Gwen Mc Hale, Somatic Therapist and Educator

03/01/2026

Emotional Inconsistency & Overthinking

03/01/2026

09/12/2025

Keeping your baby close while they sleep is more than comfort. Babies who sleep near a parent experience, on average, 13,000 extra hours of touch by age three. This consistent contact isn’t spoiling them; it actively supports their nervous system, emotional security, and physical health.

Physically, closeness regulates heart rate, breathing, and body temperature, creating a stable environment like the womb. It improves sleep quality, promotes healthy weight gain, and strengthens the immune system. Premature babies especially benefit from skin-to-skin contact, which supports growth and reduces stress levels.

Emotionally, frequent touch fosters secure attachment. Babies feel safe, loved, and understood, which lays the foundation for healthy relationships later in life. Closeness also reduces crying and colic, improves parental confidence, and helps infants develop emotional regulation skills that last into childhood.

Cognitively, touch boosts brain development. Positive physical contact releases oxytocin, reduces stress hormones, and enhances neural growth. Children who receive more touch show better cognitive function, improved learning, and fewer behavioral challenges. Sleep proximity isn’t creating bad habits; it’s creating a stronger, healthier, more resilient brain and a lifelong secure bond between parent and child.

09/12/2025

💜 It’s often said that children are so resilient. I totally disagree. 💜

09/12/2025

ℹ️🌿 THE SPECTRUM OF TRAUMA |

Whether overt or developmental, trauma is a spectrum – and we’re all on it somewhere. The extent to which it affects us in our day-to-day lives is often shocking to discover, but the key to keeping in mind is that all of these impacts are coping strategies that, when they originally formed, were very intelligent responses to the environment.

These adaptations came along to protect us, typically as a result of trauma during childhood, and at first were quite effective at doing so. Over time, however, they become maladaptive. When we say that someone “has CPTSD”, it is their trauma adaptations that we’re referring to.

Read the Full Article: https://cptsdfoundation.org/2023/05/23/the-spectrum-of-trauma/

09/12/2025

ℹ️🌿 WHAT IS ENMESHMENT? |

Enmeshment describes a relationship pattern between two people or a group of people in which personal boundaries are unclear. It is a hallmark of dysfunctional families and affects relationships inside and outside the family. Inside the family, personhood is not encouraged nor respected.

Outside the family, people-pleasing compulsions can be crippling. Survivors of enmeshed systems struggle with a sense of self and may find it difficult to assert themselves. The boundary crossing is done in secret and can be emotional as well as physical.

01/12/2025

How To Put An End To Shame

01/12/2025

In our culture and many families, anger and rage are seen as bad or inappropriate emotions. We're taught to stay quiet, be "good," and avoid conflict. Over time, we suppress these natural responses to avoid punishment and to fit into society's expectations.

When anger and rage are suppressed for too long, we start living in a state of dysregulation. This is because self-regulation is the somatic capacity to respond appropriately to what's going on internally within us & externally in the world around us.

When harm, boundary violations & injustices happen, anger & rage are crucial for self-regulation as they become the fuel that drives our instinct to fight and protect.