@Linnea Butler, MS, LMFT - This is a clear and compassionate articulation of what many of us who have been exposed to trauma live with afterwards and often struggle to fully comprehend let alone put into words. The frozen river metaphor is especially apt capturing the pain of disconnection and the hope for healing when warmth and safety are offered. I rather appreciate your reminder that these parts are better undersood as a kind of adaptive intelligence. Your work honors the complexity of survival and the immense courage it takes to begin thawing. Thank you for holding the mirror so steadily and with such care.
Once again Bronce, I am grateful for your kind support. 🙏 I see your generously supporting writers here every day and it's absolutely beautiful. Yes, I truly view our parts as holding immense wisdom. And I believe that when we come to dialogue with them and understand them, then we move closer to healing and wholeness. 💜
What a thoughtful and in-depth post. Thank you for this! I especially love the suggestion at the end to ask "What part of me is present right now? What is it be trying to protect me from?" I'm definitely going to try this!
I'm so glad you enjoyed it Charlotte! 🙏 There is an interactive guide coming out next week that goes along with the series. Once we identify the parts, we can begin to "unblend" from them and reconnect with our wholeness. 💜
This really resonated with me. I love how you reframe those “problematic” parts of ourselves as actually wise and protective. The frozen river metaphor was spot on. I’ve been through therapy and did exactly what you describe: I recognized the parts that needed recognizing, talked to them, and started a new relationship with them — and with myself. In a way, I integrated my past “reactions” or “programming,” thanked them, and asked them to subtly change the code. It’s been life-changing. Looking forward to the next part in the series!
Thank you so much for sharing your experience, Nelian. It’s not just lip service, I truly believe that viewing the parts as wise is essential to healing. I’ve experienced this personally as well as professionally. I love that you were able to offer your parts gratitude, and build a new relationship with them. It’s incredibly empowering. 💜
Thank you for your kind words. I also write about this a lot, in fact it's one of the main reasons I'm on Substack. That's how powerful I know this is!
Linnea, this is beautifully constructed. As a practitioner and a human, I could not agree more on the importance of embracing our intelligent design vs the old model of fixing something 'broken'. You are creating something so important.
Thank you Mark. It feels important, even though a cluster of unsubscribes after publishing gave me pause. Some folks don’t want to look at this and that’s ok. I think I will continue to write from my soul and honor what feels like moving through.
It’s interesting to me that often the most important work we do as practitioners is not to fix but to honor.
I'm sorry to hear about the unsubscribes. It has been my experience (not always of course) that those that want to do the work will gravitate deeply to the whys as well as the hows. Others who may be looking to be 'fixed' whether they realize it or not (of course) will look at the deeper aspects and just reject the discomfort. Even JC said, "let those who have ears hear." I'm certain he wasn't talking about the things that hold up our hat! ;)
Haha! Yes, I think you’re absolutely right. And I’d rather speak to those who have the ears to hear and the minds and hearts to inquire. Thank you. 💜 I appreciate you and all you do here, in your pub and so supporting others. I see you.
Thank you! I’ve been doing parts work for a little over a year and it has helped me exponentially. Still so much work to go towards integration - I love your language that having a part arise and demand attention isn’t a backslide, it’s evidence of healing. I needed to hear that this week. Thank you! And thanks too to @Bronce who shared this! I’m finding so many great voices this way. 💚
Parts work is so powerful and I am thrilled that it is coming to mainstream awareness. I'm glad that we found each other! Bronce is a gem of a human, a beautiful writer and a generous soul. We met here on SS just a few months ago and I really appreciate his work. 🙏
Hey Linnea! It's great to see you discussing these important references. I've been lucky enough to benefit from some really insightful wisdom during my own journey with trauma therapy. Onno van der Hart is definitely one of my favorite thinkers in this area, and I think "The Haunted Self" is just a must-read! I don't know anyone that explains structural dissociation better then him. His work truly resonated with me. I feel such a sense of gratitude to him. Janina Fisher has also shaped my understanding of trauma in such a profound way. I love her flipcharts. That was a big a ha! in my own personal psychotherapy sessions.
I really admire how you've managed to distill all that knowledge and share it with others. With your years of experience as a clinician, you've made a big impact in the social media world too. So many people are searching for help, and it's a pity to see some of the misinformation that floats around about trauma and healing—especially in meme culture and Instagram where things tend to get simplified in just seconds or minutes. Those little bits can really add up over time, right?
