Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #HealingTrauma
Most recents (24)
“A belligerent samurai, an old Japanese tale goes, once challenged a Zen master to explain the concept of heaven and hell. The monk replied with scorn, "You're nothing but a lout - I can't waste my time with the likes of you!" #HealingTrauma 
His very honor attacked, the samurai flew into a rage and, pulling his sword from its scabbard, yelled "I could kill you for your impertinence." "That," the monk calmly replied, "is hell."
Startled at seeing the truth in what the master pointed out about the fury that had him in its grip, the samurai calmed down, sheathed his sword, and bowed, thanking the monk for the insight. "And that,"said the monk "is heaven."
A highlight of my day:
@Lisa_Wilkinson: “So the advances in technology that @ScottMorrisonMP is proposing, you say they’re not enough?”
Former President of Ireland and Chair of The Elders at #COP26, Mary Robinson: “No. No. Not at all. I am not at all convinced.”
@Lisa_Wilkinson: “So the advances in technology that @ScottMorrisonMP is proposing, you say they’re not enough?”
Former President of Ireland and Chair of The Elders at #COP26, Mary Robinson: “No. No. Not at all. I am not at all convinced.”
@Lisa_Wilkinson: “So why do you think @ScottMorrisonMP is relying on those so heavily?”
Former President of Ireland and Chair of The Elders at #COP26, Mary Robinson: “I’m afraid because he [@scottmorrison] is too influenced by the fossil fuel lobby.” #COP26Glasgow
“Most people going through the immigration process have to do it without Lawyers. They have to do it by themselves. They’re making their last fight against a trained government prosecutor, effectively as being blind folded, with your hands tied behind your back. #HealingTrauma
I am a Lawyer and a Law Professor and my wife is as well. I have two brothers who are Lawyers. A sister in law who is a Lawyer. I am surrounded by Lawyers. When I have a legal problem I don’t turn to my family to help me. I hire somebody to do it.
And certainly I’m in the privileged position of not having to deal with the kinds of high stakes matters that the folks who are in these facilities are. So that’s something that I’m certainly going to do because I understand the benefit, but Lawyers are only part of the answer.
How I Became A Warrior
“Once, I ran from fear so fear controlled me. Until I learned to hold fear like a newborn. Listen to it, but not give in. Honour it, but not worship it.” #HealingTrauma
“Once, I ran from fear so fear controlled me. Until I learned to hold fear like a newborn. Listen to it, but not give in. Honour it, but not worship it.” #HealingTrauma
“Fear could not stop me anymore. I walked with courage into the storm. I still have fear, but it does not have me.”
“Once, I was ashamed of who I was. I invited shame into my heart. I let it burn. It told me, "I am only trying to protect your vulnerability". I thanked shame dearly, and stepped into life anyway, unashamed, with shame as a lover.”
Carl R. Rogers (1902-1987) - Quotes on Being and Becoming: #HealingTrauma
“In my early professional years I was asking the question: How can I treat, or cure, or change this person? Now I would phrase the question in this way: How can I provide a relationship which this person may use for his own personal growth?”
“People are just as wonderful as sunsets if you let them be. When I look at a sunset, I don't find myself saying, "Soften the orange a bit on the right hand corner." I don't try to control a sunset. I watch with awe as it unfolds.”
“On one fine spring day, I was sitting on a Central Park bench and two women were sitting one bench just to my right reading their newspapers. Suddenly, one of them cried out, “Sophie, can you believe this! The story I’m reading here, oh my God! #HealingTrauma
This young boy, seventeen years old mind you, the same age as my Jonathan, he’s struggling with ideas about suicide. Seventeen years old, his whole life before him and he wants to kill himself. What would lead a boy to this?”
“Such a young boy, Bessie?”
“Yes. My God.”
“He must have some type of mental illness.”
“Oh, you’re right, Sophie. I just glanced at the next paragraph, and a psychiatrist explains that the boy has a mental illness called major depressive disorder.”
“Yes. My God.”
“He must have some type of mental illness.”
