You have reached the therapy blog of Mindful Journeys Marriage & Family Therapy, PLLC, a private counseling practice located on the upper east side NYC. This blog serves to inspire and educate people seeking to heal from Trauma, life challenges, relationship and family issues.
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 …
Poverty Trauma, Institutional Trauma, and more.
By ngutierrez82
- Jul, 01, 2019
I’ve needed to add more to that trauma list of experiences as I’ve receiving even more input from the healing IG community.
Please remember that there are so many other experiences, that fall in these categories, that are similar/different from …
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 …
Abuse in the name of Culture
By ngutierrez82
- Jun, 25, 2019
What is violent behavior? I understand violent behavior to be behavior that violates the essence of the spirit. Violence can take the shape of emotional, physical, spiritual, and psychological abuse. It can be passive-aggressive, secretive, manipulative exploitation. It is oppression …
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 …
Understanding Narcissism
By ngutierrez82
- Jun, 17, 2019
Many people understand narcissists to be the outright extroverted energy depleting people that are grandiose in nature and easy to identify. Though there is another subtype of narcissists that many survivors of trauma have experienced that are hurtful and dismissive. …
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 …