Tissues hold issues. Now we’re not talking about Kleenex here, we’re talking about the tissue in our bodies: muscle, epithelial (skin), nervous and and connective. When we are stressed or experiencing trauma, our bodies enter fight-flight-freeze mode and excrete hormones that aid in shutting down our normal immune responses and increasing our body’s mechanisms most essential to survival. Author and therapist Babette Rothschild writes in her book The Body Remembers: Psychophysiology of Trauma and Trauma Treatment, “a psychophysical experience, even when the traumatic event causes no direct bodily harm will impact the body.” Even more, “the body cannot tell difference between emotional and physical danger.” The bodies fight-flight-freeze mode is…

Thanksgiving is the hallmark holiday for families to reflect upon and recite what they are grateful for. While Thanksgiving is a good reminder to practice gratitude, research tells us that practicing gratitude all year round is really the way to go. So What Exactly Is Gratitude? While there are many definitions out there, Harvard Medical School’s is all encompassing of the intricate emotion. Gratitude is: “a thankful appreciation for what an individual receives, whether tangible or intangible. With gratitude, people acknowledge the goodness in their lives … As a result, gratitude also helps people connect to something larger than themselves as individuals – whether to other people, nature, or a higher power” In the past few decades,…

Developmental Trauma is both a commonly addressed and functional expertise of Your Best Self. This is an important concept for our parents to understand as it affects more youth today than is fully appreciated.   What is Developmental Trauma (DT)? Developmental Trauma (also sometimes referred to as Complex Trauma or Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)), is: an exposure to chronic stress and/or trauma during the developmental years of childhood.  The parent or guardian is the cause of the trauma or does not aid in helping to reduce the stress. While experiences outside of the home can be very traumatic (e.g. war, bullying, racism), DT focuses on experiences that occur inside the…