Tag: complex PTSD
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When the World Is Jogging and You’re Barely Breathing
Living with trauma in a world that doesn’t always see it Everyone around you seems to be jogging along just fine—chatting, smiling, making brunch plans. But you don’t care about brunch or other mundane, normal tasks. Your legs are shaking. Every step feels like a battle. You wonder why it’s so hard for you when…
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Your Body Is Always Talking
Learning to listen before it has to scream We’ve all done it.You’re deep in a task, laser-focused, and you feel that familiar urge—maybe to pee, to stretch, to drink water.But instead of responding, you push it aside.“I’ll go later,” you tell yourself.Just a few more minutes. Just one more email. It seems small.But every time…
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The Multiplicity of Self and the Iterative Mind
Society loves labels. They make things neat, simple, digestible. Introvert or extrovert. Thinker or feeler. Practical or dreamy. But what happens when you don’t fit neatly into any of those categories? What if, instead of being one person, you are a collection of many? The Question That Started It All When my therapist introduced me…
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Your Body Is Not the Problem
Reconnecting with the signals trauma taught you to ignore In a previous reflection, I shared how ignoring basic needs—like delaying a bathroom break—can quietly erode your sense of self-worth.But for trauma survivors, this disconnection runs deeper.It’s not just habit.It’s survival. We’re taught to push through.To be productive.To silence discomfort. But for those of us shaped…
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The 8 Cs of Self in Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS)
How Internal Family Systems helps us return to who we really are When I first started working with Internal Family Systems (IFS), I was overwhelmed by how many parts of me were in pain. Angry parts. Numb parts. People-pleasing parts. Parts that wanted to disappear. Parts that never stopped working. I thought healing meant fixing…