Jeff Levy, LCSW
(originally posted on Branching Out; The Live Oak Blog, and Linked In, August 2016)

More and more I hear people asking for trigger warnings when there is a chance something someone may say or do will evoke emotional pain. This is happening on college campuses where students are asking faculty to provide warnings about difficult classroom material, as well as in mental health organizations, where clinicians are asking colleagues to provide warnings before talking about a difficult case. Innumerable articles have been written that either support or challenge the idea of trigger warnings.
 
It makes sense to be warned about potential pain however, on an everyday basis in our own lives and in the lives of our clients, there is often no warning about the trauma or violence that we might experience. Trauma informed practice may not be about proactively and explicitly predicting all possible painful experiences in order to prepare for them or avoid them. Instead, it may be about acknowledging our inability to do such predicting. It is then incumbent upon us to respond with emotional presence, compassion and sensitivity when we find ourselves, our clients, or our students in a place of pain or anguish.

Jeff Levy, LCSW
(originally posted on Branching Out:  The Live Oak Blog, January 2014)

After a crisis, illness, or other difficult life events, many people reach out to me to talk about their experience.  One of the first questions I am often asked is:  “When will life get back to normal again”?
 
We all have that desire to return to what is familiar; to once again find the rhythms of our lives “before”.  We look at returning to that “normal” as a sign that we have recovered and can return to life as it was.  We can release the breath we have been holding.  Everything will be ok.  Normal.