Childhood is often painted as a time of laughter and adventures, but for many of us, it was a mix of both good and tough moments that still linger in our minds. Today, we're diving into those less-talked-about experiences that quietly shape who we are and how we engage in our world.

One such innovative approach is remote Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR therapy), a therapeutic technique originally conducted in-person but now adapted to virtual platforms. In this blog post, we’ll talk about the world of remote EMDR therapy and explore how it can be a powerful tool for trauma recovery, allowing individuals to heal and grow from the comfort of their own homes.

For trauma survivors, the aftermath of a traumatic experience can be accompanied by complex emotions, including grief. In this blog, we explore the profound ways in which grief can manifest in trauma survivors, shedding light on the importance of recognizing and addressing these emotions to promote healing and resilience.

I awoke suddenly and violently after surgery, struggling for breath.

Vomiting followed, the kind that feels as if you’re emptying the very depths of your soul. The pain of surgery was sedated by the morphine pump that took up residence next to me those first couple of days. One never knows how much they use certain muscle groups until pain makes it clear.

At the time, foods with fat were the socially identified enemy, so I religiously consumed cupboards full of fat-free snacks and a fridge full of fat-free dressings and yogurts despite my intense dislike of chewing on cardboard cookies or ingesting the weird viscosity of plasticky condiments.

At the time, foods with fat were the socially identified enemy, so I religiously consumed cupboards full of fat-free snacks and a fridge full of fat-free dressings and yogurts despite my intense dislike of chewing on cardboard cookies or ingesting the weird viscosity of plasticky condiments.

In our fast-paced and often stressful lives, it's essential to find moments of peace and grounding. Coping in the aftermath of trauma can be difficult, and is always brave. We believe that connecting with the natural world can be grounding, regulating and supportive of treatment for PTSD and CPTSD.

Now that summer is in full swing, we are too often bombarded with messaging from diet culture about “summer bodies” and all of the ways we “should” be moving our bodies to get those results.

UGH!!

Why is decision making so hard!?

Sources state that we make upwards of 35,000 decisions per day.

Whether or not this number is accurate, I imagine most of us can attest to how often we make decisions throughout the week. We can also likely call to mind moments we’ve felt lost or directionless. F

Struggling with body image issues and body dysmorphia can be overwhelming, and at times, debilitating. Body checking is one of the behaviors that many people with and without eating disorders engage in attempt manage their anxiety about their appearance. However helpful it might feel in the moment, body checking typically only fuels more negative thoughts, feelings obsession and hyper-vigilance about the body, making recovery difficult.

In this blog post, we explore what boundaries are and why they're challenging to set after experiencing trauma. We also prove some practical tips for setting and maintaining healthy boundaries, and how a trauma therapist near you who can support you as you navigate recovery and healing.

What are boundaries?

Boundaries are guidelines, rules or expectations that a person creates to identify reasonable, safe and permissible ways for other people to behave towards them, and how they will respond when someone passes those limits.

Boring self-care involves the small, everyday actions that may not seem glamorous, but can have a big impact on your overall well-being. This can include things like taking your medication as prescribed, getting enough sleep, eating often and adequately, feeling your feelings and engaging in joyful and connecting movement practices.

For many, the pursuit of perfection has become so routine, that it can be hard to recognize when you’re engaging in perfectionist tendencies and how much it impacts your sense of self and sense of belonging and enoughness in the world. 

Whether it’s striving for the thin-ideal, grinding and pushing for achieving or recognition, or pushing to have seemingly unmatched self-control, the pressure to meet society’s, and at times family of origin’s, high standards take a toll and can be overwhelming. 

Here at Reclaim Therapy, we are a group of eating disorder therapists and trauma specialists in Pennsylvania. As a trauma informed therapy practice, we understand how trauma has an ongoing and living impact on the mental, physical, relational, social, spiritual and emotional realms of the human experience.

We meet our clients with acceptance, curiosity, compassion and a genuine interest in them, and what they have experienced, as humans in the world.

We believe that it is a right for all people to resolve and heal from trauma they have experienced.

Two distinct components of CPTSD are:

1. Childhood attachment failure, even in the absence of other forms of mistreatment

2. Ongoing relational maltreatment like neglect, verbal, emotional, sexual or physical abuse. 

Outside of childhood experiences, CPTSD is also seen as a result of imprisonment, sex trafficking, torture or being exposed to long term conflict.

According to the CDC, close to 60% of adults in the United States have experienced at least one ACE, and nearly 1 in 6 adults has experienced 4 or more. The effects of ACEs are not limited to living through trauma in childhood, but often last into adulthood. Studies show that experiencing ACEs impacts a person’s physical and mental health, behavior, and social functioning.

Recently, I attended a trunk show for a well-known clothing brand that specializes in inclusive sizing.

I was excited to get to know the brand better and looked forward to supporting their efforts. I invited along a friend, and we headed into Philly for a session with our very own stylist…or so we thought.

In this blog we talk about why self-compassion is so important in eating disorder recovery and recovery from trauma. We have included a self-compassion assessment developed by researcher Kristin Neff and a scoring guide to guage how self-compassionate you are. This isn’t meant for you to judge yourself, but instead an invitation into developing into the skill of self-compassion.

At times you probably feel like things are going ok, that things are feeling a bit lighter, a less urgent, a little less impulsive to dive headfirst into eating disorder urges.

And other days it probably feels like you’re at the bottom of an epically steep mountain that is recovery.

Relapses in eating disorder recovery happen. 

And, they can be opportunities to grow in your recovery process. 

Diet culture is everywhere. When you start learning about diet culture, how far it reaches and permeates your everyday life, you’ll also start to recognize sneaky ways that it shows up in everyday conversations or in everyday activities.

Here are some common examples of how diet culture could be showing up in your everyday: