My Stories
My blog, essays and articles feature stories on healing from trauma, coping with disorder and practicing mindfulness
Awakening: How Occupational Therapy Uncovered Hidden Trauma
It was March of 2018 and my third attempt at medication in three years. To try to ease my troubled mind. I had tried drugs before — prescribed or not — but this time, I was more desperate than usual for one to work. Because it wasn’t just myself I was trying to save, it was my marriage. My husband and I had recently experienced another incident. Another episode of me unconsciously going after him. Attacking him. Followed by me [...]
CPTSD, PTSD and Fight-or-flight Response: Living in a Trauma Cycle and 7 Steps to Ending It
When you’re living in a trauma cycle, your thoughts are wired for chaos. And you remain in a fight-or-flight state. Running from problem to problem. From crisis to crisis. Where I lived for over 23 years. The best way to [...]
OCD, PTSD and SPD: Learning to Relinquish Control and Stay Present
My husband recently needed to go to Rome, Italy for a film he was producing, and I got to go with him. I hadn’t been to Rome in 20 years when I’d had the privilege of studying abroad. Now, 20 [...]
CPTSD, PTSD, Self-love and Trauma: 10 Simple Ways to Practice Self-care Every Day
Notice I titled this, “10 Simple Ways,” and not, “10 Easy Ways.” As a trauma survivor, self-care is never easy. It is often the last thing I want to do. But it is the quickest way to begin to feel [...]
PTSD and Anxiety: Working Against Our Fear Response (and Tips for Feeling Safe)
My husband is a producer and had a film in a film festival—for which I couldn't have been more proud—and we got to go to the festival in sunny California—for which I couldn’t have been more excited. But I wasn’t [...]
CPTSD, PTSD, SPD and Boundaries: Learning to Contain the Universe Within You
Understanding boundaries has been an essential part of my trauma recovery—a concept I didn't know existed before learning how many of my boundaries had been crossed. While recovering, I’m learning how to set boundaries for myself. I’m learning what I [...]
PTSD, SPD and Fight-or-flight Response: Recognizing and Reconnecting to Our Proprioceptive Sense
My husband and I decided to go for a drive. Neither of us had been feeling well, and once better, we needed to get out of the house. My husband drove, taking routes I typically wouldn’t take. There were dozens [...]
CPTSD, PTSD and Trauma: Nows the Time to Understand Intergenerational Trauma
Intergenerational trauma refers to trauma that has been carried from one generation to another. The trauma rides along our genes like an anxious passenger. Wanting truths to be told. Wrongs to be righted. Justice to be served. Its a heavy [...]
CPTSD, PTSD, Dissociation and Fight-or-flight Response: How Childhood Trauma Shows Up in Marriage
I’ve been thinking about how May is both Trauma Awareness Month and Mental Health Awareness Month, and then I came across a story I’d written that took place almost exactly one year ago this week. It was during COVID lockdown [...]
Chronic Pain, Depression and Somatic Trauma: How Focusing on My Body’s Strength Makes Me Less Angry
After only recently learning of my trauma — of the somatic trauma that occurred 25 years ago — I’m just starting to understand my injuries. Injuries that didn’t make sense for decades. Like why I have a herniated disc in [...]
Mental Health and Well-being: We All Could Use a More Trauma-informed Approach in Life
My students have been forced into online learning due to the pandemic—and being forced into anything is stressful for anybody. It's made me think a lot about how we treat others when they're stressed. When we’re stressed. Or worse, when [...]
CPTSD, Perfectionism and Control: From Merely Surviving to Making Homemade Fries (+Recipe)
Recently, I was asked what those of us who suffer from childhood trauma do in our downtime. It made me pause. Well, there isn’t any downtime, was my immediate thought. Because when you suffer from trauma, it takes every second [...]
Chronic Pain, PTSD and Trauma: Getting Started Is the Hardest Part (and 7 Things That Help)
When I first wake up, it’s like everything is screaming — my body from the chronic pain, my soul from the emotional agony, my mind from all the things that have happened or that need to get done. It’s when [...]
“Loved reading this Jenna, what a great explanation of how your OT helped you. I have taken a few tips for a client of mine I am treating at the moment! Great post. Cheers!”
JAYNE OT