Author Archives: Shay Seaborne, CPTSD

About Shay Seaborne, CPTSD

Former tall ship sailor turned trauma awareness activist-artist Shay Seaborne, CPTSD has studied the neurobiology of fear / trauma /PTSD since 2015. She writes, speaks, teaches, and makes art to convey her experiences as well as her understanding of the neurobiology of fear, trauma theory, and principles of trauma recovery. A native of Northern Virginia, Shay settled in Delaware to sail KALMAR NYCKEL, the state’s tall ship. She wishes everyone could recognize PTSD is not a mental health problem, but a neurophysiological condition rooted in dysregulation, our mainstream culture is neuro-negative, and we need to understand we can heal ourselves and each other through awareness, understanding, and safe connection.

Always in the Direction of Life: Eight Years of Medical Harm and My One Prospect for a Future

Posted on May 25, 2026 by Shay Seaborne, CPTSD

I have been fighting for my life daily for 8 years. Before that, there was already a lifetime of abuse from people in positions of power, most often from caregivers. The medical and psychiatric abuse of the last eight years … Continue reading →

Posted in Healthcare | Tagged Doctor, healthcare, IPNB, medical abuse, psychiatric abuse, Relational Neuroscience, relationships | Leave a comment

Empathy is Crucial in Medicine, But the Healthcare System Undermines It

Posted on May 22, 2026 by Shay Seaborne, CPTSD

Prioritizing efficiency and financial goals over empathetic care has detrimental effects on both patients and healthcare practitioners. Empathy Improves Patient Outcomes Enhanced Communication: Empathetic healthcare practitioners build better communication with patients, leading to more accurate diagnoses and more effective treatments. … Continue reading →

Posted in Healthcare | Tagged burnout, doctors, Empathy, healthcare, medical, Medicine, mindfulness, physician burnout, Psychology, training | Leave a comment

Why One Safe Connection Affects Everything

Posted on May 20, 2026 by Shay Seaborne, CPTSD

In the past few months, I have enjoyed a noticeably improved quality of life. I don’t have to spend so much focus desperately trying to build connections. I have more energy for other things, like working in the garden and … Continue reading →

Posted in PTSD, Uncategorized | Tagged connection, integrated relationships, integration, mutuality, recovery, relationships, support | Leave a comment

The Cost of Unmet Needs: Trauma Imposed Across a Lifetime

Posted on May 18, 2026 by Shay Seaborne, CPTSD

The worst part of my story is not the harm done to me at the hands of caregivers throughout my life, or the institutional betrayal when organizations protect the abuser. It is how many other people have similar experiences. Every … Continue reading →

Posted in PTSD | Tagged abuse, harmful treatment, healthcare, Medical PTSD, Medicine, psychiatry, Trauma, unmet needs | Leave a comment

Why Internet Doctors Push Habits Instead of Recognizing Conditions

Posted on May 15, 2026 by Shay Seaborne, CPTSD

Doctors on the Internet stay at the level of individual behavior because their authority holds and the solutions stay marketable. Medical social media influencers focus largely on self-management: Scroll less, eat better, try harder, and regulate yourself under conditions that … Continue reading →

Posted in Healthcare | Tagged doctors, healthcare, Internet doctors, IPNB, pills, procedures, product promotion, protocols, Relational Neuroscience, self-management, selling, showmanship | Leave a comment

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for chronic pain?

Posted on May 13, 2026 by Shay Seaborne, CPTSD

Chronic pain is not maintained by faulty thoughts or unwillingness to accept experience. It is the result of a nervous system living under ongoing threat, overload, and unmet needs. When pain is chronic, the body is already doing everything it … Continue reading →

Posted in pain | Tagged ACT, CBT, cognitive therapy, pain | Leave a comment

Profiteers of Human Misery: the Corporate Greed Behind Unchecked Psychiatric Abuse

Posted on May 11, 2026 by Shay Seaborne, CPTSD

In 2016, BuzzFeed published an investigative report that exposed widespread abuse within the psychiatric industry, specifically revealing Universal Health Services (UHS), one of the largest operators of behavioral health facilities in the U.S. The report uncovered disturbing practices, particularly the … Continue reading →

Posted in Mental Health | Tagged Behavioral Health, BuzzFeed, DOJ, fraudulent billing, interpersonal neurobiology, IPNB, Mental Health, patient abuse, psychiatric abuse, psychiatry, psyciatric hospital, UHS, Universal Health Services | Leave a comment

The 17-Gun Salute That Shattered Me

Posted on May 8, 2026 by Shay Seaborne, CPTSD

Five years ago, during a year near death, one of the most intense stressors wasn’t the medical neglect or the endless fight for even minimal care. It was sound. The moment that shattered me was the 17–gun salute at my … Continue reading →

Posted in Neurobiology, Trauma | Tagged audio-somatic Synesthesia, auditory issues, funeral, guns, hearing, hearing sensitivity, hyperacusis, safety, sound, sound sensitivity | Leave a comment

IPNB: Bucking the Culture That Keeps Us in Survival Mode

Posted on May 6, 2026 by Shay Seaborne, CPTSD

Standard treatments do not address ongoing conditions. They try to change thoughts while the body is still organized around threat. From a Relational Neuroscience perspective, that is a mismatch. The system is responding accurately to the conditions under which it … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged IPNB, Relational Neuroscience, structures, systems | Leave a comment

When the Body Sets the Pace: Trauma Integration Through Agency and Relationship

Posted on May 4, 2026 by Shay Seaborne, CPTSD

I had a remarkably powerful experience with my craniosacral practitioner after I had realized that my Moro Reflex flashbacks were also connected to the suffocation torture. It was the same posture–prone face up, arms wide, head back–and inability to breathe. … Continue reading →

Posted in Relationships, Trauma | Tagged craniosacral, craniosacral practitioner, holding space, implicit memory, recovery, safety, torture, trauma recovery, witnessing | Leave a comment