Our guest is Martha Straus, PhD, who works with adolescents struggling with trauma. She explains how she talks with families about historical trauma. She discusses helping parents co-regulation as part of empathic attunement. She shares about the increasing complexity of adolescent brains developing into adult brains, and how all of us have parts navigating identity through that process. She broadens the concept of body memories to include preverbal experiences later expressed as symptoms like under or over activation symptoms. She explains how all developmental trauma is relational trauma because it takes place in a caretaking relationship. She reframes self-harm as a protective strategy that “almost works”. She shares what it’s been like doing teletherapy with adolescents during the pandemic. She gives examples of repair after rupture.