“Oh, you’re right, Sophie. I just glanced at the next paragraph, and a psychiatrist explains that the boy has a mental illness called major depressive disorder.”
“If patients were powerful rather than powerless, viewed as interesting individuals rather than diagnostic entities, if they were socially significant rather than social lepers, if their anguish truly and wholly compelled our concerns, would we not seek contact with them?
The facts of the matter are that we have known for a long time that diagnoses are often not useful or reliable, but we have nevertheless continued to use them. We now know we cannot distinguish sanity from insanity. It is depressing to consider how that information will be used.
Not merely depressing, but frightening. How many people, one wonders, are sane but not recognized as such in our psychiatric institutions? How many have been needlessly stripped of their privileges of citizenship from the right to vote and drive?
“Why are people so uncomfortable in their own skins that they need to escape themselves, even at the risk of self-harm? What engenders such unbearable pain in human beings that they would knowingly risk their very lives to escape it? #HealingTrauma
“We need to talk about what drives people to take drugs,” the famed trauma psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk has said, pointing out that there is almost a direct correlation between childhood trauma and addiction.
“People that feel good about themselves don’t do things that endanger their bodies… Traumatized people feel agitated, restless, tight in chest. You hate the way you feel. They take drugs in order to stabilize their bodies.”
My website has already had 3,889 visitors. 12,700 views. The top three topics are: “Why I Switched From Self Esteem to Self Compassion?”, “My Crazy Beautiful Story About Psychosis.” and “What Is Trauma Informed World?”. Thank you for learning about #HealingTrauma. 🌺🌿#YouBelong
I am speechless. I went my own way. I had Psychosis twice trying to figure out this crazy, beautiful, terrifying life. The place we all call home. This year I was asked to be the Psychologist for 35 Indigenous Health experts at Closing the Gap on Indigenous Health. #HealingTrauma
I was asked to be on an expert panel about a new Adult Mental Health Service. I was invited to be interviewed on Brainwaves about my lived experience of Psychosis. I have been invited back onto Brainwaves for trauma informed tools for wellbeing. As if all of this isn’t enough...
Today, the President of Blue Knot Foundation National Centre of
Excellence for Complex Trauma contacted me. I thought I might be in trouble. Instead, they asked to catch up about how we might work together.
Thank you Trauma. ❤️
#HealingTrauma #Justice4Australia #WeAllBelong
Excellence for Complex Trauma contacted me. I thought I might be in trouble. Instead, they asked to catch up about how we might work together.
Thank you Trauma. ❤️
#HealingTrauma #Justice4Australia #WeAllBelong
Why the divide and conquer mindset? Since we know it kills countless lives? It has destroyed this planet? Most people would agree that human being always want more. We consume, consume, consume. Then we consume some more. 1/20 #HealingTrauma
What most humans beings do not realise, is that we do not want more. What we are really after is all: Freedom. Except we can never have “all” physically or psychologically. Why not? Our body has a boundary. Our mind also has a boundary. 2/20
The boundary is what makes you, you, and me, me. So we cannot have “all” when you are half and I am the other half. Despite this, we persist endlessly. We divide and conquer: “I want the best job. The best house. 3/20
Three Phase Approach to Healing Trauma: Some trauma experts say it is dangerous to open pandora’s box. Some reasons: psychosis, sessions are not long enough, there are not enough sessions, or we have to return to a dangerous environment, 1/38 #HealingTrauma
vulnerable and have not yet established a sense of stability, clarity, the ability to regulate our emotions, or connection and belonging. So for such reasons there is a Three Phase Approach to Trauma:
1.Safety and Stabilisation
2.Processing
3.Integration 2/38
1.Safety and Stabilisation
2.Processing
3.Integration 2/38
Safety and Stabilisation: This involves learning trauma informed tools for wellbeing. These tools help us to be grounded so we do not get “flooded”. What is “flooded”? There is an expression in the field of trauma: “Be with it, but not in it.” 3/38
Do five world views help or harm Australia in the 21st century? I live and breathe Psychology: I’ve taught it at University. I’m a front liner for First Nations in community. I have a lived experience of Psychosis. We absolutely can recover. 1/27 #HealingTrauma
So it breaks my heart to see someone who can’t call Australia home.
