Search by topic, theme, or feeling
Feeling Erased: Reclaiming Presence After Trauma
Trauma can create a profound and haunting sense of being erased, as if one's inner reality has been rendered invisible.
Understanding and Supporting Neurodivergent Sensory Experiences
Sensory sensitivities are a core, valid experience for many neurodivergent individuals. By understanding and implementing personalized mitigation strategies, we can foster safety and reduce the harm caused by chronic overstimulation.
A Somatic Perspective on Neurodiverse Relationship Equity
True fairness in a neurodiverse relationship moves beyond equal division to equitable support, meeting each partner's unique neurological needs to foster a shared sense of safety and fulfillment.
The Double Empathy Problem in Neurodivergent Relationships
The double empathy problem reveals that communication breakdowns between neurodivergent and neurotypical partners are not an empathy deficit but a mutual difference in experiential understanding.
The Complex Intersection of Neurodivergent Minds and Self Harm
Self harm ideation in neurodivergent individuals often represents a nervous system's survival response to overwhelming distress, not a symptom of brokenness.
Reclaiming the Inner Voice: CPTSD and Negative Self-Talk in Neurodivergent Individuals
For neurodivergent individuals with CPTSD, negative self-concepts are often trauma responses forged in a world of chronic mismatch. Healing involves gentle practices that address both the ingrained neural pathways of criticism and the specific context of neurodivergent experience.
The Transformative Power of a Late Neurodivergence Discovery
A later-in-life neurodivergence diagnosis can provide the essential framework to rebuild.
What the Pufferfish Teaches Us About Neurodivergent Protections
Like the pufferfish that inflates to create safety, the neurodivergent nervous system uses protective behaviors like withdrawal or irritability as a response to overload.
The Somatic Wisdom of Dark Comedy
A dark sense of humor is more than a coping mechanism, it is a somatic tool for regulation.
A Somatic Look at Eating Disorders and the Nervous System
When an individual's fundamental sense of autonomy feels chronically threatened, the nervous system can deploy powerful survival strategies.
Decoding Suicidal Ideation in Trauma Survivors
The emergence of suicidal thoughts following trauma is often not a desire to die, but a desperate, somatic plea for the overwhelming pain to stop.
Loneliness and Friendship in the Neurodivergent Experience
Loneliness within the neurodivergent community is not a personal failing but often a result of navigating a world designed for different social operating systems.
The Missing Map: Understanding and Building Cognitive Empathy
Many neurodivergent individuals possess profound empathy, yet struggle with cognitive empathy, the mental map for reading social cues.
When Attunement Fails: The Child Who Becomes the Container
For many children, especially those with neurodivergent sensitivities or caregivers burdened by their own unprocessed trauma, the parent’s inability to attune becomes a chronic rupture.
Parental Rupture and Repair: An Object Relations Guide to Somatic Attunement with Children
Attunement is less about perfect connection and more about the courageous practice of returning to it after a rupture.
Neurodivergence, Communication Trauma, CPTSD and Embodied Healing
For many neurodivergent individuals, the very act of communication can become a source of profound and repeated trauma.
Synesthesia as Neurodivergent Perception
Synesthesia is not merely a curiosity but a fundamental aspect of sensory processing for many neurodivergent individuals.
How Fawning Can Erode the Neurodivergent Self
When neurodivergent individuals are consistently labeled as "too sensitive" or "overreactive," they often learn to cope by fawning, a self-abandoning strategy that trades authenticity for perceived safety.
Addiction, Regulation, and a Somatic Path to Harm Reduction
Addiction is not a moral failure but the body's ingenious, if ultimately costly, attempt to find regulation and survive overwhelming circumstances.
When the Healing Hurts: Recognizing and Addressing Therapeutic Harm
The therapeutic relationship, intended as a sanctuary for healing, can sometimes become a source of retraumatization when a therapist's unexamined biases, reactions, or rigid methodologies cause harm.