The attempt to describe dissociative parts of the personality most accurately led to the incorporation of the concept of action systems into the theory. Action systems are considered the most basic subsystems of our human behavior. Actions toward the survival of the species, energy management, attachment, caretaking and social interaction, exploration, play, reproduction and […]
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The Problem with the Definition of Dissociation
The world of science has a bit of a problem when it comes to the word ‘dissociation’. The definition isn’t clear anymore. Different categories of experiences all get labeled as ‘dissociation’ without adding a hint about what kind of dissociation is referred to. This very blog is guilty of it too. There is no […]
The Art of Looking Around
One of the most important tools we can learn in trauma recovery and self-regulation is how to look around. It sounds too simple to be true, but I promise, it can make a huge difference. Here is how to look around Sit down so you are facing the room or your environment. Maybe keep […]
EFT for self-regulation
EFT stands for Emotional Freedom Technique and belongs into the category of Energy Psychology, the roots are in Traditional Chinese Medicine though. Different acupressure points on the body are tapped with the fingers while speaking sentences that combine the distressing experience and a self-affirmation. Tapping energetic pathways running through the body (meridians) to influence […]
Learning relaxation with biofeedback
Trauma is not a ‘mental’ disorder, the whole body suffers from chronic stress. It sits deeply within our nervous system. Our traumatized body will struggle with relaxation and sometimes we have been tense for so many years that we actually don’t know how to relax and what that even feels like. Biofeedback technology can help […]
Reenacting trauma patterns in therapy: behavioral control
Trauma is often treated with a combination of behavioral therapy and more specific techniques to process the trauma. There are areas where CBT or other therapies that focus on behavior like DBT can interact with our own trauma-related patterns and reinforce abusive lessons we learned as children. These aren’t always obvious reenactments and our Ts […]
Changing trauma-related thoughts and beliefs
Part of trauma therapy is to address unhelpful thoughts and beliefs. They keep us stuck in painful emotions or disrupt our relationships with ourselves or others. What we believe shows in how we live and what choices we make. Often there cannot be change unless we change the way we think. Standard approach In […]
Releasing traumatic energy (body work)
A basic exercise in body work focuses on releasing tension or energy that is stuck in the body so that we can let go and regulate in a natural way. I will walk you through the steps as I learned them, using an example from my own therapy that is hopefully not triggering for you. […]
Elements of Integration 4: Presentification
Presentification is an integrative mental action where we connect our experiences with their specific time in our life. There is a realisation, that the past is past, that we are currently in the Now and that there is a future ahead of us. Life events can get sorted into their place on a timeline and […]
Elements of Integration 3: Personification
Personification is a specific form of realization. In this mental action we connect our experiences with our first person perspective. It means we introduce the concepts of ‘I’, ‘me’, ‘mine’ and ‘myself’ to experiences of the past, present and expected future. I experienced painful things. They happened to me. My family treats me that way. […]
Elements of Integration 2: Realization
Realization is an integrative mental action that needs more and a slightly different kind of energy than synthesis. We take our traumatic and dissociated experience out of the fog of ‘not knowing’ or only ‘kind of knowing’ and enter a felt sense of its reality. It means knowing with our knower that bad things happened […]
Elements of Integration 1: Synthesis
Ideas people have about integration are often vague. Some of these ideas are romantic, others scary but usually they include imagery that doesn’t tell us how integration is supposed to work and ends up being inaccurate. That is why we will look into the basic elements of integration and explain the meaning of synthesis, realization, […]
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