We all belong. #WeAllBelong
Addiction illustrates this beautifully: Renowned addiction expert Dr Gabor Mate says: “The first question you must ask is not why the addiction, but why the pain?” 2/27
We all belong. #WeAllBelong
Addiction illustrates this beautifully: Renowned addiction expert Dr Gabor Mate says: “The first question you must ask is not why the addiction, but why the pain?” 2/27
If we wanted to created a system that makes addiction worse, that further disconnects someone, then you would design exactly the system we have: punishment, shame, stigma, isolation, disconnection. Ingredients for trauma. This is Australia’s home. 3/27
What is Intimacy and Play?
So, for simplicity, try conceptualise mental illness as living within our threat system (i.e. fight, flight, freeze, or collapse). Think of depression as freeze or collapse; anger, anxiety, terror as fight or flight. 1/12 #HealingTrauma
So, for simplicity, try conceptualise mental illness as living within our threat system (i.e. fight, flight, freeze, or collapse). Think of depression as freeze or collapse; anger, anxiety, terror as fight or flight. 1/12 #HealingTrauma
Remember threat system is only intended for a real life and death threat. So the two fundamental questions to ask are:
1. Is this moment safe or dangerous?
2. Is this moment real or my imagination? 2/12
1. Is this moment safe or dangerous?
2. Is this moment real or my imagination? 2/12
We need to get good at telling the difference between danger vs safety. Between imagination vs reality. That’s pretty much it. 3/12
So I was flying home this afternoon from my usual work in community with First Nations Australians. Reflecting on my short life of 37 years. Then I thought of a cool question to ask. What’s something funny, beautiful or quirky that you have experienced from trauma? 1/14
I’ll go first. So during my first episode of Psychosis I decided I had enough with civilisation. I sold all my belongings and bought one of those army back packs, a spear gun to catch fish, and some tins of food. Since I sold my car, I paid a stranger to drive me to near 2/14
top of Australia. A spot in the rainforest 🌴🌺 called Cape Tribulation. In my mind my life was set. I would live in the rainforest. I would finally be free and at peace. However, it was monsoon wet season ☔️💦🌨 and once I got there it was pouring down torrential rain 🤦♀️ 3/14
I have a crazy beautiful story about Psychosis. It was also absolutely terrifying. For those who have not read my threads on Psychosis, I did my PhD on the neuroscience of emotion. I asked the question where is emotion in the brain? Hemispheric asymmetry: the divided brain. 1/46
Well it turns out it’s not just in the brain. It is in our whole body. It also turns out this is a living cosmos. Bessel van der Kolk pioneered Psychiatry with The Body Keeps the Score. However, my third year of my PhD was in 2011, so these ideas were not fully mainstream. 2/46
2011 was also the year of Occupy Wall Street protests. The Maya calendar. Some said would be a spiritual revolution. Others, the end of the world. It was also when experts from all different fields increasingly appeared on TED Talks calling for social and political change. 3/46
I’m going to make a series of threads on a QLD Intermediary Scheme that begins today. A pilot program in Brisbane and Cairns to assist in communicating with witnesses with communication difficulties in child sexual abuse matters. It includes Trauma Informed Care: #HealingTrauma
QLD Intermediary Scheme: “In its Criminal Justice Report (2017), the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (‘Royal Commission’) recommended intermediary schemes be established in all Australian states and territories to assist in communicating with
witnesses with communication difficulties in child sexual abuse matters. The Department of Justice and Attorney-General (DJAG) responded to these recommendations by establishing the Queensland Intermediary Scheme (QIS) to commence in Brisbane & Cairns 5 July 2021 as two-year
Be the Change: Let’s turn six frameworks into mindsets for personal, social, political change: 1. Protectors 2. Threat System vs Soothing System 3. Self Esteem vs Self Compassion 4. Neuroplasticity 5. Trauma Informed Care 6. Power Threat Meaning Framework. 1/37 #HealingTrauma
