Trauma Dumping, Misinformation & the Social Media Therapy Trap
Season 2: Episode 35- Trauma Dumping, Misinformation & the Social Media Therapy Trap with Laura
Like, follow and leave us a comment on YouTube, Apple Podcasts or Spotify!
Social media is full of trauma talk—but how much of it is actually helpful?
In this episode, Sarah and Laura unpack the rise of ‘social media therapy,’ the dangers of misinformation, and why trauma healing requires more than just a viral post.
If you’ve ever wondered, ‘Do I actually have trauma, or is this just life?’ this one’s for you.
Thanks for listening to Reclaim You with Reclaim Therapy!
To learn more about Reclaim Therapy and how to work with a therapist on the team, head to https://www.reclaimtherapy.org.
Be sure to comment, like and subscribe here, or on YouTube and come follow along on Instagram!subscribe here, or on YouTube and come follow along on Instagram!
-
Hey everybody, welcome back to Reclaim You. Laura and I are going to be talking all about trauma today and how lately it feels like things have been trending online. Talking all about trauma, which is important and there's some like other stuff behind the scenes of it too, I think.
Laura Gordon (00:54)
Yeah, for sure. Yeah, it's a both hand, right? It's good to have more awareness. But the question becomes, where are we getting our information from? And how are we then utilizing it? Right? Yeah, yeah. So but it's definitely trendy right now, right? Like trauma talk, know, trauma dumping. So I think it's not an important thing for us to talk about.
Sarah (01:07)
Yes.
yes
Yeah, for sure. So to start, let's define trauma. And I was just telling Laura, last night I was getting some marketing materials together and I'm sending out these trauma checklists to doctors' offices and things like that. And so it good timing. So I'm going to read our definition on our little trauma symptom checklist. So here at Reclaim Therapy, we define trauma as anything that is too much too soon, too much for too long.
Laura Gordon (01:35)
Yay!
Sarah (01:44)
or too little for too long, especially absence of an attuned relationship. When exploring trauma, we give specific attention to what physical, emotional, or psychological needs did not get met and any experiences that involved a physical, emotional, or psychological act that happened. So that was a mouthful. But that's how we really define trauma in our practice, which is just an important kind of baseline, I think, to start.
from in this conversation.
Laura Gordon (02:11)
Sure, sure. think it's, you know, we, our definition of trauma as a practice, I think is broad, for good reason, you know, honoring that, you know, there are a variety of different ways that people can experience trauma and can be impacted by it. And you're coming into a practice where we are, you know, licensed, we're trained in this.
We understand the nuances of it. We understand how to diagnose and work with folks around it. So that checklist is something that we give to folks, we share with folks, and folks find it helpful. I think by and large, many of the clients whom we see now are self-identifying in that way. But I think for a period of time before
Trauma talk and you know trauma became trendy often folks would not understand or not even Conceptualize themselves as someone who had suffered trauma right? They because think about it like a lot of that stuff for folks You know a one-time trauma like I was in a horrendous car accident or you know something Horrible happened
Generally, people were able to say, yeah, for sure. But if we're looking at things like complex trauma, trauma that is chronic going on over time, sort of like death by 1000 paper cuts trauma, if you will, then many folks that's just their normal and they wouldn't have seen that as trauma. And it takes, you know, working with a therapist who understands it to really recognize, wait a minute, that's what really is happening here. And so
What we've come to, I think in this internet age, internet age, we've been in the internet age for a while, in this TikTok age, especially, is a lot of self diagnosis is happening and a lot of misinformation is out there. wanted to just share a study. This was done, I think this was pulled December of 2022. And basically this is from the Journalical Medical Internet Research.
and they were looking at TikTok and they looked at the hashtags associated with trauma and there were like 50 plus hashtags, first of all, on TikTok associated with it. And there were two major content streams that were coming related to trauma, the first being a content stream that was instructional, right? Like this is what trauma is, these are the symptoms. And that constituted 21.6 % of what they were looking at. The bulk of the rest of...
the hashtags all were videos where people were disclosing personal stories. So this is where the trauma dumping was coming out and got a lot of engagement, like almost 300 million likes by that point, which was two years ago, a lot of comments, millions of comments, millions of shares. But only 3.7 % of these videos, the ones especially with the trauma dumping, included some sort of trigger warning.
