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The Slow Work of Feeling Suppressed Emotions

by Counseling and Wellness Center of PittsburghJuly 10, 2025 disassociate, disassociation, dorsal vagal shutdown, emotional numbness, fight flight freeze, flight or fight, freeze, freeze response, hyperarousal, hypoarousal, nervous system regulation, Parasympathetic nervous system, pendulation, peter levine, shutdown, somatic experiencing, somatic therapy, stress responses, suppressed emotions, sympathetic nervous system, titration, window of tolerance0 comments
The Slow Work of Feeling Suppressed Emotions Working with emotions—especially when they’ve been buried, shut down, or hard to name—reminds me a lot of orthodontics. It’s not fast. It’s not flashy. But it’s real. You can’t force a tooth into place without risking damage. And you can’t force suppressed emotions into awareness without overwhelming the system....
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Understanding the Freeze Response and Dorsal Vagal Shutdown

by Counseling and Wellness Center of PittsburghNovember 22, 2024 collapse, deb dana, disassociate, disassociation, dorsal vagal shutdown, freeze, freeze response, functional freeze, nervous system, nervous system regulation, peter levine, polyvagal ladder, polyvagal theory, shutdown, somatic therapy, Stephen Porges, stress responses, sympathetic nervous system, trauma responses0 comments
Understanding the Freeze Response and Dorsal Vagal Shutdown Have you ever felt frozen in the face of stress—unable to act or make a decision? This experience, often described as “freezing,” is a common yet misunderstood survival response. While many people refer to all forms of immobility as “freeze,” there are important distinctions within...
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Stress Responses: What Are They, How Do They Work, and Why I am so Confused!?

by Counseling and Wellness Center of PittsburghMarch 29, 2023 fight flight freeze, flight or fight, freeze response, nervous system, nervous system regulation, stress responses, trauma0 comments
The stress responses conversation has been ramping up on social media as we move closer to becoming a more emotionally intelligent and trauma-informed society. But what are stress responses, how do they work, how can I recognize if I am in one; and is it me, or do they keep changing? These are all valid questions that we will try to break down in this blog series. By now, most of...
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