Tagged With "Hope for Healing"
Blog Post
Defining Resilience Series: Step 6 - Find a Guiding Hand to Hold
I am in love with the idea of utilizing our own healing experiences to help those who are looking for guidance and a comforting hand to hold. I know when I was in despair, I was flailing in my efforts to find answers.
Blog Post
Flashback Halting Guide: 10 Tips to Halt Flashbacks for Yourself or a Loved One
Flashback Halting Guide: 10 Tips to Halt Flashbacks for Yourself or a Loved One. Includes a link to a printable Flashback Halting Guide
Blog Post
From Compassion Fatigue to Healing Centered Engagement: Turning Trauma Informed Values into Action
To pave the way for a truly strengths-based approach to full healing and recovery for both service users and burned out staff, we must educate them on (1) the central role of primal body responses to trauma (past and present), and (2) the early development of adaptive thoughts and behaviors in response to
traumatic experience.
Blog Post
Fuzzy Slippers: How Do Self-Care as a Trauma Survivor
When I recommend the need for self-care to trauma survivors, they say it can feel like a chore. Some of them even roll their eyes and tell me, “You mean you want me to take care of myself? Ugh. Who has time for that?!” It’s tempting for any person to undervalue self-care. But for trauma survivors, resistance to self-care has much deeper roots. Healing takes a focused, gentle approach. Self-Care as a Practice of Welcoming Your Needs Many trauma survivors learned to do without self-care...
Blog Post
Get Unstuck - Guided Journal & Online Circle
Sometimes a high ACEs score or history of trauma can have you feeling stuck. You see patterns playing out around you and 'to you' and you can't seem to get yourself out of it. I've been there. I've also gotten myself out of it and used all kinds of tools to do it. I am a certified coach who believes in providing people with tools of their own to move into a place of self-leadership. We all have the capacity to heal. It takes work, self-reflection, ownership of our own behaviors and...
Blog Post
Healing from Codependency and the Freedom that Awaits
There is no healing without recognition of that which needs to be healed. Someone who has clogged arteries cannot heal those clogged arteries if they are unaware they have clogged arteries. To heal mentally, emotionally, spiritually, physically, or cognitively first requires an acknowledgment of some kind of deficit or wound. In order to acknowledge a wound one must become conscious or self-aware of such wound.
Blog Post
How a Therapy Dog Impacts a Child's Life
Afterward I discovered the horrific tragedy that had befallen this child only hours prior. I cried the entire car ride home. My sweet dog helped this little guy smile when smiling seemed an impossibility for these circumstances. She gave him an hour of reprieve from his heartache and trauma.
Blog Post
How Improving Mood Can Help Heal
Your mood is tied to your mental and physical health and if you’ve been having some bad days recently you may want to make a few lifestyle changes to improve your overall mood and health. While it may seem difficult to make some of these changes in your life, doing them will have a huge, almost immediate effect on you. Improving your mood and overall mental health will have a huge impact on your mind and body and can make your situation better overall. Doing a few simple things like...
Blog Post
How to Heal Emotional Trauma (wakeup-world.com)
Understanding Emotional Wounds We tend to think of an emotional wound as the original traumatic experience – as the “thing” that happened to us, but the wound is actually the dis-empowering belief that we developed as a result of the traumatic experience. In the search for emotional security, our natural response to any traumatic event is to make sense of it. We “make sense”of things by creating beliefs. Beliefs that we develop in response to traumatic experiences are Traumatic Beliefs.
Blog Post
How Trauma Therapy Cultivated My Recovery
I was 5 years old when I had my first encounter with trauma. Too young to comprehend the magnitude of the situation, my first grade class participated in a “Good Touch/Bad Touch” workshop,centered around educating and recognizing signs of sexual abuse. I found relief in finding a safe place to lay down the burden I had been carrying. I went straight to the school counselor and told her, in vivid description, the intimate details of my unwarranted molestation. I remember the grueling...
Blog Post
3 Steps Toward Managing And Healing Anxiety
I've struggled with anxiety throughout my life. A difficult childhood and my highly sensitive personality meant I grew into an anxious kid—there was just too much pain and emotional overwhelm for my young brain to handle. My anxiety most often manifested as perfectionism and people pleasing, so from the outside everything seemed great. I excelled in school and I was a good kid who did as she was told. But there was a war inside me. I felt broken, unable to navigate these huge feelings of...
