Unnamed trauma often lingers beneath the surface, shaping our behaviors and emotional responses. Our defenses, while meant to protect, can keep the pain alive.| Richard Nicastro, PhD
Speaking the Unspeakable: Metaphor as a Path to Healing When it comes to healing from trauma, words often fall short. The complexity of traumatic experience — the way it floods the mind, reshapes memory, and embeds itself in the body — can feel impossible to fully capture through ordinary language.| Richard Nicastro, PhD
Self-sabotaging behaviors are painful and confusing. Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy helps us understand this complex issue and offers a path to healing.| Richard Nicastro, PhD
We all have an inner critic yet this important part of us is often misunderstood. Examining the different intentions of your self-critic is essential.| Richard Nicastro, PhD
Unresolved childhood trauma has a devastating and lasting impact on the lives of survivors. The role of toxic shame is explored in men who have suffered abuse.| Richard Nicastro, PhD
This article explores how unresolved childhood abuse shapes adult behaviors, making survivors vulnerable to leading secretive lives and engaging in infidelity.| Richard Nicastro, PhD
The effects of childhood abuse follow men throughout their lives. Remaining silent about the abuse keeps it alive. Healing requires this silence to be broken.| Richard Nicastro, PhD
Sexualization is a defense against emotional pain and trauma. It momentarily numbs pain but it ultimately keeps traumatic wounds buried and unhealed.| Richard Nicastro, PhD
Toxic shame and its enduring impact often stem from childhood trauma, making it crucial to understand how it manifests in adulthood for effective healing.| Richard Nicastro, PhD
Childhood trauma causes emotional wounds that follow us into adulthood. Central to these emotional injuries are the legacy of shame and feelings of inadequacy.| Richard Nicastro, PhD
Betrayal traumas are best understood as a complex series of traumas and woundings rather than a single traumatic experience.| Richard Nicastro, PhD
Internal Family Systems (IFS) manager and firefighter parts help us understand the different ways in which we protect ourselves from emotional pain.| Richard Nicastro, PhD
For many, unresolved childhood abuse can play a significant role in infidelity. Understanding these trauma dynamics are essential to healing.| Richard Nicastro, PhD
Among trauma survivors, there’s a phenomenon that occurs: they feel compelled to stay silent about the abuse they endured. We explore what motivates silence.| Richard Nicastro, PhD