Tag Archives: safety
7 Years of Disbelief
For over seven years, I’ve been forced into the role of “my own best advocate.” This is because the people I turned to for care refused to understand what I need for recovery from severe Complex PTSD and quadrilateral Complex … Continue reading
Posted in Healthcare
Tagged chronic disease, connection, CRPS, doctors, healthcare, Mental Health, PTSD, safety, treatment
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Connection Is the Cure: Meet My Nervous System’s Needs
My nervous system is desperate for the kind of connection that feels safe. Because all my life, I’ve been chronically and acutely deprived of that safety. Sometimes it’s been extreme, other times less so, but never enough. When I had … Continue reading
Posted in Healthcare
Tagged attunement, connection, disconnection, health, healthcare, interpersonal neurobiology, IPNB, Medicine, Mental Health, Nervous System, safety
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Rupture and Repair: How Breaks in Trust Can Be a Doorway to Something Better
Recently, I had a rupture repair session with one of my most trusted healthcare practitioners. About ten days before, we had a misattunement rupture when he dismissed what I said about my lived experience. I told him I was struggling, … Continue reading
Posted in Relationships
Tagged attunement, connection, Doctor, IPNB, practitioners, relationship, rupture, safety
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Unhoused by Design: Trauma, Culture, and Survival
The Trump administration’s attacks on unhoused people have drawn intense controversy, and for good reason. Instead of addressing the structural causes of homelessness, like skyrocketing rents, stagnant wages, inaccessible healthcare, and systems that fail to support trauma recovery, the focus … Continue reading
Posted in Politics
Tagged Community, culture, dignity, homelessness, housing, interpersonal neurobiology, IPNB, profit, safety, stability, Trauma, Trump, Trump Administration, unhoused
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The Neurobiology of Resistance: Standing Against Abusive Power
I didn’t become a fighter by choice. My environment demanded it. There was no room to ally with my abusive father. He didn’t allow it. I couldn’t stop him from hurting me for being a girl, for not being the … Continue reading
Posted in Activism
Tagged abuse, authoritarinanism, compliance, connection, danger, fight, resistance, safety
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Protect the Predator, Protect the Brand: How Hospitals Foster Criminal Behavior
Like pediatrics, family medicine, and mental health, gynecology is a medical specialty to which predators are attracted. Each specialty gives abusers access to numerous potential victims. An investigative report by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution identified over 3,100 individual physicians named in … Continue reading
Posted in Abuse, Healthcare
Tagged abuse, Abuser, hospital, institutions, predator, safety
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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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Institutional Betrayal: Protection for Predators, Harm for the Rest of Us
I learned about institutional betrayal after I reported a predatory gynecologist to the state licensing board. Instead of holding the abuser accountable, the board and the attorney general’s office stood by him. This so negatively affected my nervous system that … Continue reading
Posted in Predators
Tagged betrayal, connection, institutional betrayal, IPNB, power dynamics, predators, safety, Trauma
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What Shapes a Human Predator?
The development of a human predator often begins in early relationships and environments that fail to meet fundamental needs for safety, attunement, empathy, and mutual respect. When a child is repeatedly treated as an object, used to meet another person’s … Continue reading
Posted in Predators
Tagged abuse, aggression, connection, development, fear, harm, pain, predators, safety, systems, unsafety
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Understanding the Predator-Prey Dynamic Through IPNB
The dynamic between the predator and the victim involves complex layers of relational manipulation, nervous system responses, and emotional regulation (or dysregulation), which deeply affect both the predator’s and the victim’s neurobiological processes. Through the lens of Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB), … Continue reading