The shadow represents all the traits, desires, and instincts that we’ve pushed away or rejected because, at some point in our lives, we learned to believe these parts of ourselves were unacceptable. Often, this happens in childhood, when our survival and sense of safety were closely tied to the approval of our caregivers. As children,… continue reading.
Spiritual bypassing is a way of using spiritual beliefs or practices to avoid dealing with difficult emotions, unresolved pain, or the challenges life presents. While spirituality can be a powerful tool for healing, growth, and connection, it can also unintentionally become a way to bypass or “skip over” the deeper emotional work that’s needed for… continue reading.
Depersonalization and derealization (abbreviated as D-D or DD) can be an extremely overwhelming and distressing experience, where you feel disconnected or detached from yourself and the world around you (Yang et al., 2023). It’s as though you are observing your own life from a distance, and the world outside seems unreal or distorted, leaving you… continue reading.
Disassociation is a deeply personal and often misunderstood coping mechanism in response to trauma, stress, or overwhelming emotions by detaching yourself from your current experience or reality so as to not overwhelm your nervous system and body even more. It is your body and mind’s way of protecting you from any further overwhelm when reality… continue reading.
cPTSD (also c-PTSD, CPTSD, and C-PTSD) is complex post-traumatic stress disorder. Much like its’ counterpart, PTSD, cPTSD is also a mental health condition that can develop after a traumatic experience, and can be experienced directly within the traumatic event, witness a person experience a trauma, or learning that the traumatic event occurred to a close… continue reading.
We often wonder why a person, including ourselves, may have low self-esteem. But what is self-esteem? Self esteem is an individuals overall sense of personal worth and self value as a human being (see Orth & Robins, 2022). Self-esteem is a multi-faceted construct that allows us the ability to reflect how we feel about ourselves,… continue reading.