People sometimes privately express in a diary thoughts that they don’t feel comfortable sharing with others. But does this process actually contribute to healing? A recent study led by Gail Ironson, MD, PhD, from the University of Miami, investigated whether a written trauma disclosure intervention would be effective with populations of HIV infected individuals. Dr. […]
Do stress and emotional trauma affect child development?
Can trauma pass from parent to child? It’s an interesting question. Some leading-edge research suggests that it’s possible – trauma felt by survivors might even affect their children’s gene expression. But we don’t need epigenetics to study how trauma strikes across generations. For example, researchers at Auburn University studied a more mundane form of intergenerational […]
How PTSD changes children’s brains
Trauma can change the brain . . . . . . but it doesn’t just change the survivor’s brain. In fact, it can actually change the brains of the survivor’s children – in some pretty insidious ways. Ruth Lanius, MD, PhD explains how traumatic experiences can affect a mother’s children, even if the children themselves […]
How to heal trauma through community: A trauma therapy network
More than 6,000 practitioners from 59 different countries – including Ireland, Costa Rica, and Lebanon – tuned in to Peter Levine’s webinar on Wednesday night. And many of those folks left some really remarkable feedback. The comments section was full of insightful, perceptive thoughts on my webinar with Dr. Levine. And we’re just getting started. […]
Preventing post traumatic stress disorder with immediate trauma therapy
We see clients who were traumatized as children, and yet their experiences may only be bubbling to the surface now. And sometimes, the longer traumatic experiences lie in the subconscious, the more disruptive they can be to our clients’ lives. But an interesting study conducted by Emory University researchers raises an important possibility. What if […]