Using Your Senses as Self Care: Grounding

Blog by Ashley Simpson, LCSW at Agape Therapy Institute

Your senses are powerful. Your senses link deep in your brain to your memories. Your brain - your amygdala specifically - can bring you back to a time and place that you have been in the past using sensory data. For example, the smell of bacon cooking reminds me of my grandmother.

In some cases this can be unpleasant. If you have experienced trauma, activating your amygdala through your senses can send your thoughts back to a time and place where you have been harmed or threatened in the past. Next your hippocampus is stimulated by this memory, which triggers the fear response… thus, the flashback and stress response. 

Grounding

To calm the fear response in individuals who have experienced trauma, have anx ...

Compassion Fatigue

Blog by Ashley Simpson, LCSW at Agape Therapy Institute

Are you a caregiver? Are you the primary caregiver of small children, have a child or other family member with special needs, have someone in the home who is ill, or have an elderly parent you care for? Do you work in a field where you are constantly taking care of others? Do you feel exhausted by negative news stories and find yourself thinking “why bother?” It is common for caregivers, and empaths, to experience something called “compassion fatigue.” 

What is Compassion Fatigue?

There are two definitions of “compassion fatigue” in the dictionary. One is: “the physical and mental exhaustion and emotional withdrawal experienced by those who care for sick or traumatized people over an extended period of time”. The other is “apathy or indif ...

Comparative Suffering: How Silencing Your Own Pain Hurts Everyone

Blog by Rebecca Gallardo, GSCI at Agape Therapy Institute

This has been a tough year. Disappointment and hardship seem to surround us. Last week my heart ached as a friend shared her struggle to manage a full-time workload while overseeing her two young children’s virtual education. Yesterday, I consoled a neighbor who hasn’t been able to visit her father in a nursing home for over 6 months. And just this afternoon I heard from a friend who had lost his job when his company was forced to downsize. Each of these friends is suffering in a very real way, but there is another thing they have in common. They each expressed shame for having shared their feelings, saying: “But I shouldn’t complain. So many people are suffering more than I am.” 

Despite feeling the very real stre ...