Preverbal Trauma and IFS, with Colleen West
On this week's podcast episode, we're talking about a difficult subject: trauma.
Unfortunately, trauma impacts most if not all of us. Obviously in widely varying degrees.
Thankfully, there is currently a wealth of information about the topic of trauma. We know more and more these days about how it impacts us and how to treat it.
And one of the things we're learning more and more about is preverbal trauma. This is trauma that occurs essentially from conception to about the age of two. My guest this week specializes in preverbal trauma, and we had an informative, truly enriching conversation about it.
On this week's podcast, I'm talking to Colleen West, LMFT. Colleen is an IFS therapist and consultant whose professional focus is healing preverbal attachment trauma.
Colleen has a wealth of knowledge about preverbal trauma, and her passion for this area is obvious. In the podcast episode, we cover a lot of topics, including:
The three types of trauma (single incident trauma, chronic trauma, and complex trauma)
How those with complex trauma can present in the therapy room
What Colleen calls the "Double Whammy" of preverbal trauma: immense shame and emotional dysregulation
How preverbal trauma is often misdiagnosed
What questions therapists should be asking about their clients' infancy (and if you're not a therapist, what to ask your parents about your own gestation and infancy)
How to tell if you may have experienced preverbal trauma
We also discussed the trauma of diet culture. Yes--diet culture is traumatizing.
As you can see, we discussed a lot!
This episode is geared toward both therapists and non-therapists--it's not full of clinical jargon that non-therapists won't relate to. So if you're not a clinician, no worries--it's still for you!
Again, Colleen is incredibly knowledgeable about this issue, and her warmth and compassion toward those who have experienced trauma is unmistakable.
If you've experienced trauma, I hope that you've found a way to heal from it.
If you're a therapist who treats trauma, I hope that you practice self-care so that it doesn't overwhelm you.
Where to find Colleen:
https://smarttherapytools.com/
Where to find me:
Click below to listen!