Beyond Trauma - Free Online Summit Dec 3-5

[Kizzie]

Join Annika Jones, host of the free online summit "Beyond Trauma" Dec 3-5th for sessions by trauma experts, counsellors, holistic healers & survivors. Register here -  https://beyondsexualtrauma.com.

I'm actually a speaker at this one   

[Snowdrop]

[Blueberry]

  That's courageous of you Kizzie - speaking out to help others!

[Snowdrop]

Wow, Kizzie, your session was great! Thank you for spreading awareness and for helping us be seen. You are a shining light. and .

[woodsgnome]

I started viewing some of these with my usual dollop of skepticism about how useful some of these programs might be -- I've been disappointed by a couple of these 'grand' programs in the past, but I noticed my skeptical self melting a bit ... a nice surprise.

[Kizzie]

Tks Snowdrop, I can't watch it to be honest but then as a fellow survivor I'm sure you understand why.  That's the first 'live' interview I've done so it's been a bit triggering.  Doing it was fine, Annika is so easy to know and a gentle interviewer. It's the first ever summit she's organized one so I was happy to help out but it does take me out of my comfort zone of being anonymous.

Tks for the support BB! 

Woodsgnome - glad you found one or both (?) summits helpful.  I find them quite overwhelming personally, too much info all at once and a big time commitment.  I'd rather read articles or books in my own time or maybe watch a short YouTube video now and again but that's just me. 

[Hope67]

Hi Kizzie,
I watched your live interview, and I also think it is really good.  Bravo to your bravery to do that.  I think you are brave, and I applaud you.  You shared details well and clearly, and I hope that more people will come and experience the community here in Out of the Storm.
Hope 

[Kizzie]

Tks Hope, glad you watched it. I relented and finally watched it too and am content (except for the gravelly throat) with how it went. 

Annika the interviewer told me she did not know about Complex PTSD, just PTSD so speaks to the fact that CPTSD is still confused/lumped in with PTSD. More work to be done obviously. 

[Blueberry]

The conference is back online for anybody who missed it, at least if you were already signed up you can watch everything till Friday. I've just watched yours Kizzie. Bravo for speaking up for us and for partially stepping outside your anonymity to do so!

Annika the interviewer told me she did not know about Complex PTSD, just PTSD so speaks to the fact that CPTSD is still confused/lumped in with PTSD. More work to be done obviously.

Yes, I've noticed that in other conferences of this type. Very often the speakers themselves talk about ptsd when they really mean cptsd. Not to mention hosts and interviewers of course. Grr she says, gnashing her teeth a little.

[Kizzie]

Grrr is right BB, and a huffy/teeth sucking sigh. 

I feel like we're past the whole PTSD versus Complex PTSD thing and then I run into it again and wonder just how small is the circle of those who know about CPTSD and relational trauma?   

I am going back as Co-Chair of the ISSTS Complex Trauma Special Interest Group in January so hopefully I can make some more headway through that position, both with professionals in trauma and the public.  We'll see.

[Armee]

Thank you for stepping into the spotlight to raise awareness for us and the diagnosis and the help we need, Kizzie. I watched your interview and was deeply appreciative of what you are doing. 

I'll also offer that if there are (behind the scene) advocacy things you can use help with please let me know. I'll have some free time with my early retirement coming up next week. (I think I'm going to start calling it my "(p)retirement" lol.

[Blueberry]

I am going back as Co-Chair of the ISSTS Complex Trauma Special Interest Group in January

I watched a session from the Super Trauma Conference today: Self-sabotage by Crystle Lampitt where she got the difference. She mentioned cptsd, developmental trauma and relational trauma all in one go. I guess developmental is probably (mostly) a sub-set of relational trauma.

Unfortunately she and the host then spent quite a lot of energy and time explaining how 'complex trauma' arises because parents aren't perfect. They're often misattuned due to their own traumas rather than actually being malicious. That might very well help parents here on OOTS who are in recovery AND trying not to pass too much stuff on to their kids, but for e.g. me who is not a parent it's kind of jarring to hear. Well, I am getting better at not listening to that kind of stuff. Otherwise it was a pretty good talk.

