Welcome. This is a good place to start to learn more about Chronic Illness Trauma Studies (CITS), my blog.
This is where I share the research that explains how subtle or serious adversity or trauma increase risk for disease and why it’s not in your head. I also share the tools this perspective offers you that your doctor may now know about.
CITS is also where I describe how I’m gradually healing from my own disabling chronic illness using these trauma perspectives. I talk about what works, and why.
I left my career as a family practice physician and assistant professor 20 years ago because I felt I was causing harm. I didn’t have the time or the support to listen as deeply to my patients as I wanted to and I believed that symptoms reflected something intelligent our bodies were trying to tell us.
I’ve found a better way.
Let’s Improve Health – and Health Care
My passion is to share the research I never knew in my medical career with others, including health care professionals.
I want people with chronic illness to know about the research explaining how symptoms and disease may not be as incurable as we’ve thought. That the science is discovering it’s about more than the genes we inherit and cannot change.
I want you to realize there are helpful tools that can make a difference. That you don’t have to wait until medicine figures it out or catches up with the science.
I want you to know it’s not you fault, not because you are weak, and not because you are “wanting attention.”
I want to stop the blame and the judgement and the trauma that medical care often causes.
I also want to help inform medicine and medical schools. My long term vision is for people with symptoms and their clinicians to work together to find better solutions, as a team.
We need to incorporate the new science in training for all health care professionals, and to incorporate it in education for everyone at all ages. This is how we can start to prevent and decrease the suffering.
California is proposing exactly this.
I present the research in a variety of ways:
- blog posts including summaries of the science
- my personal story
- fact sheets
- patient guides
- more than 25 free ebooks
- interviews and podcasts
- videos
- 2 published journal articles and a book chapter
- events such as talks and conferences and my bio
- and more
Welcome
My illness has unexpectedly been one of my greatest teachers and gifts. Many of the lessons have come from learning how to listen to, befriend, and trust my body.
May the information here help you make friends with your body and illness too, and better hear the clues that can guide you in your process of healing.
And may it provide you with hope, show you that you are not alone, and offer you validation, respect, compassion and helpful insights for your journey.
To learn more bout Chronic Illness Trauma Studies and get an overview of the content, start with my top posts or follow one of the links below:
Adverse Childhood Experiences +
Adverse Multigenerational Experiences
Adverse Pre-Onset Experiences (that can trigger onset)