Sarah (04:30)
Mm.
Mm-hmm.
Laura Gordon (04:51)
So folks were just on their scrolling, got onto some algorithm of trauma and potentially were being exposed to some pretty triggering things without knowing they were. And so that's a risk that has come out of that. And I think it's just important to look at some numbers related to that. The research is happening now. This is sort of like a new thing in the span of the...
Sarah (05:11)
Yeah.
Laura Gordon (05:14)
life of researching these things. And it's this is, you we live in a time where exponentially our access to education and sharing these things on social media, it's just growing. And so like the more we're trying to keep up, the harder it is to keep up. There's always something new. But I think it's really important to think about particularly TikTok, Instagram, like other places like that, TikTok being the big one as places where there definitely can be like
totally amazing information. But there also can be a lot of people just dumping and what is the impact on our clients if we're therapists, but what is the impact on me if I'm looking at it? Do I have vicarious trauma via that? So yeah, so those are some things just like as we're getting into this, I thought it would be important to share. And then we can kind of get into the more nitty gritty if you will.
Sarah (05:55)
Yeah.
Yeah, for sure. And it feels important to differentiate trauma dumping on the internet, So TikTok, Instagram, versus being in therapy and sharing your trauma. I know there was something that happened with a TikTok therapist, and I use that term broadly because I don't really know what that means, but who made some meme or something about their her clients trauma dumping on her, is actually impossible. Clients don't trauma dump on their therapist. We're in a relationship.
Laura Gordon (06:08)
Yeah.
Sarah (06:27)
that involves consent and, you know, relational dynamics this is why you're here, you know? And it's our job to manage our shit outside of sessions. So just want to differentiate that for anyone who's listening that, you know, trauma dumping is a real thing on the internet, even when people are taking things in humor, you know, lately, I think a trend on Instagram, it was probably on TikTok three weeks ago, but when people are like, people say I'm so funny, I'm so funny because XYZ.
Laura Gordon (06:33)
Yeah. Yeah.
Sarah (06:53)
and they list some sort overwhelm from their experience. And it's become so normalized that we kind of laugh at that it's normalizing some ways, but also it's like, huh, we're exposed to this constant stream of what other people have been through in their life, which certainly has an impact.
Laura Gordon (07:06)
Mm hmm.
Yeah, yeah, for sure. And has the potential to diminish other people's experiences or to just dismiss them. Right. So, you know, I think that
Sarah (07:15)
Yeah.
Laura Gordon (07:18)
That's one of the things that we got to talking about, think, as providers is clients who come to us who definitely fit criteria for a trauma-related disorder. They have a lot of symptoms. They definitely are demonstrating many of the criteria that we look for when we're diagnosing, and yet they themselves would say, I don't have trauma.
Instead of it being like, that was just the norm nowadays. It's well, this is just like the trendy thing that everyone is. So like, I don't want to be a part of that. Right. you know, if I compare myself to like what all these other people are saying of the 300 million posts out there, plus, you know, do I have trauma? Like, do I want to be, you know, do I want to be associated with some of the stigmas that might be out there? And so it becomes even more challenging.
Sarah (07:59)
you
Laura Gordon (08:10)
because there's a lot of psychoeducation, I think that comes where we have to re-educate folks who see us about trauma and provide them with some more clear understanding of what it means broadly and then what it means from the standpoint of diagnostics, what it means from the standpoint of interventions. And it's not about comparing your trauma to my trauma, right? Which unfortunately comparison,
is the thief of joy, right? And it's that that's been a saying forever. And it's it's totally even so much more true in this day and age of like, constantly seeing what everyone else is doing, and comparing my lived experience to theirs. So getting caught up in this like sense of needing to feel important, because maybe I don't feel important in my neck of the woods. I mean, I legitimately could have some trauma going on in my life or have some lived experience of that.
