 |  |  |
Posted: February 3, 2021
The ventral vagal complex, or ventral vagal nervous system, elicits calm in your nervous system through connecting with others. Since this system can help trigger calm, we want to try to engage it when we are feeling stressed. Social connections can help us feel anchored…
Posted: January 29, 2021
This is one of the things I tell people in therapy the most. Because even when people enter therapy, there is often some ambivalence, conscious or unconscious, about change. There is a part that wants to rip the band aid off in one pull but…
Posted: January 27, 2021
The dorsal vagal system is one part of our nervous system. This system responds to life threatening cues, by causing the entire system to shut down, numb out, and disconnect from others. And if you suffer from PTSD you may be perceiving danger that is…
Posted: January 25, 2021
I think one of the cruelest effects of complex, childhood trauma is the impact it has on people’s relationships with others. These are folx who desperately want and deserve to have kind, loving, and fulfilling relationships. But it is a constant struggle if they have…
Posted: January 22, 2021
The parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) is the brake system of the autonomic nervous system. The PNS is the system that is responsible for the actions of “rest and digest.” It conserves energy by slowing the heart rate, lowering blood pressure, regulating sexual arousal, and relaxes…
Posted: January 18, 2021
It is hard to know what to say on this Martin Luther King holiday. I admit to feeling some sort of pressure around it given everything that has happened in the last year. But I am going to stick with what I know, trauma and…