My parent’s entire generation was pretty much a generation of refugees who witnessed the trauma of war firsthand. I don’t think, for many of them, this hypervigilance was ever addressed or resolved. Many have undiagnosed PTSD, depression, anxiety, and a multitude of other mental health issues resulting from wartime experiences and resettlement.

This trauma that is then passed down from generation to generation can manifest through a variety of mechanisms, including unresolved grief, cultural stigma, and familial patterns of behavior.

For second and subsequent generations of Vietnamese Americans, our intergenerational trauma can present itself through cultural disconnection, identity struggles, and inherited psychological wounds. It’s transmitted through family narratives, behaviors, and coping mechanisms, and influences our sense of self, relationships, and worldview. Healing from intergenerational trauma is a complex and multifaceted process that involves self-awareness, self-compassion, and intentional healing practices.

Toxic relationships have a long-lasting impact on your mental and physical health, even after having left the relationship. Your nervous system can often remain in “fight or flight” mode, leading to ongoing physical health issues, exhaustion, chronic muscle tension, and lingering anxiety.

Yoga therapy and somatic practices are an excellent way to unravel the effects of a toxic relationship on your mental and physical health. Healing from a toxic relationship takes time, but with professional support, you can find freedom, become empowered through self-love and self-confidence, and discover what it feels like to experience healthy love.

I want to start by saying, feeling judged by your therapist is tough. It's like bringing your vulnerable self to a place you hope is safe, only to feel like you're being sized up. That stings, and it's okay to acknowledge that pain. You're not alone in this.

Let's chat about therapists and judgment for a moment….

In the realm of therapy and personal transformation, there is one fundamental aspect that holds immense power: speaking the truth. As a licensed therapist, I have witnessed firsthand the transformative impact that truth-telling can have on an individual's journey towards healing and self-discovery. In this blog post, we will explore the vital role of truth-telling in the therapeutic process and its ability to unlock inner healing, foster authenticity, and ignite profound personal transformation.

Trauma is a deeply distressing experience that can leave lasting imprints on an individual's mental, emotional, and physical well-being. While trauma is often associated with adverse effects on one's life, it is essential to recognize that some individuals develop coping mechanisms that propel them towards high achievement. In this article, we will explore the relationship between trauma and high achievement, delving into the neurobiology behind trauma and its impact on the flight/fight/freeze response. Additionally, we will identify ten signs that may indicate high achievement is rooted in trauma, and provide ten mindful and embodied strategies to manage the potentially problematic aspects of being a high achiever.

While not all religious institutions have explicit perfectionism as the standard, “high demand” religions – religious institutions that have very specific expectations, tasks, spiritual disciplines, and “paths” for their congregants to follow – hold congregants to standards which do not allow for deviation in belief, sexuality, gender identity, or personal preferences. Additionally, many religious institutions have standards for following spiritual disciplines and avoiding “sinning,” as well as a wide variety of consequences for behavior that are considered “sinful.” These consequences can be anything from required steps to confess and be forgiven, to public shaming, to excommunication/shunning from the community. This can lead others into taking steps to avoid “messing up” or at least to never share those “mess ups” with anyone in the religious community.

The ancient practice of yoga has long been associated with vibrant health and wellness. The word yoga itself means “to unite” or “to bring together,” connecting the mind, body, and spirit into one integrated whole. And while it has historically been viewed exclusively as a form of exercise, our ideas about what yoga is beyond a physical practice have evolved over the past twenty years. Returning to its spiritual roots as mindfulness meditation, yoga, and other body-based somatic practices are becoming routine interventions used in the treatment of mental health disorders, in both psychiatric treatment centers and in private therapy sessions.

Religious abuse occurs when someone uses religious teachings, beliefs, or practices for their own purpose and design to gain, or maintain, power and control over others. This can cause lasting impacts on others who believe in the religious teachings or feel unable to disagree with the teachings, including fear that if you choose to question the faith or even part of the faith, you will be kicked out of your community, you will disappoint others, or that you will go to hell because God is angry at you for your “lack of belief.” Other times people do not feel that they have the opportunity to say no or to escape harmful situations, because they do not know that they can choice to leave, to say no, or to have an opinion that differs from someone else, and often are explicitly told that they cannot disagree and must follow the religion’s rules.