It’s important to recognize how we can be influenced by the constant stream of messages that might not actually help us grow or find our own paths. That's why providing solid, neuroscience-backed research is so valuable!
Thank you for being here and for offering such a solid foundation for others to lean on. It really makes a difference!
"The Haunted Self" is an excellent book, and a very important one in my opinion. So glad to meet another fan! Janina was my mentor for many years so I do my best to follow in her considerable footsteps. Thank you so much for your very kind words, they are gratefully received. 💜
Yes, there is a lot of disinformation out there, as well as oversimplification of trauma and how to heal those wounds. It's an area where you can really do damage if you are not careful. It's one of my soapboxes - that just because you have worked with trauma doesn't mean you understand it. I share because it sounds like you might share that particular soapbox with me. 😉 I truly hope that one day graduate programs will offer more trauma-specific training than most currently do.
Janina also trained my psychotherapist in the SF Bay Area. Janina was her mentor. Looks like we have a few things in common.
Yeah, we need to spread the ‘good news’.
I also appreciate that you moved into ketamine realm. That was such a breakthrough for me. It’s all good. The more tyst survivors have access to this information the better.
Amazing!! It well may be that your psychotherapist and I crossed paths. And a big YES to ketamine assisted psychotherapy! It is not something to be done casually but I have seen it truly work miracles, for me as well as for my clients. In fact the reflection in the Submit essay (will be out in a few weeks) was following a ketamine session.
I look forward to reading your thoughts, Linnea. I’ve been wanting to share my experiences with ketamine sessions, but even months after my last session, I still feel like I’m in a process of integration. It’s as though I’m not quite the same person I was before. I see the world through a different lens. It’s like wearing a new pair of glasses — often there is an adjustment period. How does this feel? Is this working for me? The material that came up during my sessions was profoundly personal, including spiritual elements, which is why I’ve hesitated to delve into it just yet.
I’ve found that with time and some distance, I can gain a sense of objectivity that helps me feel more comfortable about sharing these experiences with others. While I don’t have any plans for a memoir, I'm trying to figure out which aspects of my journey might be beneficial for others to hear. I’m aware that the experience of ketamine-assisted psychotherapy can vary widely from person to person, and I want to be mindful of that.
It’s important to me that my narrative doesn’t unintentionally lead others to draw conclusions about their own experiences. You bring a wealth of understanding to this topic, having worked with so many clients, but I imagine that diversity of experiences is quite expansive. It’s challenging to generalize, but maybe there’s more to consider in that area. Ketamine has been getting a bad rap. So, there's that too.
Some individuals have sought advice about visiting clinics, but I find myself hesitant to provide guidance there, as my faith in the field is a bit shaky at the moment. It feels so unpredictable. I can’t predict what someone’s experience will be like in places like Ohio, Texas, Florida, or New York—so many variables come into play, including different practitioners, philosophies when it come to working with trauma and client histories. Outcomes can vary.
How many sessions do you find that most clients with complex trauma histories need? Also, do you feel that clients have an intuitive sense of when their work is done? For myself, I might consider another session. At the same time, I feel ketamine delivered the medicine that I was meant to receive. I don't feel like it has more much to offer me. I wonder if you relate to any of these thoughts. Or maybe you see it entirely differently.
These are all fantastic questions Anna! I think it will be hard to do them justice in writing, but I'll try. I'm also happy to meet up for a chat if you like.
First off, I think your intuition to wait before sharing is a good one. Integration can take a while, especially for the more challenging journeys. I had one that took months or a year to fully integrate. Sharing prematurely risks you loosing the "juice" to really dig in and integrate it for YOU first. Plus, you may share something out of excitement that you mater may feel was private. It's hard to know when you are in the glow of excitement and awareness.
Yes, ketamine is getting some bad press and sadly some of it is warranted. But the worst part is that the bad press is coming from misuse and misunderstanding. I had someone ready to do the work and changed their mind because of the association with a certain billionaire making questionable choices. The field also has significant shadow elements - psychedelic exceptionalism, spiritual narcissism, spiritual bypass and psychedelic capitalism are all teetering on the edge of what is dangerous. This will work itself out over time, but we really need to slooooow things down. Ketamine for depression is pretty straightforward. But ketamine for trauma is not and there is psychological risk here. Caution is warranted around recommendations unless you have direct experience. Outcomes vary A LOT, as you said.
