Dispatches from the front lines of trauma healing.

I’ve been writing about trauma healing, PTSD, CPTSD, and wellbeing for almost 15 years, exploring what it means to be a high-performer making impact in the world — without sacrificing health or happiness.

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21 Signs of Unresolved Sexual Trauma (that You Can Heal)
PTSD and CPTSD, Trauma and Relationships Elie Losleben Calhoun PTSD and CPTSD, Trauma and Relationships Elie Losleben Calhoun

21 Signs of Unresolved Sexual Trauma (that You Can Heal)

Often, unresolved sexual trauma is held in the body by layers of tension and fear. The body doesn’t want it to escape because it fears the traumatic imprint might affect our ability to function. We keep it — and ourselves — on lockdown. Consciously or unconsciously, we push it out of awareness.

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The Taboo of Healing with Pleasure
PTSD and CPTSD Elie Losleben Calhoun PTSD and CPTSD Elie Losleben Calhoun

The Taboo of Healing with Pleasure

This is what so much trauma healing work gets wrong. It's not about intensity — it's about rewiring the body and mind towards goodness and pleasure. And the number one, most overlooked, yet scientifically proven way to move forward is through pleasure.

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The Reality of Post-Traumatic Growth
PTSD and CPTSD Elie Losleben Calhoun PTSD and CPTSD Elie Losleben Calhoun

The Reality of Post-Traumatic Growth

Once we learn the skills to navigate and heal our trauma, we have the ability to do so for the rest of our lives. As time progresses, we see how we're able to meet life's challenges. These are new skills that we didn't have before, and they bring a multitude of blessings to our lives.

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The Sacred “No”
PTSD and CPTSD Elie Losleben Calhoun PTSD and CPTSD Elie Losleben Calhoun

The Sacred “No”

Our “no” is something that belongs only to us, as we choose what we accept and allow in our lives. Our “no” sets a boundary. And we have the choice to put boundaries around everything that matters of us – our bodies, our energy, our attention, our time, and more.

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The Antidote to Trauma
PTSD and CPTSD Elie Losleben Calhoun PTSD and CPTSD Elie Losleben Calhoun

The Antidote to Trauma

Pleasure is the single most effective tool for gently and effectively resolving trauma. It forges new neural pathways that connect the thalamus (a sensing part of the brain) to the neocortex and helps us to literally feel again.

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Foundational Trauma Skills for the Body (Part 1)
PTSD and CPTSD Elie Losleben Calhoun PTSD and CPTSD Elie Losleben Calhoun

Foundational Trauma Skills for the Body (Part 1)

It sounds counterintuitive to go towards the trauma when your body, mind, and emotions are screaming at you to run away. But by learning to sit with what is already here, bit by bit, we gently befriend our responses and learn to tend attentively to our own needs. It’s an intrinsically healing process.

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Trauma and the Body
PTSD and CPTSD Elie Losleben Calhoun PTSD and CPTSD Elie Losleben Calhoun

Trauma and the Body

Trauma happens when a person is overwhelmed and responds with intense fear, even terror, and feels helpless. Trauma is an intense experience for the body, especially the nervous system. The state of being overwhelmed is highly uncomfortable and takes a lot of energy to process.

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Fear and the False Self
PTSD and CPTSD, Trauma and Relationships Elie Losleben Calhoun PTSD and CPTSD, Trauma and Relationships Elie Losleben Calhoun

Fear and the False Self

Trauma happens when the body's systems are overwhelmed and get stuck digesting the traumatic experience, so the impact of it stays in the system rather than being processed and discharged. This can be experienced many ways, particularly as fear, which is often described in self-help programs as "false evidence appearing real."

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Help with Hypervigilance
PTSD and CPTSD Elie Losleben Calhoun PTSD and CPTSD Elie Losleben Calhoun

Help with Hypervigilance

Hypervigilance means being overly attentive to your environment because you are afraid something terrible is about to happen. It’s like we don’t want to be surprised by bad news, so we think we can anticipate it. Only, that’s not how it works. Hypervigilance actually does the opposite of protecting us.

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The #1 Reason You Shouldn’t Meditate
PTSD and CPTSD Elie Losleben Calhoun PTSD and CPTSD Elie Losleben Calhoun

The #1 Reason You Shouldn’t Meditate

People with active Post-Traumatic Stress (PTSD) or other types of trauma should not meditate the way that other people meditate. People with active trauma symptoms or who are easily triggered into flashbacks need to create alternative pathways to meditation that work for their brains and bodies.

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Post-Traumatic Stress is Not a Disorder
PTSD and CPTSD Elie Losleben Calhoun PTSD and CPTSD Elie Losleben Calhoun

Post-Traumatic Stress is Not a Disorder

Trauma is simply a stressful event that gets stuck in the brain and body. There is nothing “disordered” or “not in order” about it. It is an orderly, predictable and very natural response to an event. Calling our body’s response to trauma a “disorder” creates shame and keeps our options in the shadows.

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