NARM and Complex PTSD

Most adults are well aware of PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder, and how it impacts millions of people from all walks of life.  Whether a response to traumatic military service, the result of a serious accident, the loss of a child, physical abuse, sexual assault, or another event created the condition, PTSD is a serious and often debilitating mental illness that dramatically changes one’s sense of self and security. Read More

School Shootings: The Trauma Left Behind

By Beau Black “Unresolved trauma … leaves traces on our minds and emotions, on our capacity for joy and intimacy, and even on our biology and immune systems.” – Meadows Senior Fellow Bessel van der Kolk in his bestseller The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in… Read More

PTSD in Children of Alcoholics

In addition to the basics of food and shelter, children also need stability, consistency, and emotional care in order to thrive. Typically, at a young age, children form an emotional attachment with their caregivers and this has an influence on their development. The most important emotional attachment for a child is usually their parents. Children learn from their parents how to behave, how to function in life, and how to form other healthy relationships. When children grow up in unstable environments, it can disrupt normal development and lead to difficulties, such as mental health conditions. Read More

What I Wish I’d Known as a Teenager

I worried about grades as a teenager. I mean, I really worried. Today, I know this was not typical anxiety about school. Looking back, I struggled with obsessive-compulsive disorder and perfectionism. Among other things, I was obsessive-compulsive about never wasting time. Not. One. Second. Further, I was laser-focused on… Read More

The Real Impact of Rape Culture and Sexual Trauma

When bystanders pulled Stanford University swimmer and Olympic hopeful Brock Turner away from the woman he was sexually assaulting behind a fraternity house dumpster, he laughed. When the judge in the resulting sexual assault trial handed down a sentence much more lenient than the recommended six years of jail time, citing the “severe impact” he feared a harsher sentence may have on the 20-year-old, many felt that he might as well have laughed. Read More