Georgina K Smith, Ph.D. Clinical Psychologist

Honored to be presenting at Hazell Forums' Addiction and Trauma Conference in London this May. Proudly representing my IOP Revolve Recovery and excited to present on our passion and purpose - trauma treatment.
Here’s to inspiring change through education, connection, and thought-provoking conversations. Hope to see colleagues and friends there!

…”To be alive is to be in a perpetual state of revolution. Whether I like it or not, pain is the fuel of revolution. Everything I need to become the [person] I’m meant to be next is inside my feelings of now. Life is alchemy, and emotions are the fire that turns me to gold. I will continue to become only if I resist extinguishing myself a million times a day. If I can sit in the fire of my own feelings, I will keep becoming.”
- Glennon Doyle, Untamed

Sharing this excellent article posted by The Trauma Project and written by Emma Cameron.
Important and relevant points when seeking trauma informed care. A beautiful way to frame the work we trauma therapists do in the more contemporary relational, somatic, non-pathologizing, parts work and meaning seeking context.

Trauma Therapy Has Changed - Here's How - emmacameron.com Trauma therapy has changed. Here is a clear description of key differences between modern trauma treatment for PTSD versus old style therapy.

https://yourpilotlight.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-intersection-of-covid-19-and-legacy.html."However, when a global pandemic arrives on our doorstep, some of these individuals may have a re-lived experience of the circumstances in the outside world once again matching their internal alarm system, matching their history. Their alarm is intricately wired to tune in to exactly these catastrophic circumstances. So for some, they may experience a paradoxical sense of calm even if they also experience moments of triggering and panic and fear. A state of familiarity and knowing in the fear and uncertainty. An odd sense of comfort or aliveness and function in the chaos. Finding function in the need to do something to keep others safe. There may be a sense of control despite everything being completely out of control. They may temporarily reduce certain need seeking behaviors because of feeling a familiar attunement to the crisis, because of the matching of inside and outside that is happening. The past feels once again present. The quarantine and self-isolation may also feel at times calming in the sense of feeling like there is permission to retreat, to have a break from ‘performing’ for the world around them, for them to feel safe in the controlled alone-ness and to have a sense of knowing where everyone is, giving them the experience of less exposed risk..."

'The Intersection of COVID-19 and the Legacy of Trauma' by Georgina K Smith, PhD “In the midst of this catastrophe, more than looking in to find serenity we need to look out for one another to practice humanity”...

https://humanwindow.com/dr-gabor-mate-interview-childhood-trauma-anxiety-culture/
“Trauma is when there is a loss of feeling and there is a reduced flexibility in responding to the world. This is a response to a wound./ Trauma is a psychic wound that hardens you psychologically that then interferes with your ability to grow and develop. It pains you and now you’re acting out of pain./Trauma is not what happens to you, it’s what happens inside you as a result of what happened to you. Trauma is that scarring that makes you less flexible, more rigid, less feeling and more defended.”

Dr Gabor Maté on Childhood Trauma, The Real Cause of Anxiety and Our 'Insane' Culture - Human Window Dr Gabor Maté is a renowned expert in addiction, childhood trauma and mind-body health. In this interview, we spoke about a wide variety of topics, ranging from how he believes that most mental health conditions originate from unresolved childhood trauma, to why he describes current Western culture...

“To a survivor, telling them to “think positive” sounds cruel. I mean, that’s exactly the problem for anyone recovering from psychological and emotional abuse. Their thoughts were hijacked by someone else, and now they are fighting for their sanity to get their own thoughts back.”

Why Trauma Survivors Can't Just 'Let It Go' "Next time you feel compelled to encourage someone to 'let it go,' don't."

https://mashable.com/article/community-care-versus-self-care/

“People committed to leveraging their privilege to be there for one another in various ways..... It's about being committed to being there for people, it’s about being there for people without them having to take the initial first step. It's about adopting an ethos of compassion and very intentionally applying that..... Self-care alone can't solve systemic issues. For that, you need community care.”

