Radical Essence Therapy PLLC

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Radical Essence Therapy PLLC

Radical Essence Therapy PLLCRadical Essence Therapy PLLCRadical Essence Therapy PLLC
  • Home
  • About
  • Approach
  • RRP & CPTSD
  • Finances/FAQs
  • Resources
  • Blog/Vlog
  • Contact

Common c-ptsd responses:

Below is a non-exhaustive list of common features associated with negative self-concept, emotional dysregulation, interpersonal difficulties, and physical complaints often seen in complex trauma survivors. I would encourage you to think about which ones you relate to most, or what may even be missing for yourself.

Negative Self-Concept

Emotional Dysregulation

Emotional Dysregulation

  •  Profound feelings of worthlessness, shame, guilt, &/or self-hatred
  •  Being led by the nagging feeling that you will never be enough & that people will leave you no matter what (i.e. believing that you are bound for relational abandonment or noticing how this plays out in your triggers)
  •  Viewing yourself as being ugly, unattractive, or disgusting (i.e. feeling shame about, or reverting into triggers around how perfectionism is the only attainable way to be seen & loved for who you are)
  •  Automatically assuming that you will be disliked or will be invisible to others, & maybe living in the stance of "why even bother trying?" or telling yourself how you don't need people
  • Relentlessly criticizing yourself, even for the slightest hiccup or mistake, in an un-fitting way (i.e. if a driver hit someone's mailbox that would just be an accident, but if you forget to pick up the phone when someone calls you, then you are the worst person in the world)
  •  Feeling paranoid about how others must view you or take you in, wanting to run away, hide yourself, or make them like you, despite it being ingenuine 
  • Hyper-analyzing what you say & your own behavior, especially in social contexts (i.e. walking out of a social interaction & going over in your mind every little thing you said & movement that you made that was "bad, or foolish, or stupid")
  •  Intellectualizing everything, including who you are, to stay on top of things & real or perceived judgements about who you are
  • Chronically having a sense that you are awkward, & not in an endearing way
  • Always owning the negative in relationships or in interactions when you're actually the person being mistreated (i.e. maybe you are the person who over-apologizes when you deserve an apology, or maybe you take on too much of a toxic person's shamelessness & disregard for you & others)
  • Selling yourself short of all good things, whether that's a promotion at work, a new opportunity, or fulfilling a dream, but instead writing it off as silly/foolish/unrealistic
  • Sabotaging relationships that are good for you
  • Over-engaging, for example, with an identity, such as being good at your job, so now you invest all of yourself into working too much & neglect all other parts of your life


Emotional Dysregulation

Emotional Dysregulation

Emotional Dysregulation

  • Feelings of chronic overwhelm (i.e. "everything is too much all of the time")
  • Avoiding feelings altogether, & going into a "numb place" (i.e. following the learned script about how it's not okay to have emotions, or how there is only space for certain people to feel, but not you)
  • Trouble feeling emotions, particularly sadness, anger, or shame (i.e. "alien" or "negative" emotions), yet being run by them
  • Difficulty accessing spontaneity, joy, & satisfaction (i.e. not knowing how to not take things or yourself so seriously)
  • Struggling with symptoms of stress, fatigue, & burnout, yet not knowing how to make room for yourself or coming up with reasons for why it isn't possible to do so (i.e. dragging yourself through the mud but then believing that you're not worth your own time for care or that you insist how you can't let other people down)
  • Troubles with shame-based self-righteousness, or the opposite, worthlessness (i.e. "I'll never be good enough," or the opposite, going into "lawyer-mode" about everybody else & how they've failed you)
  • Feeling alien or completely isolated (i.e. losing access to knowing you're human & that life/good-enough relationships are possible for you, & never taking the risks to be seen)
  • Difficulty trusting, & trusting others, even when & sometimes especially when things are going well
  • Struggling with ambiguity & loose-ends, or worrying what others are thinking/feeling towards you (i.e. a friend not texting back in 2 hours because they are at work, but you are worried that they hate you)
  • Finding harmful or unhealthy ways to disconnect from shame & rage (i.e. engaging in self-harm or punishing myself or believing that punishing myself will change other people)
  • Over-doing & under-doing (i.e. I will work myself into the ground so that everyone thinks that I'm smart & likeable, yet I won't know how to relax for a couple of hours to soothe myself in a healthy way)

