What we’re about
If our social context can create our disorder, then it can also lift it.
This is a group for people with Complex PTSD. Ongoing wounding, rather than a single traumatic event, and wounding which is interpersonal in nature (often by people who are meant to help us), has a different impact on a person and requires different kind of help. I have created this group to be a gentle space where we can find understanding, patience, insight, inclusion, healing, self-empowerment, authenticity, friendship and connection as we all relate to being held back in areas most people do not have a problem with, and having the most basic necessities in our life compromised, from socialising to our faith the sun will rise again. Here is a list of some core difficulties that occur with Complex PTSD:
- Self-acceptance
- Clear sense of identity
- Self-compassion
- Self-Protection
- Capacity to draw comfort from relationship
- Ability to relax
- Capacity for full self-expression
- Willpower & Motivation
- Peace of mind
- Self-care
- Belief that life is a gift
- Self-esteem
- Self-confidence
Common symptoms include what Pete Walker terms "emotional flashbacks", a relentless inner and/or outer critique, toxic shame, intense fear of and reaction to loss, self-abandonment, social anxiety, loneliness (which often does not lift even when we have company as we spend this time terrified and trying to hide), fragile self-esteem, attachment issues, radical mood shifts, dissociation via distracting activities or mental processes, despair and suicidal ideation. The term Complex PTSD often encapsulates and gets to the heart of many other disorders we have been diagnosed with.
You are welcome here whether you come already familiar with Complex PTSD, or you just identity with these difficulties and want to learn more about Complex PTSD as you believe it might be a good framework for understanding what you are going through. You are welcome here whether your Complex PTSD is from your family, or you have come to this destination through a less commonly recognised path. There are many other forms of trauma that can cause Complex PTSD and ultimately what one person experiences as traumatic (beyond their coping resources) another may not so it is highly subjective and there is no hierarchy. Not all cases of Complex PTSD are due to exactly the same thing and not all cases are due to one's family.
I live in the far eastern suburbs so the events I hold will most likely be out this way which is what is manageable for me. I am tired of always having to go into the city / travel across Melbourne for meet ups, especially as I am dependent on public transport and find it extremely overwhelming being in public and around noise. Please re-consider joining if you are not willing to meet me in the eastern suburbs, or not willing to take the initiate to organise a meet up in another location if you cannot meet here. I don't want to be the sole person sustaining this group and would be excited to see other people chipping in as you are keen to have a Complex PTSD group in Melbourne.
The meet ups can range from social (maybe doing an activity together like badminton or walking to take the focus off the social part) to guest speakers and more structured meet ups. Right now I am looking for a couple of people to work through Pete Walker's book "Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving" with me.