How Therapists Can Find Their Own Unique Self-Care Formula

"Girl with styrofoam swimming board" by Tommy Wong via Wikimedia Commons (2006 - CreativeCommons) -- English: A young girl taking a break in a swimming pool, grabbing on to a rainbow-coloured styrofoam flotation device.

This blog post was written by guest blogger, Katie Asmus, MA, LPC, BMP For all you therapists, healers, helper types out there… There is no magic formula for self-care. There is no “do-it-yourself-assemble-out-of-the-box-prototype” to follow. I, personally, find self-care akin to riding on a surf board atop a wave. I am…

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Reading List for 2015 EMDRIA Conference

Image Source: "Philadelphia skyline from south street bridge" by Bmoredlj via WikimediaCommons (CC)

Today is the first day of the 2015 EMDRIA Conference (Aug. 27th – 30th), which is being held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania year. The theme of the EMDRIA Conference this year is “The Freedom to Heal.” Bringing EMDR Therapy to more and more people is helping the world heal from trauma, and…

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Why Therapists Need to Develop a Self-Care Plan

"Compassionate hands: taking care of our heart" by Enver Rahmanov via Wikimedia Commons (CC)

Psychotherapists and counselors are in the field of helping people: they are people who want to make a difference in the world. They give and give and give. What seems to be a common theme for many psychotherapists is that they often forget to give to themselves. They are easily…

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Books on Working with Somatic Interventions and EMDR Therapy

1503 Connections of the Parasympathetic Nervous System

Many EMDR Therapists receive training in body-centered ways of working with trauma to learn how to see trauma in the body and have interventions that will help the client move through and integrate the trauma more completely. If you are an EMDR Therapist interested reading more about how trauma impacts the…

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The Story of Overcoming Trauma in Disney/Pixar’s ‘Inside-Out’

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Spoiler Alert: This post will discuss characters, scenes, and plot points from Disney/Pixar’s “Inside Out” In Disney/Pixar’s “Inside Out”, the character Riley is depicted through her emotional world inside her brain and memories. When we first meet Riley, she is a happy 11-year old girl living in Minnesota with her mom and…

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The Role of Resourcing in Complex PTSD

The following post was written by guest blogger, Katie Asmus, MA, LPC, BMP Complex PTSD is so very. . . well. . . complex! Those who have experienced ongoing stressful (and perhaps even abusive) life circumstances know that the impact of such a chronic state of stress is long-lasting. Our…

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Books for Working with Complex PTSD and EMDR Therapy

signs and symptoms ptsd - by Gajah (Wikimedia Commons - CreativeCommons)

Therapists trained in EMDR Therapy often ask how to work with Complex PTSD due to the complexity of the treatment. An important aspects of working with Complex PTSD is learning how to resource the client so that they can stay present in their body and learn how to feel their…

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Proxemics and Nonverbal Communication in EMDR Therapy

Diagram representation of personal space limits. Inspired by Reaction-bubble.png by Libb Thims (WikiCommons - CC0)

In the field of somatic psychology, nonverbal communication is a key element. Nonverbal communication is the ability to read and understand people’s nonverbal signals. Have you heard the phrase “actions speak louder then words”? Well, it’s true! 60 – 70% of our communication is nonverbal while only 30 – 40…

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Working with Complex PTSD, Dissociation, and EMDR Therapy

Bahasa Indonesia: Ini adalah ilustrasi abstrak menggambarkan individu dengan gangguan identitas disosiatif. by 04Mukti

We often hear in the news about trauma and PTSD, but very little on Complex PTSD. So what is Complex PTSD? Here is what Wikipedia defines as Complex PTSD: “Complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD) also known as developmental trauma disorder (DTD) or complex trauma is a psychological injury that results…

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Somatic Psychology and EMDR Therapy

"car accident" by VladArtist

This blog post was written by guest blogger Dr. Arielle Schwartz, and was originally posted on her blog. A Synthesis of Healing A driver made a turn in front of me and suddenly I pressed hard on the brakes. My car slowed in the middle of a busy intersection. Crash!…

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