Interpersonal Problems

Interpersonal Problems

Interpersonal Problems

  • A tendency to self-isolate
  • Seeking-out or attracting dysfunctional people
  • Difficulty standing up for yourself
  • Feeling uncomfortable or in distress around other people, especially in groups
  • Pleasing others to avoid conflict
  • Staying in relationships for too long, including toxic work environments, hoping that the dysfunctional person/s will change
  • Letting other people's moods tell you about who you are
  • Navigating people and intimacy by hiding who you are or changing yourself for each person to be "liked/acceptable" (i.e. playing the chameleon)
  • Ignoring triggers, or projecting triggers onto others like your partner, friends, or colleagues (i.e. displacing your elephant-sized shame or outrage onto the person in the present, when it was more bite-sized)
  • Believing you are not "good enough" for healthy people & selling yourself short
  • Creating fantasies about others & your level of intimacy, then being sorely let down
  • Staying stuck on or obsessing about your level of intimacy with another person who really doesn't know you very well or has expressed their disinterest in you
  • Ignoring red flags about people, & maybe believing that you have to be overly nice & compassionate to everyone or it's your problem 
  • Having a strong focus on what others do as being right or wrong, or a strong over-focus on fairness
  • Avoiding intimacy altogether for fear of rejection/criticism, or chasing it vigorously from someone who is unavailable (i.e. reinforcing patterns that I'm unlovable)
  • Fighting with your partner about the same things over & over again, & never getting anywhere (i.e. not knowing how to repair)
  • Avoiding conflict with intimate partners altogether (i.e. never fighting will keep us safe, but actually this is an issue)

Physical Complaints

Interpersonal Problems

Interpersonal Problems

  • Sleep, food, &/or energy difficulties (i.e. chronic fatigue, insomnia, binging)
  • Feeling tense, on guard, or on edge (i.e. muscle tension & hypervigilance, aka "armoring")
  •  Having difficulty concentrating, &/or being easily startled
  •  Wanting to jump out of your own skin, yet not knowing how to relax, & getting in your head about it instead (i.e. if I think my way out of this, then I won't have to feel my body or my emotions)
  • Dissociation, feeling numb or empty, & "spacing out" (i.e. losing track of time, &/or having gaps in memory)
  • Having difficulties with moderation & addiction (i.e. using other things like alcohol, food, sex, or drugs to avoid emotional pain)
  • Physical complaints arising from lack of self-care which lead to an increase in procrastination or a reason to be or stay unmotivated (i.e. well I can't sleep, despite the fact that I go to bed every night at 3AM and have to wake up at 7AM, so I can't go to work or therapy today)
  • Trouble with getting in touch your own needs & wants (i.e. it may be easier for you to know what others want & need, but you never seem to get into touch with what you want & need to be healthy)
  • Underactive or overactive libido 
  • Neglected hygiene, & maybe as a result, physical ailments (i.e. tooth decay that may have been able to have been prevented but you weren't taking care of your teeth by brushing twice daily like the dentist asked)
  • Neglected physical care & nutritional needs, including not taking prescriptions that your body may need, because you "forget"
  • Chronic headaches, migraines, bowel symptoms, pain, & inflammation
  • Unexplained nausea, pain, & medical complexities

Why should I consider group work for my C-PTSD?

While individual trauma therapy is valuable, group therapy opens us to heal in community with other trauma survivors who get it, expanding who we know intimately, & who knows us, which is exactly what got wrecked in childhood. Together, we learn to use our triggers like medicine for repair in the present.

why is working in community important?

Being witnessed in a group teaches us experientially how to feel safe enough with good-enough others, which most often leads to life-long support once group ends. Getting to be with others who are doing the same work & want the best for us helps us by gifting us people that we can be connected to on the outside.

More Questions About RRP Groups?

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