They shouldn't really be talking about 'complex trauma' because we're actually trying to recover from decades' worth of trauma response so it occurs to me now that saying either 'trauma' or 'ptsd' could be a shorthand form for them and they don't see a big problem with being a little sloppy in their terminology. I disagree personally. I think precise terminology is very important. So I hope you bring up this topic in January, Kizzie, and that you are heard!

Another session where the speaker got the difference was Britt Frank, which was on yesterday, The Science of Being Stuck.

[Armee]

This is a really good discussion topic, Blueberry. My eyes stung when I read it. I think what they said about complex trauma arising because parents aren't perfect is so very very wrong and minimizing.

My kids are suffering minorly because I am less present, more forgetful. Ie I am not perfect. But they definitely are not experiencing trauma from it. That isn't denial. They are OK. They are loved and cared for as people. They are safe. They have what children need emotionally and physically.

Most of us here were traumatized by our parents. We don't have complex trauma because they were not perfect. No parent is. But because they did not even approach the threshold of "good enough." My whole life I minimized how we were treated or failed because my mom and dad had their own issues ...mental health and other (ie not malicious per se). But honestly that made it much harder to recover and to set boundaries. It was part of the trap. I'm actually feeling very angry that the speakers said that.

I am going back as Co-Chair of the ISSTS Complex Trauma Special Interest Group in January

Unfortunately she and the host then spent quite a lot of energy and time explaining how 'complex trauma' arises because parents aren't perfect. They're often misattuned due to their own traumas rather than actually being malicious. That might very well help parents here on OOTS who are in recovery AND trying not to pass too much stuff on to their kids, but for e.g. me who is not a parent it's kind of jarring to hear. Well, I am getting better at not listening to that kind of stuff. Otherwise it was a pretty good talk.

[Blueberry]

I watched a session from the Super Trauma Conference today: Self-sabotage by Crystle Lampitt where she got the difference. She mentioned cptsd, developmental trauma and relational trauma all in one go. I guess developmental is probably (mostly) a sub-set of relational trauma.

Unfortunately she and the host then spent quite a lot of energy and time explaining how 'complex trauma' arises because parents aren't perfect. They're often misattuned due to their own traumas rather than actually being malicious.

Just to be clear, they explained how complex trauma can arise or develop or whatever through misattunement etc and not that complex trauma (which really should be called 'cptsd' here imo) only arises thru misattunement due to parents not being able to provide all that emotional stuff. But then the amount of time they spent hounding the issue was a bit in disproportion imo, especially if you're sitting there listening with your memories of overt and covert abuse and your FOO is still gaslighting etc. But otoh they did differentiate between cptsd and ptsd and said some other helpful things imo.

[woodsgnome]

I agree with Armee and Blueberry about how it is irksome to hear the stretches made by supposed experts favouring these lurking abuses the parents must have endured.

That sort of reasoning sounds eerily familiar, like those who defend slavery and other social ills based on "if we only understood them better." Whoa, what?    Senseless actions are wrong, period, when they inflict dire injury (inner and outer) on a person who deserves love from "care" givers. I tried endless times to figure out the 'why' stuff and in the end it doesn't matter to me anymore.

Like most of these conferences, there's useful and not-so grand information that gets presented. It does pay to be vigilant and discerning about what's really being said.

Lots more, but my major thought, or shall I say major wish is that someone somehow can assemble a conference package that includes the likes of Pete Walker, Carolyn Spring, and/or the many others who can speak much more directly to the perils of actually living with Cptsd and how it affect one's daily life, and beyond.  As people who've been there/done that they'd be able to bring out all the inner/outer effects. Their experiences and subsequent scholarship would resonate far better than a collection of 'experts' who can talk, but haven't walked that talk in the real world.

Part of my dream is that, if I had resources to get such a venture rolling, I'd be passionate about helping it get off the ground. I can barely afford my own meagre existence, but I'd love to somehow support such a venture -- at last, a program/conference that would focus exclusively on the issues around Cptsd. If only, eh?