Category: Complex PTSD
Posted on June 1, 2019
by MJ
4 Comments
I don’t think I’ve ever gone this long without posting. For what it’s worth, I’m almost ready to move from the Twin Cities to the Bay Area. This has been a daunting task requiring maximum effort. So much good has come from the endless… Continue Reading “Expanding Your Life: Unearthing Negative Core Beliefs”
Category: Complex PTSD, Healing, human trafficking, mental health, Moving Forward, personal development, PTSD, sex trade, traumaTags: an intentional life, Complex PTSD, healing process, human trafficking, narrative approach, negative core beliefs, personal development, torture and human trafficking, trauma
Posted on April 11, 2019
by MJ
Leave a Comment
I have been winding down my life in the cold North in preparation to pack it up and move it to the Bay Area. Adieu, snow and cold. Hello, Karl! This is Karl: Karl the Fog has his own Twitter (@KarltheFog) and Instagram (karlthefog)… Continue Reading “Challenging the Ex Factor”
Category: co-dependency, Complex PTSD, DBT, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, divorce, domestic abuse, domestic violence, Healing, mental health, personal development, self-advocacy, traumaTags: domestic abuse, healing after divorce, healing from PTSD, intrusive thoughts, personal development, Recovery, self-compassion, wise mind
Posted on July 14, 2018
by MJ
2 Comments
I have devoted a lot of space on this blog to writing about PTSD, C+PTSD, and healing from trauma. I’ve been honest about my own journey towards wholeness. What I share here is an attempt to elucidate the emotional experience behind C+PTSD in specific… Continue Reading “Generalized Anxiety vs. PTSD Anxiety”
Category: abuse in families, anxiety, Complex PTSD, domestic abuse, emotional abuse, Healing, human trafficking, mental health, PTSD, traits in victims, traumaTags: anxiety related to trauma, Complex PTSD, generalized anxiety, healing from PTSD, hypervigilance, mindfulness and trauma, PTSD, trauma, trauma recovery
Posted on December 22, 2017
by MJ
Leave a Comment
I want to talk about negative core beliefs and dissonance–and perhaps a way to challenge them effectively. Bear with me as I get there. I have written a lot about my last two years in therapy with a neuroscientist. I didn’t know initially that… Continue Reading “Pushing Back against Malignant Core Beliefs”
Category: Complex PTSD, coping strategies, mental health, personal development, PTSD, Recovery, therapy, traits in victims, traumaTags: biologically based trauma, challenging core beliefs, cognitive dissonance, healing from PTSD, maladaptively processed memories, malignant core beliefs, target behaviors, therapy
Posted on November 25, 2017
by MJ
2 Comments
For my non-American readers, Thursday was Thanksgiving here in the States. It is a big deal. It marks the beginning of The Holidays–a season of high stress, joy, high consumerism on display, dread, meaningful religious observations, turmoil, GERD, Mariah Carey on loop, and so… Continue Reading “Easing into The Season”
Category: anxiety, Complex PTSD, domestic violence, encouragement, Healing, mental health, panic attacks, personal development, traumaTags: anxiety disorders, coping with anxiety, domestic abuse, enjoying holiday season, healing after divorce, panic attacks, PNS, SNS, stress during holidays, Thanksgiving
Posted on November 11, 2017
by MJ
7 Comments
I have recently been reading a lot of material on the endocrine system and neurology. Why? Anatomy and Physiology II. Brain, brain, brain, brain. What I’ve learned, aside from more than I ever expected to know about hormones, is that distress of all kinds… Continue Reading “The Neuroscience behind Feeling Stuck”
Category: Complex PTSD, coping strategies, Healing, mental health, Moving Forward, personal development, Recovery, traits in victims, traumaTags: catastrophizing, habenula, healing, healing from PTSD, learned helplessness, neuroscience, outlier events, Storytelling Brain, Time Perspective Therapy, trauma, What if
Posted on September 17, 2017
by MJ
6 Comments
I walked into my therapist’s office in March 2015 with a mind to figure out what was wrong with my marriage and, thereby, me. I told him that I knew something was happening to me that was probably not good, but, seeing that I… Continue Reading “How to Grow Up Again”
Category: Complex PTSD, Healing, mental health, therapyTags: emotional education, growing up again, healing, personal homework, recovery of hope, therapeutic process, therapy, therapy homework
Posted on September 3, 2017
by MJ
2 Comments
I don’t know about you, but I don’t like people knowing about my deeper, darker trauma history. I don’t like people knowing that I ultimately ended my marriage because of domestic violence. It goes without saying that I don’t like people knowing that I… Continue Reading “Claude and Me”
Category: Complex PTSD, Healing, human trafficking, mental health, Moving Forward, PTSD, self-advocacy, traits in victims, traumaTags: common experience, fear of alligators, healing process, human trafficking and PTSD, PTSD, Recovery, self-advocacy, torture and human trafficking
Posted on June 3, 2017
by MJ
2 Comments
I wanted to write something germane to your life and process. Something that might speak to you. To anyone. To everyone. Perhaps this might. I go to therapy every Tuesday. I like to think that I’m ‘getting it done’ whatever ‘it’ is, but, as… Continue Reading “The Essence of Healing”
Category: anxiety, Complex PTSD, domestic violence, encouragement, Healing, human trafficking, mental health, personal development, PTSD, therapy, traumaTags: anxiety, Complex PTSD, fear of annihilation, healing after divorce, healing process, Recovery, therapeutic process
Posted on November 29, 2016
by MJ
17 Comments
This idea came to mind yesterday as I was beginning to dread my next EMDR session. EMDR itself is fine. It’s the time in between sessions that I truly dislike. My brain has gone into hyperdrive, and traumatic memory after traumatic memory is pouring… Continue Reading “The Power of What If”
Category: Complex PTSD, encouragement, Healing, Moving Forward, personal development, therapy, traumaTags: cognitive distortions, EMDR, fear of abandonment, negative self-talk, positive self-talk, self-reliance, self-talk, sense of foreshortened future
Out of the Mire 