This episode explores some of the emotional and cognitive changes that may occur once the perpetrator passes away. 

Today's episode is all about trauma drives - the experience of feeling ultra-driven to be productive in order to avoid triggers related to past trauma. 

Today's episode is all about the experience of shame - why feeling shame is common with survivors of childhood sexual abuse, why feeling shame is NOT justified, and what you can do if you can't seem to shake feeling shame. 

Today I describe the fawn response. Fawning is a stress response that is learned as a child that helps us stay safe. Fawning is when we try to please and appease an abusive authority figure in order to try to prevent harm from coming to us. 

Reference:

Walker, Pete (2013). Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving. Lafayette: Azure Coyote. 

Today's episode explores the link between childhood sexual abuse and chronic pain in adulthood. 

References:

-     Afara N, Ahumada SM, Wright LJ, et al. Psychological trauma and functional somatic syndromes: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychosom Med. 2014;76(1):2-11.

Felitti, V. J., Anda, R. F., Nordenberg, D., Williamson, D. F., Spitz, A. M., Edwards, V., Koss, M. P., & Marks, J. S. (1998). Relationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to many of the leading causes of death in adults: The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 14(4), 245–258. 

Mate, Gabor. (2011). When the Body Says No: Exploring the Stress-disease Connection. Hoboken, N.J., J. Wiley.

Van Der Kolk, Bessel. (2014). The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. Viking.

In this episode I discuss dissociation. Dissociation is a symptom that occurs frequently with survivors of childhood sexual abuse, which involves feeling numb, feeling like you're in a dream, and losing chunks of time without realizing it until afterwards. 

I describe what flashbacks are, and offer some techniques you can try when experiencing flashbacks. 

In this episode I provide information on Cognitive Processing Therapy and Internal Family Sytems Therapy. I also reference a few other trauma treatments (Somatic Experiencing, Brainspotting, Accelerated Resolution Therapy, Sensorimotor Therapy, Natural Processing). 

References: 

Resick, P. A., Monson, C.M., & Chard, K.M. (2017). Cognitive Processing Therapy for PTSD: A Comprehensive Manual. The Guildford Press. 

Schwartz, R., & Sweezy, M. (2021). Internal Family Systems Therapy (2nd Ed). New York, NY: Guildford Press. 

In this episode I describe what is EMDR (an evidence-based treatment for PTSD), how it works, and what to expect as you go through the therapy. 

References:

Shapiro, F. (2017). Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy: Basic principles, protocols and procedures (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Guildford Press. 

This episode is all about exposure therapy! Exposure is one of the most effective techniques that help a person learn to overcome the symptoms they experience from childhood sexual abuse. I describe how exposure works, as well as provide details on the therapy called Prolonged Exposure, which is the gold standard treatment for PTSD. 

I'm very honoured to have been featured on Feedspot's top 35 podcasts on Childhood Sexual Abuse! Check out: the list at https://blog.feedspot.com/child_sexual_abuse_podcasts/