Dr. Gillian O'Shea Brown

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New York, NY
Dr. Gillian O'Shea Brown

✨Healing Complex Trauma ✨
•Author & Asst. Adjunct Prof at NYU 📚
•IFS ~ EMDR ~ YTT200 🧘‍♀️
•Ft in Vogue, HuffPost, Marie Claire ✍️

08/15/2025

Parenting is never just about raising a child — it’s about healing the parts of ourselves that were never held, never seen, never safe.

Our children don’t just inherit our eye color or laugh. They inherit our nervous systems, our emotional patterns, our unfinished stories.

This isn’t to blame — it’s to awaken.
Because when we choose to do the inner work, we shift the legacy.

✨ You don’t have to be perfect.
You just have to be present.

Let your healing be the protection they never have to ask for.
Let your awareness be the beginning of something new.

🧠💛

08/14/2025

Trauma changes the brain. 🧠

Repeated or overwhelming stress affects three key areas:

💫 Amygdala – Our fear center. When hyperactive, it constantly scans for threats and makes rational thinking difficult. It’s often overactive in PTSD. 💫 Hippocampus – Responsible for memory and distinguishing past from present. With ongoing trauma, it can shrink, making it harder to process or contextualize what happened. 💫 Prefrontal Cortex – Governs rational thought and emotional regulation. In PTSD, its function is often reduced, making it harder to calm down or “think clearly” in stressful moments.

When trauma occurs, the amygdala sends a rapid danger signal to the rest of the brain and body — activating the autonomic nervous system (ANS). This system raises heart rate, increases breathing, and floods the body with cortisol and adrenaline to prepare for fight-or-flight.

For those with trauma, the body can stay in this state long after the threat is gone — leading to chronic stress, emotional dysregulation, and physical symptoms.

Understanding how trauma affects the brain can help us respond with more compassion — to ourselves and to others. 💛

08/13/2025

When we’re in the middle of a triggered moment, it can be incredibly hard to remember what we need to do to care for ourselves.

Whether you’re feeling abandoned, rejected, angry, or re-traumatized — the goal isn’t to ignore the feeling, but to move through it safely and compassionately. 🌿

This visual is a gentle reminder: you can respond differently. You can self-soothe. And you deserve support — especially from yourself.

Save this for when you need it. 💛

07/30/2025

IFS is a powerful therapeutic approach that works with ego states—the different parts of you that have developed to protect, defend, and adapt.⁠
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What makes IFS unique? It’s the foundational belief that everyone has a core, untarnished Self—a calm, compassionate, and wise inner presence known as Self-energy.⁠
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Surrounding this Self is an internal system of parts—each one with a distinct voice, role, and purpose. Many of these parts are protective in nature, shaped by life experiences and often misunderstood as “defense mechanisms.” In IFS, they’re honored, not judged.⁠
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The magic happens when you access your Self-leadership—the natural capacity to relate to all parts with balance, curiosity, and care. From this place, deep healing, clarity, and self-trust can emerge.⁠
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IFS doesn’t aim to eliminate your parts—but to help them feel seen, safe, and supported by the Self within.⁠
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✨ Your healing doesn’t come from changing who you are—but from remembering who you’ve always been.⁠
⁠

07/23/2025

Clear communication is the foundation of trust in any relationship, especially within families.

But in many dysfunctional family systems, true listening rarely happens. As a result, individual members often feel misunderstood, unseen, and emotionally dismissed.

When communication breaks down, it’s often replaced by:
🔸 Passive-aggressive behaviors
🔸 Chronic tension
🔸 Eroding trust and blurred boundaries

Over time, these patterns can deeply damage familial bonds and leave lasting emotional wounds.

This post outlines key terms related to communication deviance and abnormal behavioral patterns often seen in dysfunctional family systems.

Save or share if you find it helpful — sometimes, simply naming what you’ve experienced is the first step toward healing.

When you can recognize the pattern, you can begin to rewrite the story. 💬💛.

Cover art from:

07/18/2025

I’m excited to share that I’ve accepted literary representation from DeFiore and Company for my upcoming book—arriving in 2026! ✍️✨

This is the beginning of something very close to my heart, and I can’t wait to bring you along for the journey.

More to come soon—stay tuned. 💫

07/15/2025

Healing is a continuous process of learning to choose: choosing yourself, choosing a better life, and, most importantly, choosing self-care over self-destruction. Healing is a process of unburdening, becoming more yourself, and becoming more than you could have ever hoped for in your darkest and most ominous moment.”
— Extract from my book 📖

If you’re beginning therapy and not sure where to start, you’re not alone. My approach is gentle, structured, and rooted in deep respect for your story.

In our work together, we identify the core beliefs that have shaped your inner world — and trace them back to the memories where they began. Through IFS and EMDR, we begin to unburden the weight those experiences left behind.

This is your invitation to choose yourself — again and again.

07/07/2025

Have you ever thought of someone… and then they called you out of the blue?
Or stumbled on the exact words you needed to hear — right when you needed them most?

These aren’t just coincidences. They’re synchronicities — what Carl Jung described as “meaningful coincidences that cannot be explained by cause and effect.” Moments when your inner world and the outer world align with striking clarity and perfect timing.

They feel like little cosmic winks — quiet signs you’re being guided, that you’re in the flow, that life is listening.

✨ Maybe it was a number that kept showing up.
✨ A chance encounter that changed everything.
✨ A song, a book, or a message that landed like truth.

Have you experienced a synchronicity that felt too powerful to be random?
Share your story below — you never know who else needs that sign today. 🌌

07/01/2025

🪞What begins as myth still mirrors modern love — where unhealed wounds script unconscious roles.🪞

A trauma bond often feels like fate—but it’s not love, it’s survival.
 Echo turned to Narcissus for safety, not knowing that true security can’t be borrowed—it must be built from within.
When your sense of worth depends on another’s affection, you abandon yourself. When love feels like chasing, pleading, or proving—you’re likely in a trauma bond, not a relationship.

Narcissus’s cruelty wasn’t a reflection of Echo’s worth. It reflected his own unhealed shame, masked as superiority.

✨ Healing begins when you choose yourself—fully, unapologetically. 
💭 Save this for when the pull feels familiar.

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New York, NY

Website

https://www.drgillianosheabrown.com/

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