I heard a terrific analogy on an interview tape with Juli Alvarado of www.coaching-forlife.com and it just spoke to me. The analogy is how trauma is like cellulitis. Cellulitis is a bacterial infection that causes blotching, redness, swelling, and tenderness to the skin. The rash can be treated with patches, but if the underlying infection is not treated with antibiotics, the results can possibly be life threatening. The analogy to trauma is that if trauma is left unexpressed, unprocessed, and misunderstood, the results can potentially be as life threatening as cellulitis. And it is because trauma resides in the very cells of our bodies, that cognitive behavioral therapies are just patches whereby some behaviors may be kept in check, but unless a child is helped through emotional regulation, the trauma has the capacity to destroy.
Elaine Spicer
"healing is a process; change is an outcome;" and parenting is a journey
Elaine Spicer; MSW; LCSW; BCI Certified Instructor
About Me
- Elaine Spicer; LCSW
- I have been a social worker for 31 years. My work has been with families and children first in the area of Child Protective Services and then as a therapist working with the same population. I have worked with divorcing and divorced parents teaching co-parenting techniques, supervised therapists and have been a social worker for emotionally challenged children and adolescents in an inner city school system. About 7 years ago I was introduced to the work of Bryan Post and, as a friend and colleague said at the time...I went Post-al. All of my previous assumptions and indeed my work using behavioral interventions, got pushed aside. And along came the realization that none of the interventions, meant to change behaviors, had anything in common with helping children heal from the trauma they had experienced. My best work these days is as a coach/consultant for parents, other caregivers, and teachers. The services I provide are parent education, coaching, consulting and supervising. I am the mother of five adult children and grandmother to five. I am both a bio mom and an adoptive mom.