Articles

	"When I read this, I just wanted to knock on your door, crawl up on your massage table and invite you to do your best to heal me. I haven't even looked at the rest of your site yet, but you've really created a sense of safety and comfort and nurturing. "
	Donna Smith

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Each article explores a different aspect of healing from trauma, including try-it-now tools to help you connect with your self and your feelings with gentleness and acceptance.

These articles are part of Wellspring of Compassion: Self-Care for Sensitive People Healing from Trauma, available at WellspringofCompassion.com, Powell's Books, or Amazon.

Find Support

• Deepen Your Roots, Stretch Your Branches
  Grow into a shape defined by your history and desires, like a tree becoming more intricately itself every year.
• First-Aid for Desperate Moments
  These phrases provide first-aid assistance when you need to feel better right now.
• Disclosing Pain, Finding Support
  Describe the support you want, and increase the odds of receiving it.
• How to Find a Bodywork Practitioner (and Nourish Your Boundaries)
  Finding providers of caring touch and coming to trust them can be a journey in itself.
• 100 Percent On Your Own Side
  Your Inner Nurturer knows you're doing it right.
• Adding Peace to Your Life
  How to make peace a priority now, in the midst of struggle.
• Kuan Yin, Goddess of Compassion
  My healing practice is dedicated to Kuan Yin. All those who have suffered trauma need compassion both from within and from others.

Celebrate Your Survival Tools

• The Gift of Resistance
  Resistance carries the gift of information from our deeper selves.
• Calming Your Inner Critic
  You may have already noticed that arguing with your Inner Critic only leads to louder criticism, possibly about how self-critical you are.
• Behind the Curtain of Obsessive Thoughts
  A process to quiet those painful repeating trains of thought and seeing what's behind them.
• How Denial Helps You Heal
  The positive aspects of denial, and a writing exercise to reduce some of its frustrations.
• Gaining Awareness of Dissociation
  We all dissociate or lose contact with our bodies at times. How to notice and what to do about it.
• Addiction as Emotion Management
  As you learn new techniques to manage your emotions, you will no longer need to avoid emotional and physical pain through addiction.

Connect with Your Self

• Sensitivities: Your Self-Care Guide
  Sensitivities can be a valuable guide for moving toward your ideal environment.
• Invite Your Longing to Tea
  What can you learn from sitting with your longing rather than immediately fulfilling or suppressing it?
• Needs Amnesty Day
  Tired of figuring out which needs are allowed? Try declaring a Needs Amnesty Day and welcoming them all.
• Meditation: Safe Space for Noticing
  Meditation is simpler and more welcoming than you might think.
• Befriend Your Pain
  To reduce suffering, relate to pain as a friend bearing a message rather than an enemy to be feared.
• Many Voices, All Valid
  Greet all parts of yourself with compassion to feel the validation you seek.
• Decision-Free Zone
  Create a safe time and place to listen for what is true for you with a clear boundary that action is off the table.

Recognize Abuse

• Demand Respect, Not Victim-Blaming
  You are already enough. No one deserves abuse for any reason.
• Step Away from Double Binds
  How to identify and effectively respond to contradictory demands.
• "Trust Me!" and Other Red Flags
  When you pay attention to red flags, you claim your power to choose, help your self-trust heal, and make room in your life for people who treat you with respect.
• Receiving Emotional Abuse is Not Your Fault
  Emotional abuse can be as obvious as name-calling and raging, or it can be so subtle you spend days wondering why you feel so bad.
• Grieving Neglectful Mothering
  Many clients have brought in their pain over neglectful or abusive mothering. May you have many reparative experiences!
• Spiritual Abuse: Take Back Your Faith
  To heal from spiritual abuse, look inside for what you know for sure.

