Over the past 10 years of my career, I’ve had the privilege of providing, training, and supervising clinicians and students in a myriad of therapies that treat the after-effects of trauma. I am passionate about trauma work because I feel such sympathy and drive to help people who, through no fault of their own, encountered and survived horrifying experiences. My favorite therapies are Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and Prolonged Exposure (PE) because my favorite clients to treat have co-morbid PTSD and Borderline Personality Disorder. It is an amazing and humbling experience to witness people who’ve been through so much get their lives back. Though with such intensive work, many ther
My recent conversations with a decommissioned special operations soldier with a history of multiple tours of duty have changed me. He’s a bear of a man with a heart that alternates between that of a lion and a lamb. He’s a man who has witnessed more than I can ever imagine or imagine forgetting. That man has shifted my views on the nature of trauma and challenged long-standing assumptions about how it might be treated. Strangely enough, my views on trauma crystalized as I watched a teacup fill to its brim and then fill beyond it. The cup was visibly over-filled but did not spill over. The bonds between the molecules of tea created attractive forces that allowed them to resist the force of gr
