The holiday season can be incredibly stressful and triggering for many reasons, from trying to defy our natural inclination to hibernate in the winter, to how our brains link to challenging events from all the holidays that came before. But you don’t have to dread the holidays or family get-togethers, if you can understand where your feelings come from and how to work through them. We store so many memories in our bodies; some of these memories we know and remember, but others happened before we...
Nov 07, 2023•20 min
The true definition (and outcomes) of depression goes far beyond what we typically think of: someone pulling away from loved ones, extreme sadness, maybe even feeling suicidal. But the truth is that depression is often a symptom of trauma, and can manifest in individuals in so many different ways. It may be a collapse after extreme anxiety that we may not even notice because we’ve normalized living life at a high cadence. When we crash into depression, we may feel safe because we learned that th...
Oct 31, 2023•27 min
Thanks to Gabor Maté, we know that trauma isn’t just something that happens; it’s something that happens inside of you. So when something happens to us (or doesn’t happen, like in an omission of care) and we feel anxiety, that anxiety is a result of trauma. Anxiety can come from so many things, like overextending ourselves and trying to do too much, divorce, job loss, and even things that some might perceive as positive experiences like an upcoming social event, wedding, or vacation. And often w...
Oct 24, 2023•29 min
Parenting is a challenge for everyone, no matter what someone’s Instagram feed claims. And if we’re looking outside the “traditional” definition of trauma, every parent has experienced trauma at some point. So many parents want to raise their children in a different way than they themselves were raised: more extracurricular options, no spanking, being more present. And where we end up is stressed out, feeling like we’re not doing enough, and triggered by our kids. Sometimes without even knowing ...
Oct 20, 2023•29 min
EMDR works. It’s well-known that it works for those who want to heal trauma, but you don’t have to be a trauma survivor to benefit from EMDR. In fact, I believe that it works for nearly every human on the planet. This week, I’m starting a new series that I think will convince you that EMDR is for children, athletes, executives, parents, empty nesters, those going through a divorce, and more. And one of the reasons why it isn’t already a standard of practice for all therapists (as I think it shou...
Oct 10, 2023•19 min
Want to learn more about offering intensives in your practice? My Intensive Kit can help! Find out more here. I've been offering intensive therapy programs for my EMDR clients for 5 years now and I've learned a lot about about how to design successful intensive models. And I've made it my mission to share my experience so that other clinicians may benefit in their own private practices. And, now, because I've now had the opportunity to support clinicians as they launch their own intensive models...
Oct 04, 2023•32 min
Have you struggled with finding the right therapy for your needs? Maybe you’ve had a few appointments with several different therapists but never found someone you felt was on the same page as you for your treatment. The client-therapist relationship is so important and it’s not something that anyone should enter lightly. For clients, it might be one of the most important relationships they build. Understanding your specific needs and finding a therapist who can meet those needs is pivotal. If y...
Sep 26, 2023•34 min
EMDR is a fantastic brain-based modality for trauma therapy, but there are so many other uses that we don’t talk about enough because of the focus on trauma. What gets lost the most is that EMDR supports anyone who wants to rewrite the curriculum they learned as a result of experiences from their past. When we talk about EMDR being good for trauma victims, we essentially close the door of possibility of healing through this modality for those who don’t identify as trauma victims. This does a dis...
Sep 19, 2023•30 min
Identifying and pulling on positive resources is essential to processing trauma, but it’s also something you can do when you want to change your mindset around specific feelings and events. Even better, it’s something you can do on your own with a little bit of work and reflection. Resourcing is a biologically natural process your body already has to create adaptive material. It’s what your body did to create adaptations after a traumatic event. But you can also resource yourself in a customized...
Sep 12, 2023•28 min
Doing mindset work isn’t always the answer. We’re inundated with messages from coaches and therapists on Instagram telling us that if we just worked on our mindset, we could get past so many of our limiting beliefs and roadblocks. And while maybe mindset works for some, for many therapy clients it’s actually harmful. When therapy clients don’t yet have the ability to protect themselves from negative cognitions around the mindset work, they can experience trauma. They can feel like a failure. And...
