"There are wounds that never show on the body that are deeper and more hurtful than anything that bleeds." Laurell K. Hamilton, Mistral's Kiss Childhood trauma casts a long shadow. Even if we can't remember the specifics of what happened to us, or even if we think we've "gotten over it," the impact of early trauma has a way of sneaking into our adult lives in subtle but profound ways. This is because trauma, especially when it occurs during the critical developmental years of childhood, doesn't just affect us...
How to Heal After Leaving a Toxic Relationship and Reclaim Your True Self
How Therapy Can Heal Toxic Relationships Leaving a toxic relationship is one of the bravest and most difficult steps a person can take. Whether it was a romantic partner, a family member, or a close friend, extricating yourself from a relationship pattern that was destructive to your well-being is a profound act of self-love and self-preservation. However, the journey of healing doesn't end the moment you walk away. In many ways, that's just the beginning. The aftermath of a toxic relationship can leave you...
Existential Therapy and the Search for Meaning After Loss
How can Existential Therapy Help? Loss is an inevitable part of the human condition. Whether through death, separation, or the myriad other ways in which life can strip us of what we hold dear, loss is a universal experience that touches every heart. And yet, despite its universality, the pain of loss is always profoundly personal. It is a unique kind of suffering that can shake the very foundations of our world, leaving us feeling lost, groundless, and alone. In the midst of this existential crisis, it is...
How Somatic Therapy Can Help You Process Trauma Stored in the Body
How Does Somatic Therapy Heal Trauma? Trauma is not just a psychological experience; it is a full-body experience. When we undergo a traumatic event, the impact is not confined to our thoughts and emotions, but is also deeply encoded in our physical being. Our bodies remember, even when our conscious minds may not. This understanding is at the heart of somatic therapy, a branch of psychotherapy that focuses on the interconnection of mind and body in the healing of trauma. Somatic therapists recognize that trauma...
Healing from Self-Sabotage
Parts-Based Therapy and the Inner Critic Have you ever noticed a harsh, critical voice in your head that seems to constantly put you down? A voice that tells you you're not good enough, smart enough, attractive enough, or worthy enough? If so, you're not alone. This inner critic is a common experience for many people, and it can have a profound impact on mental health, self-esteem, and overall well-being. From the perspective of parts-based therapies like Internal Family Systems (IFS) and Voice Dialogue, this...
How do Archetypes Show Up in Relationships
The Role of Archetypes in Romantic Relationships: A Jungian Perspective on Love and Loss Love is one of the great mysteries and marvels of the human experience. It is a force that has inspired countless poems, songs, and stories throughout history, and that continues to shape our lives in profound and often unexpected ways. At the same time, love is also a source of some of our deepest pain and struggle. When relationships fail, when hearts are broken, we are confronted with equally profound feelings of...
How Family Scripts Can Control Your Life
Unpacking Family Scripts: How Your Childhood Narratives Shape Your Present The stories we tell ourselves about our lives are powerful. They shape our sense of identity, our relationships, and our very experience of reality. And perhaps no stories are more formative than the ones we inherit from our families of origin - the scripts that were written for us long before we had the awareness or agency to question them. Family scripts are the unspoken rules, roles, and narratives that govern how a family system...
How Childhood Religious Trauma can go Unnoticed
How Religious Trauma Shapes Your Adult Relationships and Self-Perception Religious trauma is a deeply wounding experience that can have far-reaching effects on an individual's emotional, psychological, and spiritual well-being. It is a complex phenomenon that often occurs in the context of authoritarian, fear-based religious environments that prioritize rigid doctrine over individual autonomy and critical thinking. At its core, religious trauma represents a profound betrayal of trust. When a religious institution...
Recognizing the Lasting Influence of Narcissistic Abuse in Your Life
How Can you Heal Narcissistic Abuse in Therapy? "I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself." -Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë Narcissistic abuse is a form of emotional and psychological manipulation that can leave deep, enduring scars on a person's psyche. It's a kind of soul wound that impacts every aspect of one's being - from self-image and interpersonal relationships to the very sense of reality itself. When you've been subjected to...
How can therapy help you overcome a breakup?
When everything broken is broken, and everything dead is dead, and the hero has looked into the mirror with complete contempt, and the heroine has studied her face and its defects remorselessly, and the pain they thought might, as a token of their earnestness, release them from themselves has lost its novelty and not released them, and they have begun to think, kindly and distantly, watching the others go about their days— likes and dislikes, reasons, habits, fears— that self-love is the one weedy stalk of every...