What we’re about
This group is designed for those who are actively working on overcoming the long term affects of CPTSD. This means, among other things, learning to overcome the fixed mind set (black and white, catastrophizing, perfectionistic thinking) and the unhealthy and often untrue concepts we have about our own value and worth, and at the same time learning to get ourselves into a growth mindset. Critical to getting better is to understand the difference between PTSD and CPTSD.
The below from chapter 1 of Pete Walker's book Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving describes the main differences:
"CPTSD is a more severe form of Post-traumatic stress disorder. It is delineated from this better known trauma syndrome by five of its most common and troublesome features:
emotional flashbacks
toxic shame
self-abandonment
a vicious inner critic
social anxiety."
"CPTSD...a learned set of responses, and a failure to complete numerous important developmental tasks. This means that it is environmentally, not genetically, caused. In other words, unlike most of the diagnoses it is confused with, it is neither inborn nor characterological. ...it is learned. It is not inscribed in your DNA. It is a disorder caused by nurture [or rather the lack of it] not nature."
In this group, we will largely focus on articles from the website: http://www.pete-walker.com.
For those wanting to deepen their understanding of the Pete Walker book Complex PTSD: From Surviving To Thriving, there is a book study on Tuesday nights at 7pm:
https://4142298.xyz/complex-ptsd_surviving-to-thriving-book-study
Also, this group is intentionally small [ at the moment 15 RSVP limit ] so that we can get to know each other really well and hopefully connect at a deeper level than most of us do in everyday life. Part of getting to know each other really well is seeing a face on a regular basis. Thus, we require that cameras be on for these meetings. However, going off camera for breaks at anytime is totally okay, no permission needed.