Kate’s Couch Session Two: Are You a Queen?
In the midst of a PTSD episode, we often feel abject powerlessness. Everyone seems to have control of our destiny but us. How do we effectively ask for help. . […]
Tag Archives: Depression
Kate’s Couch Session One: Midsummer’s Eve
My first session with Kate was appropriately on Midsummer’s Eve: the day of women’s empowerment. I knew instantly that I was in the right place when she said her role […]
Journey to Joy (Day 6): Sexual Harassment Broke My Wild Filly Spirit
Why do men do it? Power and control. Entitlement too. Misogyny. Incest. Rape. Sexual molestation. Child abuse. Violence against women. Domestic violence. Sexual harassment. The criminal acts of male people with an […]
Journey to Joy (Day 5): Breaking Down My Own Walls of Silence
Isn’t this dancing girl precious? When we see photos like this, we assume that all little girls are loved and cherished. We assume her parents perceive her to be a […]
Journey to Joy (Day 3): What Do You Really, Really, Really Want?
The first and most important step toward empowerment and joy is to clearly articulate where we want to go. We need a destination, or we’ll end up adrift with our […]
Journey to Joy (Day 2): Smile with Your Liver
Smile with your liver? Crazy. Yet, this was Elizabeth Gilbert’s first lesson in Balinese meditation. She shared her guru’s advice to “sit in silence and smile” in Eat, Pray, Love: One […]
Journey to Joy: Mastering the Art of Controlling My Destiny
Julia Powell went on a one-year quest to master the art of French Cooking. She shared her adventures on her blog. It became a book and a movie, Julie & […]
Kate’s Couch: Sharing My Complex-PTSD Therapy Sessions
Therapy for Complex PTSD (multiple traumatic events) is more shot-in-the-dark than science. Mental health professionals don’t have viable treatment protocols for PTSD (one traumatic event), and most are totally clueless about treating Complex PTSD. Sadly, too many still think, for example, that EMDR is effective. It isn’t.
Alice Miller: Breaking Down the Wall of Silence
Alice Miller was born in 1923. She received her PhD from the University of Basle and worked as a psychotherapist in Zurich, Switzerland for 20 years. Since 1980, she has been the intellectual warrior leader for abused children around the world.
Her initial motivation was to understand Adolph Hitler. She believes there is a direct link between child abuse/domestic violence and world peace. To this end, enlightened/helping witnesses are the key.
Windmills of Our Minds: Faith or Fear?
Instinctively, we react to threats to our safety with a fight or flight response. It ramps up our adrenaline and sends us into a temporary high.
It can, at times, help us to literally move mountains to remove ourselves and those we love from peril.
For those of us who have experienced abuse, it can also ruin our health (see 4/29/09 post). We can end up with health concerns like complex PTSD (C-PTSD), auto-immune disorders, and cardio-vascular problems.
Anne Caroline Drake 