Sarah (08:38)
Yeah.
Laura Gordon (09:02)
where I feel disconnected from others, right? Where I feel really wounded, where I don't have a sense of who I am or belonging. So I'm seeking that on TikTok, on Instagram. I'm seeking that on the internet. And what happens is that in doing so, I start to see other people's sharings and I might, might,
feel really like I want to be a part of that so much that then I start to trauma dump, right? Like I start to put everything out there. And there also comes a question of like privacy with that safety, right? That I think is always something we've talked about since the advent of social media. But oftentimes there'll be this sort of like self-diagnosis, this sort of armchair psychology that's happening. And...
Sarah (09:37)
Mm-hmm.
Laura Gordon (09:45)
My goal as a therapist is never to tell someone, no, you don't have trauma, right? Like you have had some acute adverse experiences in life, you've had struggles in life, absolutely. And this is what we can do to help you. However, saying I have PTSD when you really don't fit that criteria is something we might have to do some work around. And I feel like that on a broader scale,
Sarah (09:49)
Right. Yeah.
Laura Gordon (10:10)
is not even related to like helping the client understand like where they're at, what their experience has been, and then what would be appropriate for interventions. But I think even more broadly, it's not detracting from people who actually are diagnosed as such, right? PTSD is a very different, CPTSD, which is not part of the SM, but it's part of diagnostic criteria that we use.
there are some pretty specific things related to them that we're looking for that might not be presented in folks out there who are sharing their own adverse experiences. And we just want to be careful, right? Like we want to be a community that supports each other. And so we don't want to claim something or misinterpret and or like misguide someone when it comes to something so that they're thinking, my gosh, this is me or my gosh, that's not me when it could be that.
Sarah (10:59)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. All these generalizations that can happen just from content on social media from people who don't necessarily understand the science behind what happens when someone is traumatized, right? Whether that's PTSD or CPTSD or the impact of those things, these sweeping generalizations just typically aren't super helpful.
Laura Gordon (11:11)
Exactly.
Sarah (11:20)
The one thing that I think they are helpful is they can be normalizing. then like anything in our culture, they get taken to this extreme that then it flips right around on its head.
Laura Gordon (11:23)
Yes.
Yes.
Exactly, exactly. A pretty common diagnosis that I think for years has been used, right? It's adjustment disorder, right? So adjustment disorder is a diagnosis where maybe you're going through a life transition of some sort, and your stress response to that might be a bit out of proportion to the actual events, right? So you're having distress around it, but on a scale from zero to 10, your distress is not like at a 10 plus plus plus every day, day in and day out.
Sarah (11:35)
Mm-hmm.
Laura Gordon (11:53)
but you're having some stressors that are impacting your life. Maybe you're having some somatic experiences, you know, you're feeling sick more often, you're having pain. There absolutely can be a stress response to transitions in life, to things that are changing. The difference being that these are non-life threatening, right?
an adjustment disorder, like getting a new job and struggling with that isn't necessarily something we would claim is life threatening unless you're driving, you know, like a hazardous rig. You know, there's there's ways we could. Everything has its parameters that can be expanded. Generally, too, this is lasting six months or less.
Sarah (12:22)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Yeah.
Laura Gordon (12:30)
So that's an adjustment disorder. Many of
us, if not all of us, have had this in life. might have an acute stress disorder, where I have some life-threatening trauma, some major trauma. I'm having some PTSD-like symptoms. The difference between that and PTSD, meaning that my response is going on for a few days, maybe a month, whereas PTSD is going on for well over. It's a month or more. And those symptoms are things like flashbacks.
things like hyperarousal, I'm hypervigilant, I'm always checking things, I can't sleep, I can't eat, I can't do this. So you're in this flight response constantly. Maybe you're in a fight response constantly and you're just, have all this mood dysregulation. One of the things though that I also find with many folks who come to us is there's also this avoidance of wanting to talk about the trauma, if you will, or wanting to in any way put themselves at risk at re-experiencing it.
