A reader recently expressed something that has also come up in a recent consult. Many, and likely most of us, experience this at least some of the time when living with chronic symptoms: a level of exhaustion with the struggle, the amount of effort and work and time it takes for this chronic illness journey, and what it takes for the process of healing. Below are 12 tips for pendulating in trauma and chronic illness that help relate to that difficult place with more ease (and sometimes even with fun). Reader Question. Julia recently left this question in a comment on one of my blog posts: The ..read more

In my recent post I asked for your help on whether you took the ACE survey on my blog and, if yes, whether you had any chronic conditions. I asked because I cannot tell who is taking these surveys and who has these high ACEs and ACREs scores. Given that this is a chronic illness blog, I suspect that most respondents had a chronic condition, which is associated with higher ACE scores, but this is not known. I send a big thank you for all of your contributions!! Below are the results with your responses. The post Whose ACEs? CITS Survey Results “Did You Take the Blog’s ACE Survey?” appeared firs ..read more

I recently went to Canada to be with my mother for her 90th birthday and we had a really nice visit. She is independent, in good health, and starting to feel better after a difficult year since my father's death. I'm starting to feel better too. An unexpected bonus was meeting her 3 month-old kitten. It felt as though I was growing attachment and attunement receptors I didn't know I had. The kitten and I played for hours together. It was magical. In blog matters, I looked at the data from the 10-item ACE survey (adverse childhood experiences) on my blog that is available for anyone to take. I ..read more

I got a big splinter in my index finger recently when I was lightly sanding door trim in preparation to prime it. It hurt and I cursed, which is a very satisfying bit of fight response that arises spontaneously now, and that I don’t suppress when I’m in my own setting such as at home... The post Chronic Illness, A Splinter Metaphor, and Adverse Pre-Onset Experiences (APOEs) appeared first on Chronic Illness Trauma Studies ..read more

Hello Everyone! This is my first blog post since taking a break in 2022. During the past 2 years I’ve moved, experienced the death of a parent, and felt intensely emotionally weary from all the effort, time, self-care and other hard work involved in the healing journey. I’ve been almost completely intolerant of reading or... The post Hello After Two Years! 2024 Update and Now Offering Consults appeared first on Chronic Illness Trauma Studies ..read more

Guy MacPherson invited me to his Trauma Therapist Project for a chronic illness and trauma podcast. We talk about the science and some of my own story of how this became my passion. It was a joy and I appreciated Guy's depth of curiosity and questions that get right to the heart of the matter. We covered a lot of ground in 30 minutes. Today's short post contains bullet points for this conversation and a personal update. The post Chronic Illness and Trauma Podcast with Guy MacPherson (The Trauma Therapist Project) appeared first on Chronic Illness Trauma Studies ..read more

Hello everyone! and welcome to those of you who are new here after either subscribing or downloading one of my pdfs over the summer! Today’s post shares a big aha I had while working on my fatigue levels over the summer. I share one of the sneaky, easy-to-underestimate ways of healing and working with complex PTSD and developmental trauma. I have come to see adverse childhood relationship experiences (ACREs) as a remarkably common, often subtle, and hard-to-change underlying driver of symptoms of chronic illness. The more tools we have, the better! At the bottom of the post are upcoming events ..read more

This is Laila’s Chronic Lyme Story, as told through a nervous system and trauma lens. Laila is a massage therapist and Hakomi Therapy Practitioner. Her story highlights include: • How even a calm, normal seeming family can include risk factors • Her Invisible ACEs: Complex PTSD • ACE score: 4 • An easily overlooked risk for complex PTSD from prenatal life • The onset trigger • The tools that are helping her most • How she’s working with sensitivity to mold and wifi ..read more

Today's short post contains a free downloadable Healing Fact Sheet I created in response to a reader who asked if I could create a simple guide that she and others could give to friends, family, neighbors, landlords, lodgers, acquaintances and others. Someone had recently disbelieved her and put her down when she had set a healthy boundary to support her body and her health, and she had felt despair. As so many of us with chronic illness have experienced, this kind of emotional conflict and lack of understanding can be very stressful (and retraumatizing). It can also trigger flares. I made th ..read more

This is Avdeep’s chronic fatigue story aka #Chrillog. She writes about her experiences through a trauma and nervous system lens, with special insights from her training as an occupational therapist and in Somatic Experiencing. Avdeep was born in Kenya and moved to Ontario, Canada as a child. She runs SE-based groups as well as 1 on 1 sessions working with developmental/early trauma and chronic health conditions, including chronic pain. Avdeep’s story includes: - The event that triggered the onset of her chronic fatigue - How this event represented multiple effects of prior trauma - An adverse ..read more