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Year: 2022

Thea BakerBlog2022
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Trauma-informed therapy

Trauma-informed therapy

Quite a few years back now I was working as a Women’s Health Coach and Personal Trainer with a special interest in working with women who had experienced physically and / or psychologically traumatic births at the same time as studying my Masters in Counselling.  I had this realisation that when working as a trainer, coach or any kind of fitness professional there was a very real chance of working with people who had experienced some kind of trauma that might interfere with their ability to engage in exercise. 

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Self-appreciation

Self-appreciation

Not a phrase that is used very often, self-appreciation is as misunderstood as it is misused in everyday language.  In psychological terms it’s closely associated to self-esteem, self-worth and one of my all-time favourites, self-compassion.  As I’m writing this it is Easter Sunday and I’ve spent most of the weekend so far knee-deep in research for a Literature Review that I’m working on for Uni and whilst I’ve been grappling with things that I’ve found difficult and have challenged me, I’ve been acutely aware of my own inner talk.  So, this week’s blog is coming straight from a place of personal reflection and learning – I hope it’s helpful to you in some way.

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Positive / Protective Adverse Childhood Experiences (PACES)

Positive / Protective Adverse Childhood Experiences (PACES)

So last week I spent a bit of time unpacking the research behind the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (ACES) that took place in the 1990’s and has shaped our understanding of trauma and its long-term effects.  In more recent years this original work has been added to by a range of other insights including:

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Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES)

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES)

I’m a therapist who has a special interest in trauma and a big part of that interest and specialisation comes from my own lived experiences as a child and later as an adult, and my own personal experiences of ‘trauma’ is absolutely something that informs how I work with my clients.  One of the most fascinating aspects of working with trauma in its most broad definition – which includes everything from attachment trauma, childhood neglect and abuse, through to sexual abuse, family violence, loss and incident-based traumas like car crashes, bushfires, or floods

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My favourite resources: January – March 2022

My favourite resources: January – March 2022

Here’s another reminder about the purpose of this blog: I really want this blog to be a useful space where people can find all sorts of therapeutically relevant information, mixed up with a good dollop of personal reflections and ramblings with a sprinkling of humour for good measure.  I also want it to be a place where you can find links to all the resources that I share with clients, things that I think have strong therapeutic merit or that are innovative and really want people to see.

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What is EMDR therapy (and how does it work)?

What is EMDR therapy (and how does it work)?

 EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a psychotherapy that enables people to heal from the symptoms and emotional distress that come from difficult or traumatic life experiences or events. Our brain is super adaptive and usually heals from painful events in the same way that our body heals itself from physical traumas and injuries.  However sometimes, this amazing processing system gets locked or stuck and so psychologically traumatic events get ‘locked’ into our nervous system.  When this happens, it can feel as if we were going through the trauma for the first time, with images, feelings and sensations all being vivid and disturbing.

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Some more thoughts on triggers

Some more thoughts on triggers

I’ve been pondering a bit more on triggers and more specifically what role triggers play in our lives, or possibly could play in our lives.  I wrote a few weeks ago about triggers but more from the perspective of what they are and what we can do with them (if you didn’t see that one, click HERE). One of the questions I’ve been really digging deep into since then is the idea that maybe when we’ve worked through our trauma(s) using some effective psychotherapies (e.g.  EMDR, IFS, SE, EFT, Schema) we might expect to not get triggered any longer.  I really have been thinking about what purpose triggers really play in our lives and whether when we’ve either experienced traumatic events in our lives or have attachment traumas it’s reasonable to expect that we get to a point when we live trigger-free.

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More creative therapy spaces

More creative therapy spaces:

Following a post a couple of weeks ago I thought I would share some more insight into the other non-talk therapies that many of the therapists at Thea Baker Wellbeing (TBW) have specialised training in.  Remember that when it comes to working with implicit memories (things we don’t recall, picture-based memories of) that our bodies, beliefs and behaviours are strongly affected by, it makes sense that we often struggle to find words to explain what we are trying to express.  It makes talk therapy a little slow and pointless.  When we’re working with children or particularly vulnerable people in therapy talk therapy can also be inappropriate, so we love being able to work with a range of creative approaches.

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Powerlessness

Powerlessness

With two years of pandemic uncertainty under our belts, along with the associated lockdowns, restrictions, financial insecurity, closed borders, grief and loss we have all been forced to tackle the unpleasant feelings that arise when we are largely powerless to change our circumstances. And then, just as we were starting to feel hopeful that we might finally be learning to ‘live with the virus’ we were hit with the news of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine this week. Oooof.

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Creative therapy spaces

Creative therapy spaces

We are firm believers at Thea Baker Wellbeing (TBW) that when it comes to healing there are a wealth of non-talk therapies that are not only strongly evidence-based but are also incredibly effective psychotherapeutic modalities.  When it comes to working with implicit memories (things we don’t recall, picture-based memories of) that our bodies, beliefs and behaviours are strongly affected by, it makes sense that we often struggle to find words to explain what we are trying to express.  Kind of makes talk-therapy a bit pointless.

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