

Beyond the Readiness Score: The Future of Wellness
Beyond the Readiness Score: The Future of Wellness Imagine it, you wake up and feel amazing, but then..Boom, your readiness score says you shouldn’t be feeling good, and your mood immediately drops. This is a problem that is all too common in the current age of mobile wellness, and it’s something we all should look at beyond its surface...Learn More
When Your Mind Checks Out: Understanding Dissociation
by Counseling and Wellness Center of PittsburghFebruary 23, 2026 coping skills, disassociate, Dissociation, mental health0 comments
When Your Mind Checks Out: Understanding Dissociation
Have you ever been sitting in a meeting, staring at someone talking, and suddenly realize you haven’t heard a single word they said? Or maybe you’ve been driving home and suddenly think, Wait, how did I even get here? That strange, floaty feeling—like your brain hit “pause” on reality for a bit—is something...Learn More
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....Learn More
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...Learn More