Tag Archives: healthcare

Why Internet Doctors Push Habits Instead of Recognizing Conditions

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

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Why I Quit Therapy

Over 6.5 years, I was traumatized by 13 therapists. Even the intake, first session, and attempt to explain my history put my nervous system back into the same defensive state. In session, I frequently encountered misattunement that prompted their disbelief, … Continue reading

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Cues of Safety: Why Connection is Non-Negotiable in Healthcare

Cues of safety are signals we give each other that tell our nervous systems we are safe with one another. When we feel pro-social and safe enough to be authentic and truly connect, we naturally give off these cues, which … Continue reading

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Accumulated Harm: The Hidden Toll of Healthcare Encounters

Every time we turn to a practitioner for help, we engage in a deeply vulnerable act. We reach out not just for solutions, but for connection, support, and some kind of shared human understanding. From a Relational Neuroscience perspective, the … Continue reading

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Announcing My First Book!

Of all the things I could have predicted for my life, becoming a watercolor graphic medicine artist who uses cartoon ladybugs to teach Relational Neuroscience was not one of them. But here I am. My “Della the IPNB Ladybug™” books … Continue reading

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Stuck on Red Alert: The Hidden Harm of Seeking Help

For most of the last seven years, I haven’t been able to feel the normal range of human emotions. Joy, peace, gratitude, awe, and beauty have been mostly absent. Most of the time, I can only think about these things. … Continue reading

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When Healthcare Feels Dangerous: How Practitioners Shape Our Capacity to Heal

When I tell a practitioner that I’m not doing well, and they dismiss or minimize what I say–what I share of my lived experience–it makes everything worse. It increases my sense of unsafety. It pushes me even further onto Red … Continue reading

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Finding Practitioners Who Actually Listen: A Practical Guide

Healing doesn’t come from checking boxes, following a protocol, or hoping a practitioner will be “good enough.” It comes from being met by someone who can genuinely witness your experience, attune to what you’re saying, and recognize your strengths. That … Continue reading

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The Most Dangerous Part of Being a Healthcare Practitioner

Working in healthcare can be meaningful and even life-affirming, but it also carries a kind of stress that is often invisible and unspoken. From an interpersonal neurobiology perspective, the danger isn’t just in burnout or long hours. It’s in what … Continue reading

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Dear Doctor, Please Pause and Take a Breath Outside the Door

Dear Doctor, please pause and take a breath outside the door. It’s good for both of us. I know the system you work in demands too much, too fast, for too little. It rewards efficiency over empathy, billing codes over … Continue reading

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