For complex trauma, a 6 session induction series is not adequate and it is much better to work with the same provider for KAP and for integration as opposed to adjuctive KAP (different provider for ketamine work). Its very case dependent but I will often spread the sessions out more and work longitudinally, sometimes for years. A possible scenario would be a short series of KAP sessions (perhaps 3-6 weekly sessions) then a break and doing booster sessions of KAP as needed to address a specific intention, or doing a second series many months later. It is highly individual.
I just took a breath after reading—what a profound introduction. So clearly laid out, so thoughtfully paced, and so welcoming for anyone who’s lived in a fragmented state for too long. I felt seen in every line, not pathologized, simply reflected with warmth and deep comprehension.
The image of the frozen river returning to motion? That one settles right into my fascia. And the way you hold each response—Fight, Flight, Freeze, Submit, Attach—with reverence, as intelligent protectors, reminds me how much grace lives in even our messiest moments.
Thank you for offering such a grounded, generous beginning. I feel held by your clarity and already curious about where the series will lead. I'm with you for the next one.
One of the ways that I believe we heal is through simple (though not easy) non-judgmental witnessing. When we can be witnessed in whatever state of fragmentation we are in, be that the frozen River or the collapse or neediness, and held with love instead of judgment we begin to come back to our true authentic Self. 🙏💜🙏
@Linnea Butler, MS, LMFT - This is a clear and compassionate articulation of what many of us who have been exposed to trauma live with afterwards and often struggle to fully comprehend let alone put into words. The frozen river metaphor is especially apt capturing the pain of disconnection and the hope for healing when warmth and safety are offered. I rather appreciate your reminder that these parts are better undersood as a kind of adaptive intelligence. Your work honors the complexity of survival and the immense courage it takes to begin thawing. Thank you for holding the mirror so steadily and with such care.
Once again Bronce, I am grateful for your kind support. 🙏 I see your generously supporting writers here every day and it's absolutely beautiful. Yes, I truly view our parts as holding immense wisdom. And I believe that when we come to dialogue with them and understand them, then we move closer to healing and wholeness. 💜
@Charlotte Pence did you see this? Thought of you because of the thematic elements of your new Substack. Linnea is a great one to follow!
🙏 Thank you Jeannie!
You’re welcome, Linnea!
Ooh, this is great. Thank you, Jeannie, for thinking of me and sharing this.
You're welcome, Charlotte! I love connecting people to each other.
"Compartmentalization protects the whole from drowning..." - thank you for this powerful reminder
Thank you for reading Allie. 💜
What a thoughtful and in-depth post. Thank you for this! I especially love the suggestion at the end to ask "What part of me is present right now? What is it be trying to protect me from?" I'm definitely going to try this!
I'm so glad you enjoyed it Charlotte! 🙏 There is an interactive guide coming out next week that goes along with the series. Once we identify the parts, we can begin to "unblend" from them and reconnect with our wholeness. 💜
This really resonated with me. I love how you reframe those “problematic” parts of ourselves as actually wise and protective. The frozen river metaphor was spot on. I’ve been through therapy and did exactly what you describe: I recognized the parts that needed recognizing, talked to them, and started a new relationship with them — and with myself. In a way, I integrated my past “reactions” or “programming,” thanked them, and asked them to subtly change the code. It’s been life-changing. Looking forward to the next part in the series!
Thank you so much for sharing your experience, Nelian. It’s not just lip service, I truly believe that viewing the parts as wise is essential to healing. I’ve experienced this personally as well as professionally. I love that you were able to offer your parts gratitude, and build a new relationship with them. It’s incredibly empowering. 💜
Thank you for your kind words. I also write about this a lot, in fact it's one of the main reasons I'm on Substack. That's how powerful I know this is!
Linnea, this is beautifully constructed. As a practitioner and a human, I could not agree more on the importance of embracing our intelligent design vs the old model of fixing something 'broken'. You are creating something so important.
Thank you Mark. It feels important, even though a cluster of unsubscribes after publishing gave me pause. Some folks don’t want to look at this and that’s ok. I think I will continue to write from my soul and honor what feels like moving through.
It’s interesting to me that often the most important work we do as practitioners is not to fix but to honor.