Self-care isn't enough. We need community care to thrive. Self-care alone can't heal communities.

“Parents create attachment because they just keep showing up and trying to make things a little better for the infant—they feed it, change it, rock it and help it get to sleep. They make mistakes and they repair them. They are there. Over and over endlessly, they are there. And this endless thereness. This endless thereness with repair after repair—this is what creates basic trust.”

Imagine being loved anyway I am so tired of people lecturing about trust. About how it is the basis of relationships and what ‘3 things’ lead to trust. I’m tired of it because it is all too simplistic. I am tired of it because they try to make it sound neat and clean and easy. Something you can accomplish in a workshop ...

A poignant piece by Gretchen Schmelzer... a reminder to become compassionately aware of all the parts of ourselves, how they show up, why they show up, and if we truly still need those parts in the same way...

Wondergirl Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE

Sending light to you as we move into this new year, this new space, and the endless possibilities...

Your worth is unquestionable
You matter
Whatever it is, it will pass
Your voice is beautiful
You are accepted as is
You are courageous
You can figure this out
You are kind
You are fierce
You are forgiven and forgiving
You hold more wisdom than you know
Trust your ‘self’ beneath the layers of coping that no longer serve you
You accept what is to create the change that can be
You fight for what is right
You know everyone is connected and we affect each other, our communities, and our world with our actions
Simply putting one foot in front of the other can be a victory
You can start wherever you are with whatever you have
You are loved

It really happened and we need to heal from it Yesterday’s testimony by Dr. Blasey Ford and Judge Brett Kavanaugh was a super storm that destroyed the shoreline of every trauma survivor. It tore through any protections any survivor had covering the old wounds. It destroyed any magical thinking that the powerful would protect the assaulted—es...

"Look: you are an embraceable mess. A mess that is holy to its very core. You could never be what they wanted you to be. You were always too alive, too inquisitive, born with a heart broken open to life. They tried to close it, but it would never close.
You wouldn’t fit in. You couldn’t conform. You could never squeeze yourself into their ideal of ‘perfection’. The perfect thoughts and feelings, the ‘right’ way to be - your heart was always too big.
Let everything flood in now. Give up. Fall apart. Break down. Let the old dreams of self die a beautiful death. Let all the lost fragments find safety in your loving arms."
~Jeff Foster

It’s not easy, but we keep showing up. 🧡

Thank you, Pema Chödrön.

Reflections on mental illness, suffering, trauma and su***de after the recent losses of Kate Spade, Anthony Bourdain, and the people who die by su***de every 40 seconds and the 22 veterans who die by su***de every day. https://yourpilotlight.blogspot.com/2018/06/fellow-travelers.html

Fellow Travelers By Georgina K. Smith, Ph.D. “You wake up in Chicago, pull back the curtain and you KNOW where you are. You could be nowhere else. You a...

http://gretchenschmelzer.com/blog-1/2016/3/11/xvkvays1wu84uxqxs3j6d6wkycx6jz #
A powerful insight into the layers of trauma...”But instead you look around and oddly miss the fearful presence you had become accustomed to. This is the growing edge of healing. It is counterintuitive because you are used to hard work. You are used to toughing it out. You are not used to quiet and rest. And you are not used to seeing yourself in all of that quiet: a quiet pond is the one you can see your reflection in.” - Gretchen Schmelzer

For Trauma Survivors, Quiet Moments Can Be Challenging “ I wept like a child. It was not because I was overcome at having survived my ordeal, though I was. Nor was it the presence of my brothers and sisters, though that too was very moving. I was weeping because ....fill in the blank with whatever/whoever helped you survive... had left me so un

Take up space.
Speak.
Be too much.

A powerful and informative article on trauma responses and attachment.
“Our trauma reactions are hardwired into these vessels we inhabit. The theory of a “defense cascade,” supported by Porges’ polyvagal theory, suggests our trauma responses occur in a specific sequence: we move from our “social nervous system” to “fight or flight” and then to “freeze.”