And I think that's a distinction for me between working with someone clinically and then seeing what's out there in the world of TikTok. TikTok, the trauma dumping sometimes is, it's about a sense of belonging. It's a search for help, right? Absolutely important, right? And I don't wanna discourage that, but sometimes, you know, if you're...
Sarah (13:37)
Mm-hmm.
Laura Gordon (13:42)
If you're subjecting yourself and everyone who's going to see that to reliving the experience, that's often not something we're seeing with something like PTSD when it comes to talking about the issue. We might see that in flashbacks. But there tends to be more of an avoidant, like, I don't want to talk about that. And there can be this sort of blocking response that we encounter from clients, especially if there's some significant stuff going on.
So that's not to say that like, you know, if you check these boxes, it's yes, if you check these boxes, it's no. But to be aware that if you're, you know, if the subjection to the trauma is more important and that it's sort of like providing you with this sense of like a high of some sort, right? Like a sense of like, ooh, like I got more likes, I got more responses, I got more of this. Maybe we need to
It's not to say you don't have trauma, but I would say, you know, that might be something I would definitely encourage you to seek out some support from someone who's clinically able to work with you on that so that you're not reliving that day in and day out and you're not subjecting others.
Sarah (14:30)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. For sure. For sure.
Laura Gordon (14:44)
If that makes sense. Yeah.
Yeah. And I'm being careful here, right? Like, I'm not meaning to talk in a way to dissuade anyone or to say like, this person posted this and that's just not trauma. It's not like, I can't make that determination. First of all, it's your lived experience, right? And if you've experienced it as such, we're going to work through that. But also like when we're sitting with someone who's had trauma, we're sitting with them for an hour at least once a week, if not more.
Sarah (15:02)
Mm-hmm.
Laura Gordon (15:12)
We might be sitting with them for hours on end if they're in some sort of higher level of care. We're spending a lot of time getting into the history of this person, all of the different aspects of lived experience that have played into their current experience. And I think that's a really important.
clinical distinction than someone who is posting a three minute video and is seen as some sort of expert on this.
You're an expert on your own lived experience. Don't get me wrong. Okay. But when it comes to how are we going to help you, right? Or how, how, how are we going to get others to get help? I wouldn't suggest anyone seek out what they are looking for in terms of healing, solely through social media. I think that's going to not bode well for anyone out there. You might get some good content. Absolutely. It's a starting point, but then it's like,
Sarah (15:40)
Yes.
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah. Some good tips
like little tips. Yeah.
Laura Gordon (16:03)
Yeah, yeah. then, OK, where do I go from here? Who can I,
you know, learning? Some of my clients were like, my gosh, I never heard of EMDR until I was on TikTok. Great. Amazing. That's how they found us. That's a great thing. Or I didn't even realize that this could be trauma until I heard it. OK, great. we also deal with clients who are re-triggered and, know, and then we're having to.
Sarah (16:11)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Laura Gordon (16:22)
try to say maybe TikTok is not a safe place right now and how do we manage that in a world where everyone else is on it? So it's complex. It really is.
Sarah (16:26)
right.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah. And I think for most people who have experienced trauma or folks that we see in our offices, there can be this retraumatization that happens that people don't even realize. Because of trauma, many people are so disconnected from their bodies that there's this numbness, or there's so much hyperarousal that they're not even realizing that things are churning when they actually are. So to be scrolling social media and to be in the algorithm, because the algorithm gets you, of just trauma-filled stuff,
Laura Gordon (16:55)
Mm-hmm.
