Tag: ptsd
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The Fear of Coming Forward: A Never-Before-Seen Clip of Paper Birds
Honoring All Parts of the Journey A short never before seen excerpt from my documentary, Paper Birds! Thought I would share in honor of recently watching an updated cut from my editor. Just a few notes regarding colorgrading and I think that might be a wrap! A little interesting fact, which I’ll relay through a…
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August 29th: Reflecting On Year 4
Four years ago today, I had my first flashback. Last August, I talked about how my therapist offered a different lens to view my “traumaversary” through. This year, we didn’t have to have that conversation. As tumultuous as it’s been, had my trajectory not been altered in such a way, I don’t think I would…
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Healing Fragmented Memories Through EMDR: An Interactive CEU
Healing Fragmentation: The Brain-Body Reconnect I’m honored to be co-presenting a continuing education session for mental health professionals focusing on the neurobiology of trauma and the healing potential of EMDR therapy. As I’ve shared in the past, when I was 19 (almost exactly four years ago now) I developed PTSD after a childhood trauma resurfaced…
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Year 4: Late Night Thoughts About Trauma & Time
Year 4 I was surprised when I opened my leather journal to find the last entry was from several months ago. More than halfway through 2024 and only a few pages have been filled since last December. It’s not an accurate reflection of logging my thoughts, of course, as I’ve been typing up weekly notes–many…
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Past The Patch: In Our Blood
Past The Patch: In Our Blood SPOTLIGHTING MELANIE It seems most first responders have some form of connection to the field before jumping in feet first. Melanie did, too. “My parents actually started dating at the firehouse.” The eldest of two, Melanie grew up as the daughter of a Deputy Fire Chief and an EMS…
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‘From Millersville To Movie Screen’: Featured By My Alma Mater!
Coming Full Circle With Paper Birds Honored to have been featured today in this piece published by my alma mater, Millersville University of Pennsylvania! Special thanks to Hannah who did a phenomenal job putting this together. Getting to talk about the impact undergrad research has had on me–especially my time spent working on Paper Birds–is…
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Leaning In Instead Of Away: An Insightful Emotional Release
‘You Gotta Feel It To Heal It’ So sometime last week, I was having a weird day at work. Since starting EMDR therapy (an intensive form of trauma treatment) last April, I’ve begun to get more and more in touch with my body and how things physically feel. I think—and this is definitely how I…
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Paper Birds: Placed Out
So this idea has been in my head for a bit now! Finally went to Goodwill last night and put it into action. Being out of school for six months now, I’ve started to reflect more on the past four years. When I look at the list of things that feel important, I’ll admit that…
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“I’ve Never Been To Iceland”: A Piece of Prose About Living with PTSD In Your 20s
Hey guys! Bit of a depressing prose I wrote last night but I wanted to share (trigger warning for mention of sexual assault). For a really long time I’ve wondered how to capture what life with PTSD is like, more specifically, how it feels to navigate in your 20s. Spoiler alert: it’s kind of rough!…
A.C. Brooke 