Sep 05, 2023•21 min
Most of us know how to behave appropriately in society, which is helpful in navigating the world. We follow the laws of our community, pay our bills, wait in the grocery lines, treat animals with kindness, etc. But sometimes, society (or our culture) teaches us a set of rules that don’t align with what is best for us. If you’re a woman, you’ve likely felt this. We’ve been given this curriculum around boundaries and being available to others. We’re expected to act a certain way and be available t...
Aug 29, 2023•24 min
Too often I hear therapists share that a client “isn’t doing the work.” They’re not progressing or working through their trauma because in session they talk about what’s going on in their life today, rather than talking about what happened in the past. I believe that when a client hears from their therapist that they’re not “doing the work,” it’s a red flag. Therapists need to put on their clinical reasoning hats and really think about what they’re saying. The reality is that we’re always doing ...
Aug 22, 2023•24 min
The way we’ve been talking about triggers is an incomplete conversation and it’s time to change that. The more information you have about what triggers you will help inside trauma therapy and help create adaptive material to help with trauma. Here’s where we need to rethink what we’ve learned about triggers: A trigger is a stimulus that elicits a reaction. Any stimulus; any reaction. But our culture has added qualifiers to our definition of triggers, turning them into something that’s negative. ...
Aug 15, 2023•24 min
Curiosity should always be the default for therapists working with clients, and clients should know this and look for it in session. This is especially true when we’re talking about phobias. There’s often a lot of shame around phobias because they’re characterized by a disproportionate response to a feeling or fear. At the surface level, it might not seem logical. But if a therapist responds in this way, they could create or feed a toxic relationship between the client and the feelings the clien...
Aug 08, 2023•26 min
Adaptations are all things we created in response to something we learned in life, often during a traumatic experience. Whether that experience happened in childhood or as adults, we learned how to cope and feel safe. And those adaptations perform a positive function, whether they’re healthy or not. The important thing to remember is that adaptations can and should change over time, especially if they’ve become problematic, like disordered eating, alcohol abuse, compulsive shopping, gambling add...
Aug 01, 2023•27 min
While every therapist has their own methods and systems for working with clients, one of the most harmful things they can say to a client is, “You’re not ready for trauma therapy.” Especially when there’s no explanation or plan for getting the client “ready.” Every client is ready for trauma therapy because, if you’re following along with this series, we’re rebranding the practice itself. The role of therapists is to support clients in identifying their adaptations to trauma and learning or rele...
Jul 29, 2023•33 min
Talking about details of trauma doesn’t feel good for the therapy client, which is why it’s so important that we create a reframe not only around therapy in general, but especially in brain-based modalities like Brainspotting and EMDR in particular. Not convinced that we should stop talking about “trauma therapy”? This week, I’m sharing three truths around why in an effort to convince you of another perspective. Therapists are taught to think and work in black and white, that therapy is done in ...
Jul 26, 2023•24 min
Would you rather watch the episode ? Head over to our YouTube channel and be sure to subscribe. After a hiatus from the podcast, I’m back. I’m listening to my heart and what I truly believe others need so that therapy can positively impact as many people as possible. So I’m here, talking to those who are curious about how to make their therapeutic experience smarter and more customized for them . Everyone should get out of therapy exactly what they need. And that means I’m still talking to thera...
Jul 25, 2023•33 min
In our field, we hear and use the word attachment so often. And, in the community of trauma-informed clinicians, I'd always felt like we had a deep understanding of what this word means. But when I sat down with Dr. Mara Tesler-Stein for the second time on The Zero Disturbance Podcast, we got to unpack the lack of understanding that lies within this concept for our clients... and possibly even for the folks in our clinical communities. A lot of research in the perinatal field suggests that we ju...
Jul 28, 2022•56 min
Supporting families, even under the best circumstances, can be challenging . So what happens when we need to support families when the world is not set up for their kids to succeed... or even survive? I had the opportunity to sit down with author Wendy Jones to discuss what it means to show up not only as a therapist for our young, trans clients but also what it means to show up for their parents. Not unlike any other new or different experience, folks benefit from getting support from those who...