Sarah (16:58)
things are certainly gonna churn whether you realize it or not, you know? And I think the more people do healing work, the more they start to feel and experience and can start to realize like, maybe seeing these videos of whatever are actually, it's actually not supporting me. You know, it's pulling me deeper into having to disconnect and not feel because of course it's gonna be too overwhelming.
Laura Gordon (17:01)
Yes.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I can't even imagine.
If you're on TikTok for hours on end, day in and day out, which so many folks whom we work with are, right? Like the litany of re-triggering, the litany, and on a chronic but like low level, right? So like, but again, that's like death by a thousand paper cuts, right? It's just like, it's building up over time. It's living in our bodies and we might be disconnected, because we often are with trauma, from our bodies and we're not realizing, wow, you know,
Sarah (17:39)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Laura Gordon (17:49)
gosh, until I'm like in so much pain that like I'm, you know, crippled in some way and I can't move or I'm in so much pain that, you know, my stomach is upset all the time and I'm having all of these responses. And then we realized, huh, maybe it's like, maybe this isn't necessarily a medical like base condition. Maybe this is actually trauma that is presenting itself in my body.
Sarah (18:11)
Yeah.
Laura Gordon (18:12)
Right,
Sarah (18:12)
Yeah.
Laura Gordon (18:12)
so that's the somaticization that happens. So listening to our bodies, I think is really important when it comes to trauma. However, and I wanna be clear about this, one of the mistakes that sometimes we make, especially like new therapists, is we invite clients to the embodied experience too soon and without enough safety, and clients can really freak out. it's just not, it's...
It's detrimental in a lot of ways and we have to do a lot of repair after that, create a lot of safety. it's really important that I think, you know, when we're talking about trauma and reconnecting with the body, that that is done in such a way where you're working with someone who understands and can offer you support and can sort of assess how you're doing in that process and intervene if needed.
Sarah (18:41)
Yeah.
Laura Gordon (18:58)
because what we don't want people to do is have some sort of abber reaction to it that then is like causing them another traumatizing experience. So like, you know, I think it's great to have, again, like experiences where we can learn to be more embodied, we can learn to heal that connection, but I wouldn't suggest someone go out there and find that on the internet without ever having worked through that themselves and understanding what's going on.
Sarah (19:04)
Yeah.
Yeah, for sure.
in all of this, we're talking about consumption, right? Because we are all consumers in the world of TikTok and Instagram. What about content creators? It feels like a lot of responsibility falls on content creators and influencers, whether or not they receive this. But let's talk about that a little bit.
Laura Gordon (19:25)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah.
I think we need to talk about a shared understanding of some ethics. Social media just doesn't really have ethical guidelines. And any time folks have tried to impart ethical guidelines or have that discussion, it can be met with a lot of resistance. And also, whose guidelines are we going to use?
Sarah (19:50)
Yeah.
Laura Gordon (20:00)
But perhaps, you know, this is a place where we can look at our own professional ethics. And as a licensed professional counselor, if someone comes to me and wants to talk to me about their diabetes, I don't talk to them about that because that's not my expertise. What I do is I refer them to their primary care provider, you know, to get more information.
refer them out to people with that expertise. The same might be said about armchair psychology. Like if you are a content creator and are claiming an expertise and don't have the skills, the training, the understanding to really make that claim, there's an ethical issue there that we need to talk about and the potential of doing more harm. know, first do no harm.
Sarah (20:47)
Yeah.
Laura Gordon (20:47)
you
know that we're not going to harm our clients. not going to, you know, we're presenting information, sharing information as a means to educate and as a means to invite people to healing and offer support. So I think that, you know, I'm just sort of like sharing my lived experience and claiming that that lived experience is the truth is
is the definition of this, that, or the other thing. I think that that is where we're crossing a line and we need to be really careful.
Sarah (21:18)
It makes me think about right so trauma is trending online. It has been for a while now. And so it it feels like so it's like somatic healing, right? And there's a lot of coaches and I mean, there are people who are doing really good work, but there's a lot of coaches and things like that who post videos on social media of like, this is the technique to release all of your trauma, right? And they're like, just shake or do whatever it is.