Framework works are a powerful way of using a template of what we know works. Once these framework are understood by you, you can use them to reflect on your world, on a daily basis, for stability, clarity, the ability to regulate emotions easier, connection and belonging. 2/37
Once we have played around with them enough, the brain is very clever. We only need to say some key words associated with these frameworks and this practice alone can become a beautiful mediation. It can have a very powerful effect on your system: 3/37
“Let me be blunt: there is no defensible argument for why the Murugappan family shouldn’t return to Biloela. Not one. This farce must end. Far from sparking a resurgence in people smuggling, an act of compassion could enhance Australia’s reputation globally.” @MrKRudd #HomeToBilo
Must read by @MrKRudd on his 2013 Refugee Policy and today’s indefinite detention. #HealingTrauma #Justice4Australia #GameOver #TimeForAHome #HomeToBilo
Guess what @ScottMorrisonMP and @AlexHawkeMP!? Tharnicaa has the same birthday as Ann Frank: one of the most discussed victims of Holocaust! In 1940, after Germany invaded the Netherlands, Anne and her family couldn’t leave the country, 1/14 @AlexWodak @hbowly #HomeToBilo
so they hide in a warehouse to escape the persecution of Jews by the Nazis. For over two years, Anne wrote in her diary with an awareness that was extremely mature for her age. She detailed her experiences and insights while she and her family were living in constant fear. 2/14
Anne Frank’s diary showcases her incredible storytelling abilities in such horrific circumstances. In 1944, the Franks were found and sent to concentration camps. Anne died before she turned 16, and her father, Otto Frank, was the only family member to survive the Holocaust. 3/14
Break the Cycle: This week has left me with a sense of bewilderment. On the one hand I feel an enormous sense of love. I also feel inspired we share the truth for justice. Along side so many talent minds, such as former Prime Ministers, 1/14 #HealingTrauma #Justice4Australia
current politicians, journalists, teachers, medical experts, lawyers, professors, scientists, healers, poets, artists, adventurists, observers and many more loving and passionate Australians. 2/14
On the other hand, the Morrison Government makes no sense to me in the 21 Century. Are they trying to gain or lose voters? It seems they will lose Australian women who still feel unsafe and unheard. Older Australians in an increasing Aged Care crisis. 3/14
The Andrew and Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law at the University of NSW Sydney is the world’s leading research centre dedicated to the study of international refugee law. 1/10 #HealingTrauma #Justice4Australia #GameOver #HomeToBilo @KaldorCentre
Beautifully, the Centre was founded in October 2013 by former “refugees” Andrew and Renata Kaldor who were awarded honorary doctorates by the University of NSW Sydney in November 2018. 2/10 #GameOver #HomeToBilo
The Centre undertakes rigorous research on the most pressing displacement issues in Australia, the Asia-Pacific region and around the world, and contributes to public policy by promoting legal, sustainable and humane solutions to forced migration. 3/10 #GameOver #HomeToBilo
The Royal Australasian College of Physicians represent 25,000+ specialists. @TheRACP call on the Australian Government to immediately release Tharnicaa, Kopika, Priya and Nades from detention and to send them home to Biloela. 1/4 💜🧸 #HealingTrauma #Justice4Australia #HomeToBilo
End cruelty. Join humanity. 2/4 💜🧸 #HomeToBilo
End cruelty. Join humanity. 3/4 💜🧸 #HomeToBilo
Intergenerational Trauma: My humble two cent for First Nations Australians. Every year I hear Australians say “Why should I say sorry? I didn’t do anything!”, “If their culture is so good why did they adopt ours?” 1/13 ❤️ #HealingTrauma #AlwaysWasAlwaysWillBe
or “Why do they drink so much and waste their money?” “That was so long ago! Why can’t they move on and get over it?” So, intergenerational trauma does not work that way. You don’t just get over Genocide. 2/13
Or school kids calling you the [James] “Cook Killer!” because the History Teacher taught it. No parents to cry to. You were taken away. Or going to Church listening to migrant children allowed to speak Italian or Japanese, yet strictly banned from speaking your language. 3/13
