How safe are we feeling? What does that look like on a scale of 0-100 degrees? And what can we then do to manage our feelings, and perhaps reduce the temperature? That's the concept behind this 'Emotional Thermometer' poster. Includes a blank template so that you can fill in your own ideas of what heightened emotions look like uniquely to you, and your own coping strategies for them.

Many complex trauma clients struggle to receive the empathy offered by their therapists – not because they are resistant, but because their nervous systems have learned to mistrust incoming relational information. This PDF poster summarises concepts from an explainer article ('Attunement, Mirroring and Empathy') which explains the need for a profound level of ‘attunement’ over and above ‘insight’. It explores how accurate, marked and contingent mirroring restores the client's capacity to learn from the therapeutic relationship and to develop trust in both themselves and others. It offers therapists a framework for understanding why generic empathy misses the mark and what precise attunement can actually achieve at a nervous-system level. The explainer article accompanies this PDF poster for easy reference, or can also be ordered separately.

Triggers are reminders, conscious or unconscious, of traumatic events from the past. They can be overwhelming, debilitating, disabling – but they can also be guides as to what still needs to be processed. In this extended article, I explore the neuroscience of triggers and provides insights into not just what goes on in the brain when we are triggered, but crucially what we can do about it.

What do our feelings and actions tell us about how we're doing in our relationships with others? What is the difference between the connectedness of the green zone and the disconnection and shame of the red zone? And what about what happens in the middle? This poster looks at our 'self-conscious' emotions and places them on a spectrum, as a prompt for reflection or discussion and greater self-awareness of the interaction between our beliefs, thoughts, self-stories, feelings and physical state.

A nearly 50-page PDF booklet on the Three Phase Approach to Treating Trauma, which explains a staged approach to working with trauma survivors and which takes into account the need for safety and stabilisation before processing traumatic material. Read more about what each stage entails and my own experience in this comprehensive booklet.

This poster PDF provides three strategies for grounding based on three parts of the 'front brain' – cognitive strategies using the front left brain, reflective strategies using the front middle brain, and relational strategies using the front right brain. It's a quick-and-easy reminder of different things we can try when triggered and complements my article 'Managing Triggers'.