You do not need to tell the story of your trauma to someone to heal. You don’t ever have to find the right words in the right order. Much of trauma is nonsensible and unspeakable and learning to speak it … Continue reading Twelve Things Most EMDR Trauma Therapists Understand Deeply
The debate continues about the working mechanism of EMDR therapy. Dr. Shapiro’s original theory that EMDR may be similar to processes in REM sleep is less compelling when we consider the wide range of other highly effective forms of bilateral … Continue reading Is EMDR 30 Years Old?
We are entering a new era of trauma awareness. We are just starting to be able to make visible the central role that trauma plays in human development, physical health, and in relationships of all types. We are recognizing that … Continue reading The Ethics of Not Treating Trauma
When my son was six years old, he realized rather abruptly that we all have to die. I had a similar realization at about his age and I remember how suddenly and deeply that panic rolled through me. This realization … Continue reading “It Wasn’t That Bad:” Trauma and Invisibility
[Invited message for Mental Health Sunday delivered on 5/20/2018 at First Federated Church, North Jackson, OH. Message follows reading from Ezekiel 37:1-14: The Valley of the Dry Bones.] Good morning. I’m Tom and I’m a trauma therapist. When I started … Continue reading Faith, Hope, and Recovery
All memory is individual, unreproducible – it dies with each person. What is called collective memory is not a remembering but a stipulating: that this is important, and this is the story about how it happened, with the pictures that … Continue reading Regarding the Trauma of Others
I’ll start with what sucks. People do astonishingly terrible things to other people–unbelievable, unspeakable, and completely messed up things. This happens all the time and on every street. Trauma happens in virtually every family. A fair chunk of trauma is … Continue reading Being an EMDR Trauma Therapist Teaches You a Lot and Most of It Is Good
Full text (video text is shorter): Why We are Where We Are I’m a new mental health counselor. I saw my first clients three years ago. Nothing in my training prepared me for what I saw. Client after client told … Continue reading Why We Are Where We Are (A Video)
If you want to really mess up a boy, teach him how to be a man. Teach him to be tough and how not to feel. Teach him with your anger. Teach him to act and behave like a man. … Continue reading Reaping
Go With That 