Physical awareness can lead to emotional clarity.
The body signals emotional truths through pain, tension, and discomfort.
Emotions live in the body, not just the mind—your symptoms may carry meaning.
Listening to your body can support emotional and physical healing.
Your true self isn’t lost—it’s waiting beneath stress and survival habits.
Losing touch with our feelings means losing ourselves.
Disconnection starts when you hide who you are to meet the expectations of others or avoid rejection.
Emotions guide you back to authenticity, helping realign your life with what truly matters to you.
Emotional suppression creates protective layers that distance you from your true self and desires.
Trauma is less about the event itself and more about how the body and mind respond to it.
PTSD develops when trauma-related symptoms persist for more than a month and significantly disrupt daily life.
Helping the nervous system recognize that physical danger has passed is essential for recovery.
Divisions in relationships grow due to differing views, but dialogue fosters understanding and connection.
Finding common ground helps promote empathy, while isolation deepens emotional distance and division.
Embracing common ground triggers empathy and cooperation through tend and befriend.
It is a myth that only sexual-abuse survivors suffer from intimacy issues. In fact, sexual-abuse survivors may not exhibit any physical intimacy issues. However, in this case intimacy issues are not uncommon because when we experience a traumatic event of any type, our body goes into physiological “survival mode”—a response that, if not completed and returned to a normal regulation of the nervous system, can lead to emotional and physical intimacy issues.
Read MoreIn my last post I talked about a client who I recently worked with to access her anger reaction in the moment through Somatic Experiencing. She had been hanging onto her anger over a conversation with a friend. Instead of confronting the friend in the moment, she struggled to suppress her reaction and then, later on, to forgive her friend.
Read MoreJust as Laura Davis describes in her book I Thought We'd Never Speak Again: The Road from Estrangement to Reconciliation, I have seen positive outcomes when working with adult children of abusers who have been able to regain closeness with their previously abusive relatives.
Read MoreMany of us have an ”inner child” or an “inner younger part” who has not been heard, seen, or treated in a healthy nurturing way. As a result, whether it is an inner child, adolescent, or younger adult, feelings of being ignored, abandoned, or not loved may be retained. The memories of these unresolved feelings are carried into our adult life and often become buried in the subconscious.
Read MoreIn an earlier article, I talked about child neglect (known as an "act of omission".) On the other end of the spectrum of child abuse is physical abuse, an act of commission.
Read MoreThis article depicts the interview and story of Dianna, who grew up in the Middle East and escaped her emotionally and verbally abusive father when she was a young adult by emigrating to the United States. Because her father never acknowledged her pain, and most of her relatives never believed such abuse was possible from her father…
Read More"Why are some people afraid to succeed but not to fail? Why are some more afraid of failure? How can one learn to embrace these two fears? What is the difference between them?" A young Canadian woman wrote to me recently with these inquiries. I thought they were excellent questions, and decided to share my thoughts and findings here.
Read MoreMerriam Webster dictionary defines trust as the "assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something" and "one in which confidence is placed."
But unfortunately, trust can be broken in many ways. We may have been betrayed, mistreated, lied to or hurt by someone such as a partner, family, friend or colleague.
Read MoreWhy is everyone looking the other way while a woman is harassed on the bus, a child is abused by a parent in the parking lot of a grocery store, or a stranger on the street is being attacked? Why isn’t anyone doing or saying anything? We all know that there are true heroes among us who will risk their own lives to help others. But what makes one person a bystander and another a hero?
Read MoreStephanie met a man for their first date together, and it went very well. They talked for three hours, exchanged eye contact, laughed together, and had great chemistry. At the end of the evening, they agreed, “This was fun! Let’s meet again!”
Read MoreIt was 11:05 a.m., and my new client, Margaret, was five minutes late for her first therapy appointment. Just as I was about to call to check in with her, I could hear her footsteps coming up the stairs. Her facial expression showed disorientation. In an irritated tone, she explained that she had gone up and down the street looking in vain for my office, because there was no sign with my name on it.
Read MoreAfter I posted my last article about childhood sexual abuse for the Psychology Today blog, many of my readers e-mailed me various questions. Rebecca (not her real name) was a reader who was confused about her experience and trying to put the puzzle pieces together. She asked the following:
Read More“Within a very short time, we received 900 phone calls after Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines on November 8,” Marianna Thomas, head of food and shelter for the American Red Cross in San Francisco, told me.
Read MoreCategorization of emotions into positive and negative—that is, seeing them as black and white—may not benefit us. Perhaps we can see emotions of all kinds as human experiences that give us information about ourselves. Emotions can also be a motivator for our actions and a precursor to reactions.
Read MoreThere are various types of traumatic events that can lead to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Sexual abuse is a particularly sinister type of trauma because of the shame it instills in the victim. With childhood sexual abuse, victims are often too young to know how to express what is happening and seek out help. When not properly treated, this can result in a lifetime of PTSD, depression and anxiety.
Read MoreIncest is a type of sexual abuse that can (but does not always) include sexual intercourse, sexually inappropriate acts, or the abuse of power based on sexual activity between blood relatives. The important thing to remember is that incest is a form of sexual abuse.
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