Tag Archives: relationships
Treating My CRPS and Becoming the Hunter Were the Same
For years I had CRPS in my feet and legs without knowing what it was. I wasn’t diagnosed until six years ago, but by 2016 it had become so severe that I cried when I walked. I also knew that … Continue reading
Posted in pain
Tagged chronic pain, Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, confrontation, CRPS, father, hunted, hunter, IPNB, pain, parents, recurrent pain, relationships
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No Justice With the Midwife But What I Create
I keep talking about what happened to me because the lack of justice makes it impossible to “let it go,” as if that is even a thing. The forced FGM surgery didn’t just happen; it continues to resonate in my … Continue reading
Posted in Justice
Tagged abuse, accountability, art, institutional betrayal, justice, paintings, relationships, sharing, truth-telling, watercolors, witnessing
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What if Mental Health Care Actually Cared?
Mental health doesn’t come from a drug or cognitive behavioral therapy. Real mental health is built on what has always made humans whole: safety, connection, dignity, and the right to be felt and seen in the truth of our pain. … Continue reading
Learning to Feel and Trust Our Instincts
When early relationships repeatedly dismiss, override, or punish a person’s signals, the body learns that its own cues do not lead to safety or effective response. Over time, attention shifts away from internal sensations because registering them did not result … Continue reading
Posted in Well-being
Tagged body signals, felt sense, Interoception, IPNB, presence, relationships
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Beyond Credentials: The Non-Negotiable Key to My Recovery
I had a years-long period when my functionality was so low that it was hard for me to leave the house. I was severely isolated by disability from repeated medical harm. My relationships with practitioners became my default primary social … Continue reading
Posted in Healthcare, Relationships
Tagged connection, doctors, Empathy, healthcare, IPNB, pain, pain medicine, pain specialist, practitioners, Relational Neuroscience, relationships, safety, well-being
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Always in the Direction of Life: Eight Years of Medical Harm and My One Prospect for a Future
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
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Why One Safe Connection Affects Everything
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
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Complex PTSD From An IPNB Perspective: Survival Adaptations and the Roots of Symptoms
When people talk about Complex PTSD or other trauma-related conditions, they often focus on the symptoms. They make lists of patterns, put them into clusters, and give them names. That sounds organized, but it hides the bigger picture. It puts … Continue reading
Posted in PTSD
Tagged Complex PTSD, CPTSD, IPNB, labels, Medicine, Nervous System, psychiatry, recovery, relationships, survival, survival adaptations
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Clinical Harm: An IPNB Perspective on the Therapist’s Agenda
When a therapist repeatedly interrupts, dismisses a client’s distressing experiences, or imposes their own agenda, it can have significant negative effects on the client’s nervous system, often triggering a state of dysregulation. Here’s what happens from an Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB) … Continue reading
Posted in Mental Health
Tagged agenda, dysregulation, Efforting, fight, flight, freeze, relationships, shame, therapist, therapy, Trauma, trust
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The DSM is Bunk: IPNB Offers a Humane and Scientific Understanding of Mental Health
Some trauma experts have said that if the psychiatric Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) acknowledged trauma, it would be a very thin volume because virtually everything else would fall beneath it. But from an Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB) … Continue reading