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This is the second of a two-part series on the neurobiology of self-defense. Part 1 focused on the fight/flight/freeze responses. This article will focus on the neurobiology of social interactions. The Neurobiology of Social Interactions Much of the following discussion

Let’s begin with a story: Someone in our life—maybe a friend, family member, or colleague—reaches out to us and tells us they’re transgender, non-binary, or genderqueer. “Ooh, I got this!” we think to ourselves. “I need to be an ally

Not long after posting Ours is Not a World of Heroes and Villains, I was contacted by the survivor in the story I shared.  She was upset that I misrepresented the situation, and asked that I leave the post up,

[Note:  I have published an addendum to this post.  You can read it here.] One of the things I often tell people when I’m talking about believing survivors is that all experience is valid; that you don’t have to experience

This is the first of a two-part series on the neurobiology of self-defense.  This post will focus on fight/flight/freeze responses, and how traumatic stress impacts those. Next time, I’ll talk about the neurobiology of social dynamics.

When Erin and I were identifying what would be the guiding values of Culture of Safety, we each contributed two.  Erin said that procrastination couldn’t be one of them (they asked me to write this article a month ago), so

As I begin to unpack part four of Brene Brown’s BRAVING inventory, “vault,” I realize it feels extremely personal. Why is this, I ask myself? All of the first three items (Boundaries, Reliability, Accountability) are—objectively speaking—no less personal. After all,

You might be asking yourself what does mindfulness have to do with safety or self-defense? After all, when we hear the word mindfulness, it often conjures ideas such as calm, awareness, being fully present, peacefulness and the like. Whereas, when

I’m in the middle of a tense conversation and the other person says, “You hurt my feelings and I’m really upset.” I’m flabbergasted! I never meant to hurt anyone and I certainly wasn’t trying to hurt anyone’s feelings. Why should

How do we know when someone in our lives is trustworthy? Brene Brown, PhD, LMSW, uses the acronym BRAVING when talking about and assessing behaviors that allow us to trust others (and to trust in ourselves!). We’ve so far tackled