It could be said that anyone can accomplish anything. In fact, such a sentiment is said too often, in poor taste, in the wrong context. For example, when someone has sustained significant physical trauma, or any other kind of trauma which may not be physical, they are prone to hear something like “You’ll get overRead More
In our previous blog, we discussed confidence and how difficult it can be to come by due to our own behaviors or the experiences we’ve had in life at the hand of the behaviors of others. We talked about the peculiarity of becoming a confident person in recovery and how once we find ourselves inRead More
We can find about a million metaphors, movie quotes, book passages, and other cultural quips online to tell us about that beautiful moment when we settle into our own skin and feel confident. Women have said that confidence is the sexiest outfit we own. Self-help leaders have said confidence is what can help us succeed.Read More
In our last two blog posts, we discussed the tall order of coming to believe in a power greater than ourselves as survivors of trauma. Our relationship to belief is complicated- for many of us, it takes years upon years to even reconcile with the ability to believe that what happened to us even happenedRead More
Coming to believe in a power greater than ourselves can take time- sometimes as much time as it took to finally reach “bottom” and come to step one. Fully experiencing and integrating step two of the twelve steps can be a similar journey. Admitting that we are powerless over something in our lives and thatRead More
The second step of the twelve step program of Alcoholics Anonymous reads “Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.” By looking at the step more closely we find a few key concepts. First, we are told that a belief in a Higher Power is something that we canRead More
It has to be understood that the inner child is a real existence. Of course, there is not a literal, physical, actual being existing somewhere inside of us, even on a micro level. Psychologically and emotionally, however, there is a smaller version of us who is frozen in time. Some kind of life event hasRead More
In our previous Alumni blog, we discussed denial. We took a look at what denial is in a positive light and a negative light. At worst, denial is the way we avoid stepping into transformation. At best, denial is the way we prepare ourselves to step into transformation. What keeps us from stepping up toRead More
Denial is perhaps one of the more quixotic phenomenons which takes place in our mind. Too often, we strictly see denial as something negative or some kind of a deficient default we resort to when we refuse to or find ourselves incapable of coping with a difficult truth. In part, this view on denial isRead More
In our early years of recovery trauma and various manifestations of trauma, we come to rely on a specific system of support. Along with our clinical team and our peers in treatment, we work to define who and what our support system needs to be and we build it accordingly. Through family therapy, we rebuildRead More