Your recovery is very inspiring. I would add relationships to the above list because any intimate partner will be signing on to making the journey of recovery with us. A wise and compassionate partner will be able to separate themselves from another’s PTSD response, sometimes pretty difficult to do. Self-compassion about my expectations for recovery…

Reflections on Our Experience

For our final blog post, our group decided to each write a few sentences describing what this experience has meant to us and some of our takeaways.

Gretchen

Final Post

In coming to the conclusion of our reading group, we found ourselves talking about liminal space and connection and how that relates to trauma. From what we have learned, Anabaptists have a differing view from many individual, church and cultural views of what it means to live in a middle or liminal space as…

How well I understand the triggers from childhood trauma. My story is very different than yours, but the visceral reactions are the same.

It is good that we are exorcising our demons through writing. Spilling our guts on paper and liberating our souls in the process.

Because I was forced to be silent so long — I struggle to understand that I have a voice.
Because I was forced to be silent so long — I learned to say things mostly to be heard, not to say anything.
Because I was forced to be silent so long — I get stressed when people ignore, forget or get distracted from what I was saying.
Because I was forced to…

Our Theology and the Healing of Trauma

I went away on a retreat with my church the weekend before my big theology paper was due. I found a corner of our rented house that looked out over the Puget Sound, and somehow, in spite of the distractions around me, the spotty internet connection, and the…

The “Ongoingness” of Death: Middle Spirit and Trauma

This week our group discussed chapter 4 of Shelly Rambo’s Spirit and Trauma, titled, “Middle Spirit” in addition to a chapter from Bessel Van Der Kolk’s The Body Keeps the Score on how trauma and the memory of trauma is stored in the body…

When the Ultrasound Technician Goes Silent

Part 1 in a series of posts about the traumatic delivery of my fourth (and final) daughter and how I found my way back to life