Category Archives: Mental Health
The Therapist’s Mirror: How Lack of Self-Awareness Can Dysregulate Clients
A therapist who lacks the capacity for self-awareness and attunement may, at best, provide surface-level support, but they’re also likely to cause harm, especially to trauma survivors. Without the ability to co-regulate and deeply connect with their clients’ internal states, … Continue reading
Posted in Mental Health
Tagged attunement, Behavioral Health, co-regulation, dysregulation, healing, IPNB, Mental Health, Regulation, therapy, Trauma, trust
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From Trigger to Transformation: How Creative Acts Can Shift the Nervous System’s Response
This spring, a patch of red sprouts emerged in my garden. To someone else, they might have looked intriguing or even beautiful. But for me, their appearance instantly triggered an unwanted body memory from childhood trauma. At that moment, my … Continue reading
Posted in Mental Health
Tagged art, Behavioral Health, creativity, expressive arts, flashback, liberation, Mental Health, mental illness, painting, PTSD, Solomon's seal, trigger
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Dear Doctor: I Have Lots of Therapists. Including You.
Your Presence Is the Treatment. Or the Harm. It is striking how many doctors, especially pain specialists, have doubly verified that I have a good therapist. Or a therapist. That I’m “in mental health care.” I understand why they ask. … Continue reading
Posted in Mental Health
Tagged Behavioral Health, doctors, IPNB, Medicine, Mental Health, neurobiology, pain specialists, Psychology, therapist, therapy
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Stop Skipping the Most Important Part: Being With Me In My Struggle Is Medicine for Us Both
Doctors often want to look at the bright side. They point to progress, milestones, changes in tone or function. They want to give hope. But in doing so, they often skip past the truth that I’m still struggling every day. … Continue reading
Posted in Mental Health
Tagged attunement, healing, health, holding space, interpersonal neurobiology, IPNB, presence
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The “Mental Illness” Frame Is the Problem. Interpersonal Neurobiology Changes Everything
The mental illness industry frames mental health in terms of individual pathology, diagnosis, and personal responsibility. It focuses on what’s wrong with a person: what disorder they might have, what cognitive distortions they carry, what behaviors need changing. It tends … Continue reading
What if your overwhelm, exhaustion, and disconnection weren’t personal failures, but survival responses to chronic unsafety?
What if your overwhelm, exhaustion, and disconnection weren’t personal failures, but survival responses to chronic unsafety? We’re living in a world that constantly taxes our nervous systems with political chaos, financial strain, social disconnection, and a culture that rewards … Continue reading
Posted in Mental Health
Tagged Community, disconnection, distress, Imogen Ragone, interpersonal neurobiology, IPNB, overwhelm, safety, Shay Seaborne, workshop
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The Shame-Busting Power of IPNB
Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB) is inherently shame-busting because it shifts our understanding of human behavior, emotion, and relationship from a lens of personal blame to one of compassionate, embodied context. Here’s how: Normalizes Survival Responses IPNB teaches that many behaviors people … Continue reading
Posted in Mental Health
Tagged connection, Interpersonal Neurobilology, IPNB, safety, survival, survival adaptations
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The DSM As a Mirror: Diagnosing the Pathology of Psychiatry
If psychiatry were a human being and we used its own Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5) to diagnose its behavior, here’s what might show up on the chart: Narcissistic Personality Disorder (301.81) Criteria met? Oh, absolutely. Psychiatry displays: A grandiose … Continue reading
Posted in Psychiatry
Tagged American Psychiatric Association, anti-social, delusion, disorders, DSM, mental illness industry, psychiatry
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Standard Treatment Is Abuse: What ChristianaCare Taught Me About Mental Health “Care”
It’s been seven years since a ChristianaCare physician lied, gaslit, and coerced me into agreeing to psychiatric hospitalization. Here, I share the grievance I filed with ChristianaCare’s Patient and Family Relations department two years later. As the system continued to … Continue reading
Posted in Abuse, Psychiatry
Tagged abuse, Behavioral Health, black box medication, ChristianaCare, disabled, Emergency, Emergency Room, exploitation, Lexapro, Mental Health, neglect, patient safety, pharmacogenomic testing, psych medications, psych meds, psychiatric abuse, psychiatric hospital, Rockford Center for Behavioral Health, safety fail, SSRIs
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