Concentric Circles of Trauma

Concentric Circles of Trauma

ByMike McBride Reading Time: 2 minutes

No, the easiest way to break up those circles, as any kid who threw rocks into the water can tell you, is to throw another rock and create new concentric circles starting from a different location.

Gee, in my metaphor about the trauma I wonder what those other rocks could be? Mental health treatment? Care and support from family and friends? The elimination of stigma attached to trauma?

How about instead of ignoring the circles we started throwing some more useful rocks and disrupting the cycles of trauma that we see repeated over and over again in those circles?

The Many Ways We Invalidate Someone’s Story
|

The Many Ways We Invalidate Someone’s Story

ByMike McBride Reading Time: 4 minutes

We could also talk about abuse here too, and all the ways our stories all invalidated. How many of these have you heard from folks who find out about the abuse you dealt with as a child, or even as an adult:

“You were young, you’ll get over it” (Or you don’t remember it that well)

“Are you sure it was abuse?”

“I can’t imagine (abuser) doing that”

“Why didn’t you just leave?”

“How could you have let that happen?”