09/06/2024
These are all great tips!
✨10 things that have helped me the most with Complex PTSD✨
1. Turning down the volume on my inner critic voice and developing my inner mentor voice. https://personal-growth-programs.com/the-inner-mentor/
2. Shifting the way I parent myself from an authoritative model to a gentle and compassionate model. https://www.goodto.com/family/gentle-parenting-489844
3. EMDR - for shock trauma, for understanding flashback patterns, for fixed beliefs and stuckpoints, for schema/worldview re-patterning https://www.emdria.org/about-emdr-therapy/
4. Movement practices - both structured and unstructured, always with music, finding my own pace, never pushing my body to do something it doesn't want to https://experiencelife.lifetime.life/article/how-movement-therapy-can-heal-traumatic-stress/
5. Somatic Tracking - learning to notice my felt senses, observing how I respond to safety or danger signals, noticing what sensations I enjoyhttps://www.bch.org/documents/content/Somatic-Tracking-Exercise.pdf
6. Narrative Therapy and Parts work - embracing the stories I carry with me and the various parts of my Self https://positivepsychology.com/narrative-therapy/ https://integrativepsych.co/new-blog/what-is-parts-work-therapy-ifs
7. Small group witnessing circles - spaces with 3 to 10 people where I feel safe to share my truth and be seen https://medium.com/presencing-institute-blog/social-solidarity-circle-the-power-of-bearing-witness-2fd91fd821a0
8. Active Release - allowing my body to complete stress cycles through expressing sympathetic activation instead of idealizing a safe/calm state https://www.allworldshealth.com/blog/what-is-trauma-release
9. Sensory Menu - a list of activities that I use for balance, activation, soothing, and grounding https://www.theottoolbox.com/how-to-create-sensory-diet/
10. Flashback Coping Strategies - learning to recognize, name, and ground through flashbacks http://www.pete-walker.com/13StepsManageFlashbacks.htm
I added a link to each point in case any of these concepts are new to you things that you want to learn more about.
If you have complex PTSD, you are not alone. It gets better with time.
I don't think I'll ever stop having trauma symptoms, but my capacity to deal with them has changed radically in the last 5 years. The biggest thing that helped was adopting an attitude of No Shame about every single one of my symptoms.
Remember trauma symptoms do not mean we are broken. Our bodies responded in a perfectly reasonable way to overwhelming or unsafe circumstances. We are working WITH the body to heal our trauma, not against it.
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