard. I\’m trying too hard to be deep and lyrical and really, I\’m trying to avoid feeling the dark, seemingly bottomless grief I\’m feeling tonight. So I\’m …
A dear friend texted me tonight. She had an experience that, well, unsettled her. And on top of feeling unsettled, she couldn\’t put her finger on why it did. Which was more…unsettling. And it wasn\’t anything earth-shattering, or really bad. Which made it more confusing, to her. She said things like: I don\’t know if …
when I was just finishing grad school, 24 years old, had never had a job, had no idea what I DIDN\’T know about being a therapist (just about everything), I was tying up loose ends at my field placement. I\’d been training in family therapy, and seeing what we then called \”multi-problem families\” (read: poor. …