Blog Post
Mind Matters: Overcoming Adversity and Building Resilience Two-Day Intensive Training
with Author, Carolyn Rich Curtis, Ph.D. 8:30 AM–5:00 PM $399 for 2-day Intensive Training CEUs are available for an additional charge. Each trainee must have a copy of Mind Matters ($299 plus tax (CA and SD only) plus S/H) As a result of this training , you will learn to teach: Self-soothing skills to manage emotions Ways to analyze stressful thoughts How to deal with intrusive memories Ways to develop a protective lifestyle And you, as an instructor, will learn . . . How to provide a safe...
Blog Post
Morning Meditation
As I continued practicing it, however, I found comfort in releasing the sound into the universe. There were times I would walk around the rest of the day feeling a beautiful energy, a tingly sensation, radiating from my forehead.
Blog Post
Need 45 Trauma-Informed Practitioners or Clinicians For Study on Using a Brain Regulation Headband-Bellabee Designed To Help Trauma Survivors Regulate Their Brains.
Need 45 Trauma-Informed Practitioners or Clinicians For Study on Using a Brain Regulation Headband-Bellabee Designed To Help Trauma Survivors Regulate Their Brains. All trauma informed practitioners who are suffering with or who work with adults or children suffering with C-PTSD, PTSD, Developmental Trauma, Depression, Anxiety, ADHD & Sleep Disorders are welcome to apply to be considered for this study. The deadline to request and submit your application is: March 20, 2020 As a trauma...
Blog Post
Need 45 Trauma-Informed Practitioners or Clinicians For Study on Using a Brain Regulation Headband-Bellabee Designed To Help Trauma Survivors Regulate Their Brains.
Need 45 Trauma-Informed Practitioners or Clinicians For Study on Using a Brain Regulation Headband-Bellabee Designed To Help Trauma Survivors Regulate Their Brains. All trauma informed practitioners who are suffering with or who work with adults or children suffering with C-PTSD, PTSD, Developmental Trauma, Depression, Anxiety, ADHD & Sleep Disorders are welcome to apply to be considered for this study. We currently have 41 applicants, and applicantions are approved on a first come first...
Blog Post
Opening Up by Writing It Down: How Expressive Writing Improves Health and Eases Emotional Pain
In my last post, I highlighted a book Vincent Felitti mentioned at the CAMFT conference in Orange County. In the same talk, Dr. Felitti also recommended a form of therapeutic writing developed by James Pennebaker to help individuals uncover painful emotions and heal trauma. Pennebaker's book Opening Up by Writing It Down: How Expressive Writing Improves Health and Eases Emotional Pain details the why and how. The Pennebaker method has been referenced elsewhere on ACEs Connection; I thought...
Blog Post
Parent Handouts updated and available In Dari, English & Spanish
The updated parent handouts are now available in Spanish as well as English and Dari. Here's the blog post with links to all three versions of each flyer. All versions of the Understanding ACEs and Parenting to Prevent & Heal ACEs parent handouts can be downloaded, distributed, and used freely. Both flyers were made with generous support from Family Hui, a Program of Lead for Tomorrow, who is responsible for making the Spanish and Dari translations available. These are updates of the...
Blog Post
Passing the Baton
Hello, Everyone, I just wanted to let you all know that I’ve decided to step away from my volunteer position as co-manager of the Practicing Resilience for Self-Care & Healing community. In the nearly two and a half years since I’ve held this post, I’ve learned so much and gotten to know (virtually) so many great folks who’ve contributed their wisdom, experience, compassion, and knowledge. I am in awe of you all, your willingness to share and give of yourselves, your strength and courage...
Blog Post
Positivities of Persistence Series: Persistence & Positivity Defined
While some scholars may attribute persistence to a need for control, I like to take the stance with those who look at persistence as a will to not give up. More and more research is emerging on resilience and its positive impact in off-setting ACEs (adverse childhood experiences), even learned resilience skills in adulthood.
Blog Post
Seven Benefits of Working with a Therapy Animal from a Handler's Perspective
Sometimes I feel selfish for walking away from our therapy dog sessions with my heart overflowing with joy, a smile radiating from my face AND heart. I love watching this dog turn a child’s tears into giggles. Sammie has a thing for kids. Her tail wags every time she sees one. Whether we are walking the halls at a school or the trails at a nature preserve. She wants to meet them all and offer a snuggle. As a result, her tail thumps in canine happiness, and I just can’t help but grin.
Blog Post
Seven Strategies I Use To Reregulate As Anxiety Symptoms Surface
So, how does Teri Wellbrock bring herself back into a state of calm once the anticipatory anxiety has been triggered? Here is Teri's personal go-to list. Please keep in mind she created this plan on a trial and error basis. She loaded her coping skills toolbox with exercises, fidgets, courses, books, therapy suggestions, and techniques discovered through personal research. Following is her top seven strategies, however, please note that she has a much larger bag-o-tricks to pull from if needed.