Laura Gordon (21:22)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Sarah (21:39)
It feels wrong in lots of ways, Because you don't know who's actually watching this video. And if that kind of somatic movement is going to reactivate something and re-trigger someone or put someone into some sort of downward spiral, it just feels like epically irresponsible.
Laura Gordon (21:51)
Yeah.
Yes, yes, for sure. And I think that, I mean, that not to get psychologically political, I guess, but like, if you're seeking out a coach, that's different than seeking out a licensed therapist or social worker. Now, some coaches are licensed therapists, social workers, psychologists, right? But
Sarah (21:56)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Laura Gordon (22:13)
Many of the coaches out there who are claiming expertise don't have the same background. They're not licensed to make these determinations by a state board, right? They haven't gone through the rigorous training and continuing education that we have to do. They might avail themselves of some of that, absolutely, right? But I think we just need to be careful. And also, let me just say this.
Sarah (22:31)
Sure.
Yeah.
Laura Gordon (22:37)
some of those coaching packages get really expensive. And you might be better served seeking out the help that you need through someone who is either covered by your insurance and is a licensed provider and or is a licensed provider who you can get some out of network benefits through, through your insurance or whom you might just be paying less in general.
Sarah (22:58)
because it actually is a science, right? there is science behind what happens in the body when trauma occurs, right? that's really what trauma is, is how the body responds. And that's why things get locked in and you experience symptoms, you know, 10, 15, 20 years out, because there is at play here, it's not just, you know, something to quickly fix from.
Laura Gordon (23:00)
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Sarah (23:18)
and TikTok post, right? Like there's a science, there's an art to it. And so, you know, it just, yeah, to keep that in mind because social media, the name of the game is to make money. Always, always is to make money.
Laura Gordon (23:25)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, yeah. And that comes up so often, right, with some of our clients. Like some of my clients will be like, concerned about their progress. Like, you know, and sometimes with EMDR, there are some misconceptions because of misinformation that's out there that EMDR and insurance companies cling on to this too, right, which is not helpful. But like somehow that EMDR can cure everything that ails you in like so many sessions, right.
Sarah (23:46)
Yeah. Yeah.
Laura Gordon (23:55)
Some people, they might, it's more of a low-level type trauma, right? They've done some of processing in advance through their own therapy and they come in and in a few sessions, they move through whatever the event is and they're pretty good and we check up on them and they're good, right? Like that can happen, but if we're talking about some serious trauma here, there is no, it might take years for us to establish enough safety for a client to start to open up.
And you know, a six session package from a coach or you know, going on a particular hashtag on TikTok can't substitute for that. There's an and you're right, there's a lot of science behind it. There's a lot of nuance behind it. There are a lot of various interventions and techniques that require training and like a knowledge of like
when this might work, when it might not. And there also is the experience if you step into something and there is a negative reaction and ab reaction as we say, how am I going to help this client in that? Versus I just put out the information and whoever sees it sees it and I'm not there to follow up with them. Like that's really dangerous. And we really need to be careful and really think about like
There's lot of folks who legit like are sharing their trauma out there as a means to connect and help others. But if you're doing that, first of all, trigger warning, please. Second of all, then offer resources for folks like here's some places that you can go to find your own help in this, whether it's, you know, nationally recognized or internationally recognized organizations, local therapists, you know, look someone up on psychology today.
but really helping folks to maybe get some education and understanding without re-triggering them if at all possible and then giving them the resources that they need for next steps. I think the internet world, internet world, I'm so of my time. think the world of social media, particularly TikTok, there are amazing benefits out there. I don't want this to be us.
Sarah (25:43)
The internet world. Same.
