PMR: What is that? Progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) is used to reduce anxiety. The technique was introduced by the American doctor Edmund Jacobson in the 1930s. This technique alternates tension and relaxation of all the body’s important muscle groups. In this way, PMR gradually achieves a state of relaxation. With increasing practice, more and more […]
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Aeon features this story about a son honouring where his father’s turbulent life has taken them both. From violent criminal to loving parent, this video chronicles the father’s turbulent life and how he found a path to love through helping others, art and fatherhood. In Violator, the Los Angeles-based filmmaker Edward Robles chronicles the turbulent life
Instructions for the Safe Space Exercise Safe Place: the basic idea is simple. When you are stressed or anxious, go to an inner Safe Space in your mind. This exercise allows you to withdraw from a problematic situation long enough to calm down. However, this is easier said than done. You can develop this imagination
The Four Fs: Fight, flight, freeze and fawn As we learn more complex reactions to others during childhood and adolescence, and as children, we have no way of understanding abuse of any kind, it is no surprise that infants and children show trauma reactions which we share with our animal ancestors: the Four Fs. With animals, a
Childhood trauma – the Four Fs, reactions of helpless children Read More »
The REST strategy After having identified self-destructive and problematic behaviours — as well as their costs — there are needed distress tolerance strategies, the first of which is described there: the REST strategy. REST stands for:Relax,Evaluate,Situational intent, andTake action. Changing any habit is difficult. It requires knowledge about the action to be changed, a resolve
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The Self-defeating Coping Strategies Worksheet helps you to see the cost of unsuitable, though understandable, coping strategies. When emotional and physical pain feels more intense and occurs more frequently than it does for other people, the ensuing distress comes on more quickly and feels like an overwhelming tidal wave, and it never seems to end.
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ACE test on childhood trauma “ACE” in ACE Test stands for Adverse Childhood Experiences. This was the name of a study to assess childhood trauma among more than 17,000 adults in the USA. The study clearly showed the connection between childhood trauma and the mental and physical health of those affected in later life. A
Thought-Stopping: stop your inner critic in his tracks A constant stream of thoughts, worries, perceptions, and information rushes through our minds like “internal noise.” Occasionally, we must interrupt this noise flow, particularly if it turns into vicious attacks from a toxic inner critic. A technique called thought-stopping can interrupt any chain of unwanted, nagging thoughts.
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In 2008, the American Psychological Association published “The Road to Resilience” to help people deal with difficult events that change their lives. The death of a loved one, loss of a job, serious illness, terrorist attacks, and other traumatic events are very challenging life experiences. Many people react to such circumstances with a flood of
Unfortunately, suffering through childhood trauma can have many faces. All faces of childhood trauma are equally ugly, as they hit vulnerable human beings when they cannot cope with poor parenting. Yet, not all of these faces are easily recognizable to trauma survivors and the environment. There are four forms of childhood trauma: physical (including sexual),