Jul 25, 2022•1 hr 5 min
Anyone else feeling irritated by how clinicians love to tell each other what is right or wrong? Ever notice how scripts often don’t thoroughly address client preferences or the process of client engagement? Where is the role of autonomy for the client? To remedy our irritation, today we zoom out and get curious about how we make clinical choices, and how we engage with our clients about making those clinical choices. For EMDR clinicians, this can be tricky. Questions may already be coming up for...
Jul 19, 2022•34 min
I had the opportunity to sit down with not one but two folks in the trauma-informed therapy and coaching communities. And not only was our conversation aligned around our similar value systems, it was yet another example of how innovative thinking offers clinicians the chance to go beyond the traditional images of what we see as therapy. George Tabb and Noshima Darden-Tabb are a dynamic, married duo who run their own EMDR and Brainspotting private practice and coaching business. They help us und...
Jul 16, 2022•1 hr
Whether we like it or not, the past two years have challenged us to design more innovative ways to run our practices and deliver mental health services. Perhaps you've been curious how EMDRIA has had to roll with the punches, too. I got to sit down with former EMDRIA President, current EMDRIA Board Member, and EMDR Trainer, Carol Miles, to get the inside scoop. Listen as Carol shares insight about EMDRIA's standardization process for virtual trainings since the start of the pandemic, details abo...
Jul 12, 2022•1 hr 5 min
I sat down with the one and only Dr. Jamie Marich and had the opportunity to hear from a clinician whose transparency about their own identity is the very thing that makes them a great trainer, therapist, and overall human being. In our conversation, we talk about how the messaging and training many therapists receive about dissociation creates an unfounded fear and misunderstanding about clients with dissociative minds. Jamie's ability to take a critical look at the therapy community's fears wh...
Jul 05, 2022•50 min
As therapists, we all want to feel that we are helping others and feel secure in our own lives. Especially during a pandemic. As highly trained, trauma-informed therapists, our mission is to guide our clients in developing secure attachment and healthy relationships. Alongside them, we also seek to develop a security in our private practice that provides us with healthy choices in our careers. And how we learn about what gives us security depends on who teaches us what real security means. For m...
Jun 26, 2022•1 hr 15 min
Our series of innovative thinking continues, and today we are honored to be joined by Thomas Zimmerman, EMDR Consultant & Trainer. Thomas helps us think about how we resolve traumatic memories, and introduces us to The Four Blinks Version of Flash. What I loved most about talking with Thomas was how he got me thinking about how we translate EMDR and other trauma-informed therapies so they are accessible to clients and clinicians. Healing trauma is a social justice issue, and we are all a par...
Jun 21, 2022•52 min
I've been offering intensive therapy programs for my EMDR clients for 5 years now and I've learned a lot about about how to design successful intensive models. And I've made it my mission to share my experience so that other clinicians may benefit in their own private practices. And, now, because I've now had the opportunity to support clinicians as they launch their own intensive models, I've been able to learn more about what helps and hinders clinicians when it comes to designing their intens...
May 30, 2022•31 min
Today, we’re talking money. And, believe me, I know that this is a hard thing for many therapists to talk about. I’ve had to work through my own stuff with this, coached many consultees, and now, I'm here to offer you some insight on the frameworks that we traditionally use to determine our rates and what we can try to do instead. Listen as I dive into the notion that the information we’re using to generate our rates is, in most cases, distorted and riddled in generational trauma passed down by ...
May 13, 2022•25 min
When we hear the word imagination, a variety of things may come to mind. Maybe it’s two kids playing a pretend game or maybe it's a fantasy television show or maybe it’s even a comic book with some creative characters. What we don’t typically think about is EMDR therapy. In fact, when we think about imagination and EMDR, our training might even tell us that what we’re looking at is dissociation. That's why today, I want to open up a conversation about the relationship that we, as clinicians, hav...
May 07, 2022•28 min
Y’all know that I believe EMDR is magic. And I think, among the many reasons, the magic of EMDR lies within its structure. It can feel safe to hear and repeat the message of “stick to the script and trust the process.” And while the message has a positive intention, it's just not good enough. In fact, it's basic. And EMDR is too sophisticated to be basic. At first we see the benefit of this message with our peers in basic training exercises and single-incident trauma clients in our practices; it...
Apr 26, 2022•28 min