Understand PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder)

• The Ups and Downs of Healing from Trauma
  What to expect during the process of healing from trauma and some tips to get through the hard parts.
• Flashbacks: Experiencing Distress in Safety
  Flashbacks help you integrate traumatic memories. Learn how to recognize and respond to them as part of your healing.
• Remember at Your Own Pace
  Trauma is overwhelming, but healing doesn't have to be.
• Anxiety: Your Relaxation Coach
  Interrupt anxiety with acceptance and understand its role in your body.
• Frozen! Thaw from Surrender
  When you give yourself full permission to feel helpless and frozen, it paradoxically creates space for healing and effective action.
• Accepting Suicidal Feelings
  Links between trauma and suicidal feelings and some practical suggestions for yourself or someone who confides in you.

Heal Your Boundaries

• Say Yes to Your Boundaries
  Boundaries are already part of us, a flexible container for our sensations, emotions, and preferences, separating "me" from "not-me".
• Who Owns That Anger?
  While anger can do damage when held in or unleashed on another, it can also lead to clarity and strength when handled with care.
• Inner Child Lost -n- Found
  If you often find yourself saying "I've tried everything!" or "Don't leave me!" or "See me!", visit the Inner Child Lost -n- Found for relief.
• Just-Right Visibility
  Explore your skills at both hiding and shining.
• Claim Your Space, Breathe into Your Back
  Shallow chest breathing takes up as little space as possible. Deeper belly breathing pushes out into the world. Back breathing claims the space that is already yours.
• Haunted by Shame? Change Your Committee!
  Imagine living your life with a fully supportive, encouraging, and approving internal committee.

Learn to Thrive

• The Joy of Maintenance
  Enjoy maintenance tasks as affirmations of presence.
• Choose Your Traditions
  Notice your expectations and desires around the winter holidays.
• Compassion for the Drama Triangle
  The Drama Triangle model, applied with compassion, can help you change recurring conflicts.
• Not Again! Taming Your Fiercest Patterns
  When your recurring pattern has you in its claws, hold still and move in.
• Create: Walk into Fog
  When you create, you are making your way across an unknown foggy landscape one decision at a time.
• Allow Self-Forgiveness
  Self-forgiveness is giving up all hope of being a different person.

2012 articles

• Decision-Free Zone

2011 articles

• First-Aid for Desperate Moments
• Allow Self-Forgiveness
  
• Spiritual Abuse: Take Back Your Faith
• Addiction as Emotion Management
• Frozen! Thaw from Surrender
• Many Voices, All Valid
• Create: Walk into Fog
• Deepen Your Roots, Stretch Your Branches
• "Trust Me!" and Other Red Flags
• Step Away from Double Binds
• Remember at Your Own Pace
• 100 Percent On Your Own Side

2010 articles

• Demand Respect, Not Victim-Blaming
• Claim Your Space, Breathe into Your Back
• Just-Right Visibility
• Anxiety: Your Relaxation Coach
• The Joy of Maintenance
• Not Again! Taming Your Fiercest Patterns
• Say Yes to Your Boundaries
• Befriend Your Pain
• How to Find a Bodywork Practitioner (and Nourish Your Boundaries)
• Meditation: Safe Space for Noticing
• Needs Amnesty Day
• Flashbacks: Experiencing Distress in Safety
• Inner Child Lost -n- Found

2009 articles

• Compassion for the Drama Triangle
• Grieving Neglectful Mothering
• Haunted by Shame? Change Your Committee!
• Invite Your Longing to Tea
• Who Owns That Anger?
• Gaining Awareness of Dissociation
• Sensitivities: Your Self-Care Guide
• Behind the Curtain of Obsessive Thoughts
• How Denial Helps You Heal
• The Ups and Downs of Healing from Trauma
• Accepting Suicidal Feelings
• Disclosing Pain, Finding Support

2008 articles

• Calming Your Inner Critic
• Choose Your Traditions
• The Gift of Resistance
• Receiving Emotional Abuse is Not Your Fault

2007 articles

• Adding Peace to Your Life
• Kuan Yin, Goddess of Compassion