The work of Peter Levine, developer of Somatic Experiencing®, supports another idea: longer-held, character-shaping postures that are often the response to ongoing or repeated trauma also occur in sequence. To escape from these postures, then, it may be necessary to traverse the sequence in reverse: from freeze, through fight or flight, and then back to social connection.

What follows is a framework of attachment styles that serves as both a defense “cascade” and a progression through beliefs of dependence or abandonment. Note that, while this is presented as a “simplified” model, humans are not simple. We each come with hardwired temperaments and a variety of motivation systems—though our survival and attachment systems often overrides these—and we internalize multiple caregivers. Few of us remain consistently in one attachment style across a range of situations.”

Attachment as Defense: How Trauma Shapes the Self Attachment styles, often impacted by early trauma, play an important role in relationships and interactions but also affect how a person relates to the self.

Brené Brown

This was one of my biggest learnings from the research on Braving the Wilderness. It's changed how I move through the world, how I talk to my children about belonging, and how I think about our culture at work. It's my wish for all of us.

Thriving Through the Holidays | Georgina K. Smith, Ph.D.

http://drgeorginasmith.com/thriving-through-the-holidays/
My latest blog post with 10 tips on how to cope with the challenges that arise for many people throughout the holidays.

drgeorginasmith.com The holidays bring us an opportunity for celebration, expressions of love, gratitude, faith and tradition; festive rituals and togetherness. They can also be a time for many that bring a resurgence of grief for loved ones lost, a yearning for times and experiences no longer present, a reminder of un...

The Trauma Project

An excellent article and trauma resource that I am re-sharing from The Trauma Project.

“Crittenden has shown us that frightened children are not actually disorganised in their behaviour, but in fact they always organise themselves around danger by using a fluid combination of attachment behaviours to survive the environment they are in at that given moment.” - Dr Shoshanah Lyons

This is an excellent description of Bruce Perry's Neuro-Sequential Model of Therapeutics and how this form of bottom-up recovery and repair is phased in working with children, parents, and schools (see interventions).

From beaconhouse.org.uk

Game On Family

Parents, Therapists, Counselors: my dear friend Camille Childs' site (http://gameonfamily.com/) is hosting a Therapy Games Giveaway = $100. Let's encourage better communication and conversation through play! Sign up here by 10/18/17: http://gameonfamily.com/?p=13603.

Because Friday night is not the same post 👶. Find fun , game & game night ideas. Game on!

The Adolescent Collective - Splash

Excited to be presenting at The Adolescent and Young Adult Collective next week!
Please join us!

"Dr. Smith's MVC (mindful-vulnerable-connected) approach to treating addiction was born out of the awareness of needing to reconnect with process and being, not just doing, and remembering there is a foundation of theoretical constructs and a science to the process of being that can bring a client relief and growth. It was also born out of the alchemy of realness, relatedness and vulnerability that help build readiness and facilitate repair in the face of a stubborn and deadly addiction. It was born out of the need to connect and reach someone who has found function in being disconnected. Only in connection can any intervention take effect.
This talk incorporates stories and self-disclosure and looks at the importance of accessing our humanness, realness, truth, and connection in the room with a young client who is struggling with the complex etiologies and profound effects of addiction. Elements of established, evidence-based therapy modalities are integrated along with a core concept of connection through being of service to create a progressive therapy flow and effective connection with a client. Four specific elements are defined that create the foundation of the MVC treatment approach: The 4 R's: Readiness, Realness, Relatedness, and Repair."
https://theadolescentcollective.splashthat.com

theadolescentcollective.splashthat.com The ADOLESCENT + YOUNG ADULT COLLECTIVE is a gathering of professionals dedicated and passionate about working with adolescents and emerging young adults. This event will be two full days of educational offerings, fun activities and networking. The breakout sessions will offer dynamic, engaging pre...