Healing From Purity Culture
While it is completely normal to decide to abstain from sexual activity until marriage if that is within someone’s values or belief system, purity culture has caused some side effects that negatively impact men and women. Here are a few steps that may be helpful for you as you're on your journey of healing from purity culture.
Healing From Betrayal and Developing Healthy Intimacy
Humans need relationships. From infancy, we learn to depend on others for our wellbeing. As we grow we become more independent, however even as adults we need relationships to create a strong sense of self and a secure base we can fall back on when bad things happen. According to Dr. Freyd, “Betrayal trauma occurs when the people or institutions on which a person depends for survival significantly violate that person’s trust or well-being” (2008).
Healing Through the Universality of Music
As a therapist, one question I love to ask in an intake is what people’s favorite songs/albums/artists are, or what songs they are currently listening to on repeat. This provides a lot of insight into ways the person may be trying to connect with themselves or the world around them.
How Self-Awareness Can Help You as a Parent
What you go through in childhood impacts how you show up as an adult today. Experiences that hang out in our brains and bodies without being fully processed become unresolved issues. Sometimes a state of avoidance and/or dissociation can be preferred; it might feel safer to ignore past experiences or maybe you have a hard time recalling that experience altogether. The tricky thing about trauma, is that even though it seems like you've disconnected from hurtful experiences, the pain is still there and may trigger unexpected or unwanted emotional responses.
Healing Sexual Trauma with Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy
Sexual trauma is an unfortunate reality for many individuals, often leading to a myriad of mental health issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, depression, and difficulties with intimacy. Traditional therapeutic approaches can sometimes be limited in effectiveness, but recent research into psychedelic-assisted therapy has shown promise in treating PTSD and other trauma-related disorders.
