When Violent Crime Lives On in the Mind: The Psychology of Trauma and CICA Claims

When Violent Crime Lives On in the Mind: The Psychology of Trauma and CICA Claims One of the cruellest things about psychological trauma is that it can be both life-altering and invisible. A person may survive a violent assault, sexual violence, abuse, or another terrifying event, and yet find that the real aftermath begins later: in the body that will...[ read more ]

What Is Dissociation? Dissociation is one of those psychological terms many people have heard, but far fewer have had properly explained. It is often spoken about as though it were rare or dramatic, when in fact it is a deeply human response to overwhelm. Many people experience dissociation in the context of trauma, chronic stress, emotional shock, or nervous system...[ read more ]

The History of C-PTSD: From Clinical Insight to Formal Diagnosis Complex post-traumatic stress disorder, or C-PTSD, is now a term many people recognise. But its path into mainstream clinical language was long, contested, and surprisingly recent. For many survivors of prolonged trauma, especially trauma rooted in childhood, coercive control, captivity, repeated abuse, or chronic relational danger, the older language of...[ read more ]

Shadow Work in Therapy: The Parts of the Self We Were Not Allowed to Become There are aspects of the self most of us learn, quite early, to present with some polish. The competent part. The thoughtful part. The articulate part. The part that knows how to be acceptable, how to remain composed, how to read the room and adapt....[ read more ]

Reading List: Jung, Kierkegaard, and Winnicott These are some of the writers and texts that have most shaped the way I think about psychotherapy, emotional life, love, selfhood, and the work of becoming more real. I have chosen books and essays that I find especially helpful in therapeutic work, whether one is a clinician, a student, or simply a thoughtful...[ read more ]

Why Therapy Is So Often About Love People do not need to arrive in therapy talking explicitly about love for love to be at the centre of the work. In fact, it is often there most powerfully when it is not named. A person may speak about exhaustion, indecision, resentment, shame, grief, or chronic overthinking. Another may describe conflict in...[ read more ]

Love Is Not Just a Feeling but a Capacity Love is often discussed in contemporary culture in curiously flattened terms. It is treated either as an emotion to be followed, a chemistry to be preserved, or a personal right to be claimed. What is less often said is that love is also a capacity, and not an evenly distributed one....[ read more ]

What Happens in a PTSD or C-PTSD Assessment? People often come for a PTSD or C-PTSD assessment at a point of real uncertainty. They may know that something is wrong, but not be sure exactly what. They may wonder whether what they are experiencing is trauma, anxiety, depression, ADHD, emotional dysregulation, burnout, or some painful mixture of these. They may...[ read more ]

EMDR for Sexual Abuse: Is 6 Sessions Enough? For many survivors of sexual abuse, the effects of trauma do not remain neatly in the past. They may persist in the body, in relationships, in sleep, in sexuality, in trust, and in the nervous system’s sense of danger. A person may know intellectually that the abuse is over, yet still feel...[ read more ]

EMDR for Sexual Abuse: Can It Help? For many survivors of sexual abuse, the effects of trauma do not remain neatly in the past. They may persist in the body, in relationships, in sleep, in sexuality, in trust, and in the nervous system’s sense of danger. A person may know intellectually that the abuse is over, yet still feel flooded,...[ read more ]