People with relational trauma often have trust issues, and they can be a beast to deal with if you're someone new in their life. People with a heavy trauma burden often have upside down compasses when it comes to knowing who to trust. Either they're paranoid and...
Today is Martin Luther King, Jr Day and the kids in California are off school. Today we remember one of our brave and imperfect Civil Rights heroes who had a dream that the ancestors of that generation are still fighting to fulfill. When George Floyd was murdered...
Why We Need Our Trauma Stories Validated (When Abusers So Often Minimize, Deny & Gaslight) In spite of every pretzeling attempt his child self made to be obedient to abusive fundamentalist parents growing up, my partner Jeff's family shunned him, making up a...
Since I'm gearing up to teach the Memoir As Medicine class with Nancy Aronie, I wanted to take a moment to write you all a love story. It's about my long term friend and now romantic partner, who you all may know from his work as the medical director of the...
I used to hate being asked "What do you do?" I learned that if I told people I was an OB/GYN, the next half hour would result in people telling me about how their vagina got ripped all the way open during childbirth or asking me for free medical advice. When people...
I had known my current partner as a dear friend for two and a half years before he felt safe enough to tell me the real story under his polished, accomplished, "I've got it all going on" image. He drip-fed me the story of his trauma history via text while I was in...
*Art by Jennifer BruceInterrupting The Irresistible Appeal Of The Seductive Narcissist People love to hate on the narcissists, and no wonder. It can feel like whiplash if we override all the warning signs and red flags and jump headfirst into those relationships,...
*Art by Jennifer BruceYou Have The Right To Control You- And Nobody Else. There's a lot of casual talk lately about power, control, and undue influence in relationships and communities. We banter about helicopter parents who control their children's every move,...