In the heat of anger, we often don’t use our best judgment. We may say and do things we later regret, or lose track of what we’re arguing about. Why is that? Well, it has to do with cortisol. You see, anger can spark an overload of cortisol in the brain. So where does the […]
How Anger Affects Your Brain and Body [Infographic – Part 1]
Anger can be a challenging emotion to work through. Sometimes our anger can be frightening. Or, maybe we consider it inappropriate to even feel this way at all. Not only that, when anger is misdirected, it often leads to poor choices, damaged relationships, and even violence. So what’s really going on in the brain and […]
PTSD and Emotional Trauma Affects Partners of Veterans, Too
Caring for someone with PTSD can sometimes lead to secondary trauma. And researchers at the University of Utah wondered just how bad that secondary trauma could be. While completing her graduate studies, Catherine Caska Wallace, PhD and her research team studied two groups of male veterans, along with their female partners. In 32 couples, the […]
How to Rebuild Secure Attachment After Trauma
When a person experiences trauma, there’s one key factor that can play an important role in whether or not PTSD symptoms develop – and that’s secure attachment. But what happens when someone has never had a connection to a secure attachment figure? How can we help our client build the feelings of safety that are […]
The Impact of Trauma on Future Generations
Could trauma’s impact be passed along genetically from one generation to the next? For years, Rachel Yehuda, PhD has been studying the biological impact of trauma on Holocaust survivors and their children. We discussed some of her earlier findings here. At that time, researchers were in the early stages of investigating epigenetic change – the […]