Your Trauma Therapy Nook
Blogs, Clinical Wisdom and Words of Support
A Trauma Therapist’s BlogSpot for Therapist around the Globe
The Intervention I Almost Made and Didn’t Do
She was carrying something unspoken, the door was open, and everything I'd been trained to do was pointing in one direction. I went the other way. Not because the technique was wrong, but because something in the room told me it wasn't time yet. She came back the next week and walked through it herself and it landed in a way it never would have if I'd led her there first.
The Client Who Said EMDR Did Not Work for Her
When a client tells you EMDR didn't work, or parts work made things worse, the modality is rarely the problem. What goes wrong most often is timing when you’re reaching for a technique before the relational foundation can hold it. Here's what that looks like, and why sequencing is the most underrated clinical skill you have.
When Everything Becomes Automatic
A decade of complex trauma work, a PhD, and still there was a ceiling she couldn't name. The trap of experience is that your process becomes invisible, even to yourself. Here's how one therapist found the language to make the implicit explicit again.
The Quiet Conversation Happening About You
There's a conversation happening in your field right now, and someone's name is being said. Is it yours? The Trauma Mastery Cohort is how you become the therapist other clinicians call when they're scared, stuck, and don't know where else to turn.
I Thought It Was Responsibility
She wasn't burned out in the obvious ways. She was just never fully off. Still running sessions in her head on days off, still checking, “am I really helping?'“ Here's what shifted when she stopped calling it responsibility and found a steadiness that doesn't require effort.
The ‘Polite Drift’ in Your Therapy Session
The Polite Drift is what happens when therapist and client are both showing up, but neither is going anywhere near the real thing. The same core wound sits untouched week after week. Esther shares what it takes to name the drift and lead the session somewhere that actually matters.
She Almost Didn’t Apply to the Trauma Training Program
She almost didn't apply. She was the one everyone came to with questions, but secretly she was at the ceiling. Here's what shifted when she stopped throwing out interventions and learned that trauma doesn't need speed. It needs someone anchored enough to hold it.
Let’s Talk About Expensive Venting
When a session feels functional but nothing is shifting, that's what Esther Goldstein calls, “expensive venting". She shares the key points in recognizing when your client's narrative is the defense and how to skillfully redirect without rupturing the relationship.
-
What does it mean by “the body keeps the score”?
How our body remembers and holds on to trauma.
-
It's Nice to Say No
Learning how to better set boundaries for yourself.
-
The Science Behind Trauma I How Trauma Differs from Stress
A deeper dive into how trauma differs from stress.
-
Working with Shame
Helping your clients push past feelings of shame.