Blog Post
Shattered By The Darkness: Powerful book by a humble man on a mission to prevent what happened to him from happening to other children.
Gregory Williams, PhD, will help change the world by taking this book into medical schools and teaching physicians and nurses about the root cause of most adult illness: childhood trauma. I just read this book in one sitting, save one hot tea refill. I could not stop reading it. Even though there were some passages that evoked anxiety, I couldn’t stop reading it, as I so wanted to learn more about this remarkable man and how he earned a PhD, had a normal family life, and earned the respect...
Blog Post
Sick and Stressed from CPTSD? Power Up Your SELF CARE (Resilience Series)
I’ve been talking about resilience in recent posts — the obstacles that hold back recovery, and the strengths we need to keep healing. Last week the topic was fear. In this post (and the video that goes with it) I want to go up a layer to the next strength, and that’s self-care . I used to think self-care was just hot baths and chocolate for people whose problems were so small that this would actually solve them. But 25 years of continuous healing and strength-building has taught me that,...
Blog Post
Sick and Stressed from CPTSD? Power Up Your SELF CARE (Resilience Series)
I’ve been talking about resilience in recent posts — the obstacles that hold back recovery, and the strengths we need to keep healing. Last week the topic was fear. In this post (and the video that goes with it) I want to go up a layer to the next strength, and that’s self-care . I used to think self-care was just hot baths and chocolate for people whose problems were so small that this would actually solve them. But 25 years of continuous healing and strength-building has taught me that,...
Blog Post
Tell Me Who You Trust the Most
Imagine that you are being held by someone you love (partner, parent, best friend, someone you once knew, or someone you imagine). You are safe and warm and connected. You feel the soothing of presence - the beating of a primitive language. As you find the rhythms of oneness, you know that all is right. You are protected from whatever unknown lies beyond. Close your eyes and feel the exquisiteness...Now imagine that the exquisiteness fails.
Blog Post
Yoga Transformed Me After Childhood Abuse [yogajournal.com]
How yoga helped me heal from neglect and violence I grew up in poverty in a drug-addicted and violent family. Without necessities like proper food or shelter, and subjected to regular abuse, I ran away at the age of 13. Within two years, I was on the road with a 19-year-old man. Being so young, I was attracted to his antisocial, rebellious past rather than recognizing these behaviors as red flags. Eventually, we called my mother and she threatened him with jail time for statutory rape and...
Blog Post
Young People are Using Musical Theater to Heal Their Trauma — and it's Working [nationswell.com]
By Monica Humphries, Nation Swell, July 12, 2019. On the drive home from Priya Shah’s first Storycatchers musical, she pulled over to cry. Shah, who now serves as the executive director of Storycatchers, had just seen a musical at the Illinois Youth Center, a juvenile detention center in Warrenville, Illinois. She watched girls tell stories of sexual abuse, battery and neglect. She also saw stories of hope and resilience. “It struck me that these characters I had just watched struggle, joke,...
Comment
Re: Morning Meditation
I haven't yet tried the whole meditation, but I tried a few minutes of it and wow! You are not kidding about the tingly sensation in the forehead! It's quite lasting, and the way I imagine it might feel to be a rung bell, every cell vibrating. The sensation moves concentrically from the head through the torso to the limbs. I'm intrigued -- thanks, Teri!
Comment
Re: Morning Meditation
While the sensation was a bit unnerving at first (my hyper-arousal at work!), I kept at it and eventually found myself enjoying the tingly reminder of sending my positive thoughts and energy out into the universe. There was a comfort in that. Peace, Teri
Comment
Re: How a Therapy Dog Impacts a Child's Life
How fulfilling it must be to come full circle by helping children who've experienced trauma as you yourself recover from the long-term effects of childhood and adult trauma. And what a beautiful way to involve your adorable Sammie. Thanks for your work and for sharing here, Teri.
Comment
Re: How a Therapy Dog Impacts a Child's Life
Oh, Laura, my heart fills with joy every Tuesday as I watch Sammie work her therapy dog magic. I had worked in a mental health agency in the school systems helping children with trauma, bullying, etc., but found it was taking its toll on me emotionally. I eventually left that job out of a forced situation (God's grace at work) as I had to go to work for a company I owned that was suddenly flourishing. Now I find I am back working with children, but this time Sammie is the one engaging them...
Comment
Re: How a Therapy Dog Impacts a Child's Life
Teri, I LOVE your post on your sweet dog Sammie’s work!!! Best!!! Mary
Comment
Re: How a Therapy Dog Impacts a Child's Life
Thanks, Mary! We had our Tuesday morning therapy dog work again this morning and the little boy I referenced in the post was beaming with joy when he walked into the room to see Sammie. My heart melted all over again.
Comment
Re: Self-Compassion Is Your Perfect Present Guidance, Even In The Most Troubled And Turbulent Of Times.
Bob, beautifully written. I wish real love could be found in every church. Jesus gave only 2 commandments Love God and Love your neighbor. However, sadly love is the last thing you find in a church. What you get is judgment, meanness, superiority, lack of support. Money is what speaks in most of these houses of God. All you need is 1 kind and loving person to heal. If you are lucky you will find him/her or else the pain never goes away.
Comment
Re: Coping Strategy: Smile
Thank you, Teri, this is a wonderful reminder! I love it especially because your picture makes me instantly want to smile! Thank you for smiling me into a smile
Comment
Re: Coping Strategy: Smile
Wow, yes! That beautiful picture of Teri infectiously smiling is a real boost!
Comment
Re: Coping Strategy: Smile
Teri, I'm guessing you are aware (and you may be implying it in this post) that there's research that shows that the act of smiling -- even if it's a forced smile -- can improve one's mood. The reminds me of something I read recently about a remedy for insomnia that's caused by anxiety -- smile, just a bit, like the Buddha, while counting breaths (three inhales, three exhales) to signal to your brain that everything is OK. I've tried it several times, and more often than not, I drift right...
Comment
Re: Coping Strategy: Smile
Well, your response made me smile big! Thank you for the positive feedback and I hope you find a million little reasons to smile this week Peace, Teri
Comment
Re: Coping Strategy: Smile
You are most welcome. I appreciate you reading my post. Peace, Teri
Comment
Re: Coping Strategy: Smile
Yes! Exactly. I was practicing a guided meditation a few years ago and it was suggested I turn the corners of my mouth up into a small smile and maintain it throughout the session. It was amazing the impact of that forced smile on my meditative results. That is when I decided to try forcing myself to smile in the midst of a panic attack. I had read how we can alter our chemical makeup by sending positive energy into negative or overwhelming emotions such as fear. And, for ME . . . it works!
Comment
Re: The Healing Place Podcast - Dr. Kathleen Friend: The Greatness Chair
Thanks for sharing the information about your latest podcast, Teri. I always enjoy your interviews and I look forward to listening to this one soon. Just so you know, sometimes I have to listen to them twice because they are so jam-packed with good stuff! Also: another great thing about your podcast is that it's evidence of how much good work is going on in our world toward healing -- and you manage to find out about it!
Comment
Re: The Healing Place Podcast - Dr. Kathleen Friend: The Greatness Chair
This made my heart smile big! And thanks double for listening in TWICE sometimes. LOL! I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to meet beautiful souls from all over this world who are doing incredible work helping others along their healing journeys. I continue to be blown away by their efforts, commitment, dedication, and overall love given by advocates and survivors alike in helping others. The podcast was recently approved by the Board of Directors of Fractured Atlas for fiscal...
Comment
Re: The Healing Place Podcast - Dr. Kathleen Friend: The Greatness Chair
Another new podcast. I'm intrigued ... thank you again, Teri!
Comment
Re: The Healing Place Podcast - Dr. Kathleen Friend: The Greatness Chair
Thanks, again, for tuning in! I love meeting all of these beautiful people doing amazing work in the world of trauma-recovery and prevention. Makes my heart happy and hopeful.
Comment
Re: The Books That Helped Me Transition from Trauma to Triumph: A Book Review Series – “Getting Past Your Past”
Teri, this book has been on my list for a while (along with a blue million other books ...). Thanks for the reminder to nudge it toward the top of the list. I'm an EMDR veteran too, and your descriptions of your experience with that therapy echo mine. I too can say I wouldn't be where I am today without it. I've undergone a few more sessions recently and it has not lost its power. It is also quite the trip. Every time I think, nothing is going to happen this session. And then ... boy, do...
Comment
Re: The Healing Place Podcast - Gretchen Schmelzer, PhD: Journey Through Trauma
I knew that name sounded familiar! I subscribe to Dr. Schmelzer's e-newsletter. But I don't think I've ever heard her interviewed before. Thank you, Teri!
Comment
Re: The Healing Place Podcast - Gretchen Schmelzer, PhD: Journey Through Trauma
Such an insightful interview! Thanks for tuning in, Laura 😁