Trauma Narratives and Polyvagal Theory
By ngutierrez82
- Sep, 29, 2019
Our narratives change based on the autonomic nervous system state we are in. We cannot think our way out of a triggered perceived threat response. We need to feel our way out of it to be able to think more …
Attachment Rupture with Caregivers
By ngutierrez82
- Jul, 18, 2019
Your mom may never be who you want her to be. Your father may never be who you want him to be. Your caregiver (s) may never be who you want them to be. This is not your fault. You …
Natural responses to Trauma
By ngutierrez82
- Jul, 10, 2019
There are so many ways that every one of us respond to Trauma(s) that we experience throughout our lifetime. There’s no comparing our responses to Trauma because we all respond differently, even as siblings, twins, or anyone that has grown …
Flashbacks Serve to Heal
By ngutierrez82
- Jul, 03, 2019
When I started my own EMDR work, I was told to expect flashbacks. That since I have started re-processing memories- these memory intrusions would occur. Both my therapist and consultant were right. I have flashbacks in my sleep sometimes. Though …
Attachment & Trauma
By ngutierrez82
- Jun, 29, 2019
When we think about attachment- we rewind the tape in our minds and explore how we related to our caregivers growing up. We reflect on how we were treated, what we saw, what felt good and what felt hurtful or …
Grounding Techniques for CPTSD
By ngutierrez82
- Jun, 23, 2019
I’ve been posting a lot lately on CPTSD, setting boundaries, and how our socialization to maintain trauma bonds with folx that have deeply hurt us is strong as hell. As we know, hurt people hurt people. Wounding is transferred onto …
Culture in Therapy
By ngutierrez82
- Jun, 15, 2019
In therapy as clients, and also as clinicians, I find it is necessary for us to be cognizant of culture in our work. As clinicians, we can sometimes make the mistake of “prescribing” or suggesting clients do things that bring …
Interrupt your Fight/Flight
By ngutierrez82
- Jun, 06, 2019
Our Autonomic Nervous system consists of our sympathetic nervous system (fight/flight/freeze/fright/Flag/Faint response) and parasympathetic nervous system (in charge of conserving energy, relaxing our bodies, slowing our heart rates).
When we’re going through our day feeling triggered, on hyper-alert, and regularly …
Parts we create to survive Trauma
By ngutierrez82
- Jun, 04, 2019
Your depression, addiction, anxiety, reckless risk taking, self loathing, inner-critic, suicidal ideations are not character defects or psychopathology. They’re strategic, sophisticated coping strategies that were created to survive past painful traumas.
The world has a way of telling us all …
Understanding CPTSD & PTSD
By ngutierrez82
- Jun, 04, 2019
Let us talk about the difference between PTSD and Complex PTSD. It’s assumed that everyone that has endured trauma has PTSD. Though there is a distinction.
PTSD relates to sensory flashbacks that a person experiences when they are met with …