Category: mental health
Posted on June 1, 2019
by MJ
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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
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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 March 6, 2019
by MJ
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I think I’ve tried to write a blog post six or seven times in six or seven weeks and failed each time. If you knew my writing process, then you would know that is not me. I have never had a problem writing anything. … Continue Reading “Resiliency and Vulnerability”
Category: domestic abuse, domestic violence, encouragement, human trafficking, mental health, Moving Forward, personal development, Recovery, self-advocacy, trauma, Women's IssuesTags: domestic abuse, healing process, personal development, practicing vulnerability, resiliency, Resiliency Spectrum, trauma
Posted on January 23, 2019
by MJ
6 Comments
I can usually write a blog post in an hour or two but not this time. For some reason I could not put this post together no matter how hard I tried. I sat down in December to write a post on personal inertia. … Continue Reading “An Introduction to Personal Inertia and Taking Action”
Category: anxiety, encouragement, Healing, mental health, Moving Forward, personal developmentTags: cognitive distortions, daring to desire, embracing change, fear of change, overcoming inertia, personal development, taking action
Posted on December 2, 2018
by MJ
3 Comments
The Iceman hath indeed cometh to my neighborhood. I woke up in the wee hours of the morning to the sound of snowplows clearing snow and scraping concrete. I had grand plans to “get shit done” yesterday until my car got stuck in the… Continue Reading “Stopping the Holiday Madness”
Category: Borderline Personality Disorder, encouragement, happiness, mental health, Moving Forward, personal development, self-advocacyTags: borderline mothers, cortisol and the immune system, health and stress, holiday stress, personal development, recreating the holidays, Thanksgiving dinner
Posted on September 25, 2018
by MJ
3 Comments
I used to write a lot about trauma and the nature of it largely because I was in the middle of dealing with it. For me, I would try to get outside of my own traumas and inspect them as if I were looking… Continue Reading “Nine Things I’ve Learned”
Category: domestic abuse, domestic violence, encouragement, happiness, mental health, Moving Forward, personal development, PTSD, therapy, traits in victims, traumaTags: creating happiness, developing grit, getting triggered, healing from PTSD, love after divorce, personal development, resiliency, sense of foreshortened future, therapeutic process, trauma recovery
Posted on September 2, 2018
by MJ
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Happy September, everyone! I am ending a three-week break from school. The girls and I headed West to San Francisco for 12 days of doing whatever we wanted which pretty much meant drinking too much boba, hitting up stores that are not in the… Continue Reading “Playing Scrabble with Life”
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
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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 December 7, 2017
by MJ
6 Comments
Jack the New Therapist aka the FNG will be no longer. It has become a failed collaboration. That is what my reasonable self says. My snarky self is pointing at this: Jack has one of the worst Resting Bored Faces I’ve come across. There are… Continue Reading “A Timely Ending”
Category: divorce, domestic abuse, emotional abuse, encouragement, Healing, human trafficking, mental health, personal development, PTSD, therapy, traumaTags: cognitive dissonance, domestic abuse, EMDR, healing from PTSD, healing from trauma, myth of arrival, Recovery, Resting Bored Face, therapy, when a therapist isn't effective
Out of the Mire 