by Joel Blackstock LICSW-S MSW PIP no. 4135C-S | Jan 4, 2026 | Neuroscience and the Brain for Therapists, Psychology
Your feed is full of it: influencers claiming they “detoxed their dopamine” and now feel amazing. Tech bros swearing that 24 hours without screens reset their brain chemistry. Wellness gurus selling dopamine fasting protocols that promise mental clarity,...
by Joel Blackstock LICSW-S MSW PIP no. 4135C-S | Jan 4, 2026 | Anthropology and Evolutionary Psychology for Therapy
Written by the clinical team at Taproot Therapy Collective, a Birmingham psychotherapy practice specializing in somatic and trauma-focused modalities. Our clinicians are trained in body-based approaches including Brainspotting, EMDR, and somatic trauma resolution....
by Joel Blackstock LICSW-S MSW PIP no. 4135C-S | Jan 3, 2026 | Mental Health and Psychotherapy Resources in Alabama, Neuroscience and the Brain for Therapists, Psychology
The Internal Civil War: Understanding and Treating the AuDHD Brain A Clinical Guide to the Autism-ADHD Intersection There is a particular kind of exhaustion that defies simple explanation. It is not the fatigue of overwork, nor the weariness of too little sleep. It is...
by Joel Blackstock LICSW-S MSW PIP no. 4135C-S | Jan 2, 2026 | Psychology
You know your triggers. Most of us do. The sharp tone of voice that makes your stomach clench. The email notification that spikes your heart rate. The family gathering that leaves you exhausted for days. But do you know your glimmers? If you’ve spent any time in...
by Joel Blackstock LICSW-S MSW PIP no. 4135C-S | Jan 2, 2026 | Psychology
Is Bed Rotting Self-Care or a Trauma Response? A Somatic Therapist’s Guide You’ve seen the TikToks. Someone cocooned in blankets, snacks scattered across the mattress, laptop glowing with whatever show they’re half-watching. The hashtag reads...
by Joel Blackstock LICSW-S MSW PIP no. 4135C-S | Dec 28, 2025 | Mental Health and Psychotherapy Resources in Alabama, Mental Health and Trauma Therapy in Alabama, Therapy Resources for Alabama, Uncategorized
The Biology of Safety: A Somatic Guide to Polyvagal Theory For most of the history of psychology, we treated the nervous system like a simple toggle switch. We believed we were either stressed or calm, in “fight or flight” or “rest and digest.”...
by Joel Blackstock LICSW-S MSW PIP no. 4135C-S | Dec 28, 2025 | Psychotherapy Biographies: Historical Figures in the History of Psychology
Two weeks before her wedding in 1988, Diane Poole Heller suffered a terrible car accident that left her with a traumatic brain injury and overwhelming trauma symptoms. What could have been simply a devastating personal tragedy instead became the catalyst for a...
by Joel Blackstock LICSW-S MSW PIP no. 4135C-S | Dec 27, 2025 | Psychotherapy Biographies: Historical Figures in the History of Psychology
When a Dutch child grows up during Nazi occupation watching his father return from a work camp, watching hunger hollow out his neighbors, watching liberation armies arrive too late for too many, trauma stops being an abstract concept. It becomes the air you breathe,...
by Joel Blackstock LICSW-S MSW PIP no. 4135C-S | Dec 26, 2025 | Neuroscience and the Brain for Therapists, Psychotherapy Biographies: Historical Figures in the History of Psychology
When Stephen Porges began studying heart rate variability in newborn infants in the early 1970s, he noticed something curious. Babies whose heart rates fluctuated rhythmically with their breathing, a phenomenon called respiratory sinus arrhythmia, responded better to...
by Joel Blackstock LICSW-S MSW PIP no. 4135C-S | Dec 26, 2025 | Psychotherapy Biographies: Historical Figures in the History of Psychology
In 1969, a graduate student named Nancy arrived at Peter Levine’s office suffering from panic attacks so severe they left her incapacitated, attacks she could not explain and for which no medical cause could be found. Levine, then in his late twenties and...
