Hypervigilance is your brain's survival mechanism stuck in overdrive. After trauma, your nervous system learns to stay on high alert—constantly scanning for threats, overthinking interactions, and struggling to relax. This exhausting response once protected you during genuine danger, but now it prevents you from feeling safe and present in your life. Your brain doesn't understand the threat has passed, so it keeps the alarm system running, draining your energy and damaging your relationships.

Putting down the bottle doesn't mean you've won the battle. Cross-addiction happens when you replace one dependency with another—trading alcohol for gambling, drugs for compulsive eating, or substances for sex. The pattern stays the same because addiction isn't about the substance. It's about what you're trying to escape. Sobriety is just the first step. Real recovery means addressing why you needed the addiction in the first place.

If you've lived through trauma, healthy relationships can feel wrong. It's not that you're broken—your nervous system is doing what it was trained to do: keep you safe by maintaining what feels familiar. When you grow up in chaos, your body learns that chaos equals normal. Then calm arrives, and your brain doesn't know what to do with peace. So it creates problems to match old beliefs about what you deserve.

Parenting while neurodivergent comes with unique challenges—and unique strengths. When both you and your child have ADHD, autism, or another form of neurodivergence, traditional parenting advice doesn't cut it. You need strategies designed for brains like yours. Here are four practical tips that actually work.

If you're estranged from a parent, the holidays can feel like walking through a minefield. Everyone else has picture-perfect family gatherings while you're just trying to get through December without falling apart. Guilt will show up—tightness in your chest, a knot in your stomach. People will make comments. Here's the truth: you made a choice to protect yourself. That took real strength, even when it doesn't feel like it.

Navigating social situations in recovery doesn't mean avoiding life forever. It means having a solid plan. Your sobriety comes first—always. Learn how to set firm boundaries, prepare your exit strategy, and build a support system that protects your recovery while still enjoying meaningful social connections.

Neurodivergent means your brain processes information differently than what society considers typical. The best therapy doesn't try to fix you or make you act neurotypical. Instead, it helps you understand how your brain works and builds on your natural strengths while providing practical, concrete strategies.

The most impactful period for trauma? Birth to age seven. Your brain during these early years is like wet cement—everything leaves an impression. After age seven, that cement starts to harden. Impressions can still be made, but they take more force.

Not every family is safe. If you dread gatherings, that’s your body telling you something important. You’re not broken for protecting yourself. You don’t owe people access to you just because they’re family. Trust yourself. Your safety mattes more than keeping the peace. 7 strategies for surviving the holidays with family.

Childhood trauma doesn't disappear when you grow up—it shows up in patterns you might not recognize. From struggling to trust your feelings to repeating painful relationship cycles, these signs reveal unhealed wounds. Your survival strategies made sense then, but now they're holding you back from the life you deserve.

Pre-verbal trauma doesn't look like trauma at first glance. It looks like personality quirks. It looks like 'just the way you are.' But look closer. Your body might react before your brain catches up. Someone reaches toward you quickly, and you flinch. These aren't choices—they're your nervous system running ancient programming.

Your brain's number one job is to keep you alive. Not happy. Not connected. Alive. When trauma happens, your brain builds walls to make sure you never get hurt like that again. Here's the problem: those walls don't just keep out danger. They keep out connection too. The walls that are keeping you safe, are keeping you lonely.

Anxiety doesn't automatically worsen with age, but many older adults face new anxiety challenges. Health problems, loss, retirement, and isolation can trigger anxious thoughts later in life. The good news? With the right support and strategies, you can effectively manage anxiety at any age and protect your brain health.

Insecure attachment develops when your basic needs for safety and emotional connection aren't met in childhood. This developmental trauma shapes how you relate to others as an adult. Whether you struggle with anxious, avoidant, or disorganized attachment, therapy can help you heal these wounds and create the secure relationships you deserve. Your past doesn't have to determine your future.

Trauma recovery follows six distinct stages: safety and stabilization, remembrance and mourning, reconnection, integration, post-traumatic growth, and helping others. While healing isn't linear, understanding these stages provides a roadmap for your journey. You can transform from survivor to thriver with patience, courage, and professional support.

Writing as both a trauma therapist and mother after yesterday's Minneapolis school shooting, I understand the gut-wrenching fear of sending children to school. Your daily anxiety is valid—the knot in your stomach, checking your phone constantly, memorizing what your child wore. Here's how we heal together.

Substance use disorder is a medical condition where someone cannot control their drug or alcohol use, even when it causes serious problems. It's not a moral failing or lack of willpower—it's a complex brain disorder that affects millions. Understanding the facts helps break down shame and opens paths to recovery.

Your body holds trauma in muscles, tissues, and your nervous system—but it also knows how to release it. As a therapist, I've seen how healing manifests physically through trembling, yelling, temperature shifts, and unexpected tears. These aren't signs something's wrong—they're evidence your body is finally letting go.

Your body holds memories that your mind can't always reach. In brainspotting therapy, we use body awareness to unlock healing that traditional talk therapy sometimes misses. By tracking physical sensations and somatic responses, your nervous system can finally process and release what it's been holding onto for years.

Dissociation is your mind's emergency exit when life becomes overwhelming. It's your brain's freeze response to being overwhelmed - a protective mechanism that disconnects you from reality. Through therapy techniques like Brainspotting, you can learn to reconnect with yourself and develop healthier coping strategies for emotional healing.