Category: Helping Others
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Trauma’s Effects on Intimate Relationships
When I work with an individual who is healing from the effects of past trauma, she often struggles in her current relationships as well. She is grappling with the ways in which suffering diminishes her capacity to enter into trusting connection with others, and her most difficult interactions may be occurring with her intimate partner. …
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How to Uproot Shame
Without question, the most common concept I talk about with counseling clients is shame. From the very beginning of a counseling relationship, a client often feels exposed as he shares about his history and struggles. He senses that he is sharing too much or that I think he is too broken. He wonders if he…
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A Tool for Diminishing Intrusive Thoughts
Symptoms of intrusion are one of the markers of posttraumatic stress, as well as other mental health struggles such as anxiety, depression and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. According to the National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI), “Intrusive thoughts are unwanted thoughts that can pop up in our minds unannounced, at any time. Their repeated occurrence can make…
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Exploring Values with Trauma Survivors
If a person has been a victim of abuse, neglect or other forms of relational trauma, she has been taught that she does not matter. Her value lies solely in what she can provide for someone else, and she is not free to pay attention to herself. A survivor often has what some call an…
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Are You a Compulsive Helper?
Compulsive behavior includes thoughts, urges or behaviors that persist despite negatively affecting health, job or relationships. Normally when we think of compulsions, we imagine a person who constantly checks the locks on doors or washes their hands all day long. But any behavior that is persistent and includes negative effects can be considered compulsive. So…
Beth M. Broom 