Category: Suicide

1/12/2026 0 Comments

How to Grieve Well: Healing After Loss (A Therapist's Guide for Trauma Survivors)

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Grief is one of the most difficult human experiences to navigate, and when you're a trauma survivor, it can feel nearly impossible. I've spent years working with clients who've faced this exact struggle, people who feel stuck, numb, or overwhelmed when loss enters their already complicated emotional landscape. If you're reading this, you might be one of them.

Let me start by saying this: there's nothing wrong with you if grief feels different or harder than what others describe. Your nervous system has been through things. Your attachment patterns have been shaped by difficult experiences. The way you grieve will be uniquely yours, and that's not just okay, it's expected.

When Trauma and Grief Collide

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2/13/2025 0 Comments

Complex Trauma and EMDR: Turning Negative Self-Beliefs Into Positivity

Complex trauma is one of those heavy topics that we need to talk about more openly. Unlike a single traumatic event, complex trauma happens when someone experiences repeated or ongoing trauma, often starting in childhood. Think emotional abuse, neglect, domestic violence, or growing up in chaos. These experiences don't just leave emotional scars; they rewire our brains to believe some pretty harsh things about ourselves.

If you've lived through complex trauma, you probably know those internal voices well: "I'm not good enough," "I'm broken," "I can't trust anyone," or "It's all my fault." These aren't just passing thoughts, they become core beliefs that shape how you see yourself and move through the world.

But here's the hopeful part: those beliefs can change. EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) therapy has shown incredible results in helping people rewrite these negative scripts and develop genuinely positive self-beliefs.

What Makes Complex Trauma Different

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12/10/2024 0 Comments

How Teen Boys Can Stand Up to Bullies by Setting Healthy Boundaries

3 teen boys standing and talking on a sidewalk while a school is in the distant background.

Bullying is a tough reality that way too many teen boys face. Whether it's happening in hallways, locker rooms, or online, dealing with bullies can feel overwhelming and confusing. But here's the thing – you have more power than you might realize.

Standing up to bullies isn't about getting into fights or being the toughest guy around. It's actually about something much smarter: setting healthy boundaries. And trust me, learning this skill now will serve you well for the rest of your life.

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11/30/2024 0 Comments

Getting Through Your First Christmas After Losing Someone You Love

Picture of woman looking away from the camera as she sits on large, comfortable chair while holding a mug with a christmas tree in the background

Your first Christmas after losing someone you love is going to be hard. There's no sugar-coating it, no magic formula to make it painless. The anticipation leading up to the holidays is often worse than the actual day itself, but that doesn't make the grief any less real or overwhelming.

As therapists, we see many clients struggling through their first holiday season after a significant loss. Whether it's the death of a parent, spouse, child, or close friend, the holidays can feel like an emotional minefield when someone important is missing from your table.

But here's what I want you to know: you can get through this. It won't be the same, and it doesn't have to be. There are gentle ways to honor both your grief and the love you still carry for the person who died.

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7/22/2023 0 Comments

Why Does Talking About it Help?

by Emily Emmerman, MSW, ASW

Picture of therapist helping client reorganize thoughts and fears

People come to therapy for a variety of reasons - to talk about and processes traumatic events, to better understand themselves and the way they process the world, to learn new skills to be more emotionally flexible, and even to just vent about life and get some clarification. No matter which way you spin it, you come to therapy to process, and processing means talking. But what happens when we feel like talking about the past might open up Pandoras Box?

All too often I have clients come to their session who say something along the lines of, "I want to feel better, but talking about what happened won't fix it, so I don't want to talk about it."

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1/2/2023 0 Comments

Cutting, burning, self harm... what is it all about?

by Lauren Heinrich, AMFT

Cutting is a sign of anxiety, not just thoughts of suicide.

Self-harm is a scary topic. It’s not a common point of conversation, and is often misunderstood.
It might be natural to think that a person hurting themselves in such an extreme way must be
contemplating suicide, but that is not always the case. It is hard to think that a person can be in
so much emotional pain that they want to harm themselves, but it happens more often than we
think.

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6/8/2021 0 Comments

Teen suicide is a tough subject to talk about

by staff contribution at Inspired Life Counseling
Teen suicide is a tough subject to talk about. It is complex in its development and it is never caused by just one thing. As a former flight paramedic, I have had to treat this type emergency in a medical environment. As a therapist, I have kind of a different pulse on the community. These unintended consequences of the pandemic have had a dramatic effect on the mental health of our children and teens At the end of last year, not only was I hearing there was an increase in teen suicide in Butte county I was seeng the effects of pandemic restrictions on one of our most vulnerable populations.

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MISSION: To provide a tranquil and healing space in which people in our community can find calmness internally through the relaxing atmosphere, along with respectful and engaging therapy conversations. To contribute to happier and more secure families by helping individuals, couples, and teens heal within and thereby creating different ways of engaging with themselves, the world, and those they love.

VISION: Creating a new kind of therapy experience in the Chico and Redding areas in which therapists have smaller caseloads, giving them the flexibility to spend more time with clients as needed - longer sessions, phone calls, client-centered advocacy. Creating a space in our community where clients can go between sessions to sit, linger, and re-center themselves when they're having difficult days. A place to belong while they heal their hearts and relationships. A therapy office that embodies the unconditional love of Christ, no matter what a person's gender identity, romantic disposition, or previous life hardships, experiences, or actions might have been. To be a safe place.

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How to Grieve Well: Healing After Loss (A Therapist's Guide for Trauma Survivors)

Complex Trauma and EMDR: Turning Negative Self-Beliefs Into Positivity

How Teen Boys Can Stand Up to Bullies by Setting Healthy Boundaries

Getting Through Your First Christmas After Losing Someone You Love

Why Does Talking About it Help?

Cutting, burning, self harm... what is it all about?

Teen suicide is a tough subject to talk about

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