Laura Gordon (25:53)
like poo pooing all over it. Like I think it can be a wonderful source of support for folks. They can find connections there that they might not have found in the everyday life. And that is really wonderful. What it can't be is a substitute for what a person needs, particularly when it comes to psychological healing. That's just not going to be there. And I want to encourage people, you know, to
Sarah (26:05)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Laura Gordon (26:16)
certainly, if you want to share your experience, again, think about what you're sharing, think about what may or may not be triggering and maybe amend it, adapt it. Don't change what you're saying, but don't go into all the gory detail. And maybe just focus more on the recovery and what was helpful to you. This was really helpful to me and it might be something that's helpful to you. I don't know, but it's something you might want to look into and talk with a professional about.
Right? That's helpful information. But claiming that EMDR is the be all and end all of, you know, trauma therapy and that anyone can be cured by it is first of all, not true. And it gives people a sense of false hope. And they come to us. Yeah, yeah, they come to us with this false hope. And it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. If you lived through that trauma and it's been plaguing you for years on end, decades on end, this isn't going to be magically.
Sarah (26:52)
Yeah.
Yeah, that is like a magical wand. Yeah.
Laura Gordon (27:09)
erased in a session or two sessions or six or so on and so forth. It takes time to develop the safety needed for a client to even start to step into the heart of the trauma.
Sarah (27:14)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely. And if you're someone who consumes content like we do, you know, just know that like there's no comparison, right? Like just because someone's sharing the worst things that have happened to them in their life doesn't negate what you've been through and how you responded to having those things happen to you or things that didn't happen, right? Because there's like the acts of omission too that can be just as impactful as the acts of commission.
Laura Gordon (27:27)
Mm-hmm.
Yes.
Yes, yes. Yeah. One of the things that we get into conversations about sometimes with clients is like neglect as something that is traumatic. Like, because we often think about abuse. But if you have been neglected in any way, shape or form chronically over time, that also has an impact. And, and so, yeah, there's lots of lots of considerations. And
I think I want to say this thing about diagnoses because I think it's important. When I talk to my clients about diagnoses, what I say to them is, listen, really this diagnosis, there's some purposes that they serve. First and foremost, insurance wants to know what's the diagnosis and it needs to be coded right for billing. But diagnosis, it's criteria that's been shared across the board. It's been empirically studied.
Sarah (28:20)
Right. Yeah.
Laura Gordon (28:31)
looked at over many years and is updated regularly. And it gives us as providers a common language. It also gives us some as providers working with clients, like some education that we can offer to them. Like this is what this entails. If you come to me and I don't diagnose you with PTSD, that doesn't mean that you don't have legitimate acute.
trauma in your life, right? Like that doesn't, but it's just saying that you're not being impacted to the degree that someone who is diagnosed with PTSD might be. And I want people to understand that like this isn't about getting the diagnosis, right? Like it's not about comparing again myself to others, but it's about, want to, you know, I'm less interested in the diagnosis than I am in.
you you, your lived experience, what you're experiencing now, and what works for you. And that takes time and we work on that together. It's a shared experience. It's not meant to be something that we do alone.
Sarah (29:29)
Yeah, absolutely. Anything else you feel like you want to add before we wrap up?
Laura Gordon (29:33)
I think that's...
I'm happy that people are having these conversations because we do need to normalize some things that haven't been. But let's not take something that's good about all of this and turn it on its head by not being mindful, ethical about how we're sharing this and what we're putting out there.
Sarah (29:37)
Yes.
Absolutely. Well, thank you so much. I know that this comes up a lot when we're chatting with folks and conversations all around between other clinicians and things like that. So thank you for speaking to it.
Laura Gordon (29:56)
Yeah.
No problem, thank you.
Sarah (30:05)
All right, everybody will be back next week for another episode. So until then, take good
Reclaim Therapy is a group of trauma therapists that provide therapy for PTSD, EMDR Therapy and therapy for Complex PTSD.
Our team is passionate about helping people reclaim their lives from diet culture, body shame and the impact of trauma.
We would love to support you as you Reclaim YOU and the life that you undeniably deserve.