emotional trauma Archives

The Nature of Traumatic Memory: Why Our Memories Terrifying Events are Spotty

As a psychologist who works with trauma, I am very much aware of how difficult it can be to recall details of a traumatic experience. Even the question, “can you tell me about your trauma?” can be befuddling, if not somewhat disturbing, to one who has experienced it... Read More

Understanding and Coping with Grief and Loss

Grief and loss are unavoidable. They are a natural part of the human condition. No one can escape experiencing several forms of loss throughout their lives. However, in the American culture, many people attempt to avoid the feelings associated with grief and loss by denying the impact it can… Read More

Grieving Friends and Loved Ones on Social Media

By Lucy Wyndham Social media has become a place for mourning. As people search for ways to reach out for solace, websites such as Facebook have become a platform to express grief and bereavement through the creation of Memorial Groups. Now, it has become easier than ever to mourn a departed friend or family member with a click of a mouse. Instead of sending flowers, we offer condolences and comfort to grieving friends who live far away with a simple post on your friend or the deceased person’s profile. However, while we mean well, there are things that we should remember while mourning someone on social media or connecting with our grieving friends online. Read More

The Long-Term Impact of Deep Stress on Children

Everyone understands stress. We work too hard, play too hard, and get little to no sleep. We’ve got too many balls in the air and ignore self-care, resulting in deep stress. As a result, everything suffers—our mood, health, and work. Minor problems feel more significant, and our reactions to anything… Read More

How Is Your Inner Child Today?

By Nancy Minister, Therapist, Rio Retreat Center at The Meadows If you’ve ever done work at The Meadows — either in an inpatient program or our Survivors I Workshop — you’ve likely had some experience getting in touch with your inner child. So, how is that young part… Read More

From Learned Helplessness to Learned Optimism

Tian Dayton, Ph.D., TEPTrauma can leave us feeling helpless in the face of our own lives, our own days, our own relationships. “Learned helplessness,” a term coined by psychologist Martin E.P. Seligman, describes an aspect of trauma akin to giving up. We learn the negative lesson that no matter what we do, we cannot seem to make a difference in the lives of those we love and we can generalize that feeling to other areas of our lives as well. But Seligman who studied this phenomenon began to ask the question, ‘if we can learn how to be helpless then why can’t we also learn how to be optimistic?’ Read More

Frozen Tears: Processing Hidden Losses

Grief is normal, and it is a direct result of attachment and love. There is really no one-size-fits-all approach to grief. Still, normal grief tends to follow a pattern, whereas complicated or what psychologists refer to as disenfranchised losses can go underground and truthfully never get processed at all. This is when grief becomes what is referred to as complicated and can block our enjoyment of life and even undermine our ability to be intimate. Read More

Neurofeedback and The Sacred Path To Emotional Regulation

By Deirdre Stewart, MSC, LAC Director of Trauma Resolution Services for Meadows Behavioral Healthcare Bessel van der Kolk, world-renowned trauma researcher and Senior Fellow of The Meadows, recently published his Randomized Controlled Study of Neurofeedback for those suffering chronic symptoms of developmental trauma. He showed a 40… Read More

Why We Grieve and the Importance of Mourning Loss

By Tian Dayton, Ph.D. Senior Fellow at The Meadows Grief is a life issue that strikes at the very heart of being human, while we live in a body, pair bond, and procreate we will love and we will lose. The effect of loss can be shocking and dis-equilibrating and… Read More