💜🙏✨
I'm sorry to hear about the unsubscribes. It has been my experience (not always of course) that those that want to do the work will gravitate deeply to the whys as well as the hows. Others who may be looking to be 'fixed' whether they realize it or not (of course) will look at the deeper aspects and just reject the discomfort. Even JC said, "let those who have ears hear." I'm certain he wasn't talking about the things that hold up our hat! ;)
Haha! Yes, I think you’re absolutely right. And I’d rather speak to those who have the ears to hear and the minds and hearts to inquire. Thank you. 💜 I appreciate you and all you do here, in your pub and so supporting others. I see you.
Thank you, Linnea. It's a great pleasure to support those with whom I resonate. Your work will help so many.
🙏💜🙏☺️
Such a beautiful rendering. Shared!
💜💜💜 Thank you for your support and sharing. I appreciate you, your vulnerability, your honesty and all that you do.
Thank you! I’ve been doing parts work for a little over a year and it has helped me exponentially. Still so much work to go towards integration - I love your language that having a part arise and demand attention isn’t a backslide, it’s evidence of healing. I needed to hear that this week. Thank you! And thanks too to @Bronce who shared this! I’m finding so many great voices this way. 💚
Parts work is so powerful and I am thrilled that it is coming to mainstream awareness. I'm glad that we found each other! Bronce is a gem of a human, a beautiful writer and a generous soul. We met here on SS just a few months ago and I really appreciate his work. 🙏
Yes to all of this!
Hey Linnea! It's great to see you discussing these important references. I've been lucky enough to benefit from some really insightful wisdom during my own journey with trauma therapy. Onno van der Hart is definitely one of my favorite thinkers in this area, and I think "The Haunted Self" is just a must-read! I don't know anyone that explains structural dissociation better then him. His work truly resonated with me. I feel such a sense of gratitude to him. Janina Fisher has also shaped my understanding of trauma in such a profound way. I love her flipcharts. That was a big a ha! in my own personal psychotherapy sessions.
I really admire how you've managed to distill all that knowledge and share it with others. With your years of experience as a clinician, you've made a big impact in the social media world too. So many people are searching for help, and it's a pity to see some of the misinformation that floats around about trauma and healing—especially in meme culture and Instagram where things tend to get simplified in just seconds or minutes. Those little bits can really add up over time, right?
It’s important to recognize how we can be influenced by the constant stream of messages that might not actually help us grow or find our own paths. That's why providing solid, neuroscience-backed research is so valuable!
Thank you for being here and for offering such a solid foundation for others to lean on. It really makes a difference!
"The Haunted Self" is an excellent book, and a very important one in my opinion. So glad to meet another fan! Janina was my mentor for many years so I do my best to follow in her considerable footsteps. Thank you so much for your very kind words, they are gratefully received. 💜
Yes, there is a lot of disinformation out there, as well as oversimplification of trauma and how to heal those wounds. It's an area where you can really do damage if you are not careful. It's one of my soapboxes - that just because you have worked with trauma doesn't mean you understand it. I share because it sounds like you might share that particular soapbox with me. 😉 I truly hope that one day graduate programs will offer more trauma-specific training than most currently do.
Thank you again Anna, from my heart to yours. 🙏💜🙏
Janina also trained my psychotherapist in the SF Bay Area. Janina was her mentor. Looks like we have a few things in common.
Yeah, we need to spread the ‘good news’.
I also appreciate that you moved into ketamine realm. That was such a breakthrough for me. It’s all good. The more tyst survivors have access to this information the better.
Amazing!! It well may be that your psychotherapist and I crossed paths. And a big YES to ketamine assisted psychotherapy! It is not something to be done casually but I have seen it truly work miracles, for me as well as for my clients. In fact the reflection in the Submit essay (will be out in a few weeks) was following a ketamine session.
I look forward to reading your thoughts, Linnea. I’ve been wanting to share my experiences with ketamine sessions, but even months after my last session, I still feel like I’m in a process of integration. It’s as though I’m not quite the same person I was before. I see the world through a different lens. It’s like wearing a new pair of glasses — often there is an adjustment period. How does this feel? Is this working for me? The material that came up during my sessions was profoundly personal, including spiritual elements, which is why I’ve hesitated to delve into it just yet.
I’ve found that with time and some distance, I can gain a sense of objectivity that helps me feel more comfortable about sharing these experiences with others. While I don’t have any plans for a memoir, I'm trying to figure out which aspects of my journey might be beneficial for others to hear. I’m aware that the experience of ketamine-assisted psychotherapy can vary widely from person to person, and I want to be mindful of that.
It’s important to me that my narrative doesn’t unintentionally lead others to draw conclusions about their own experiences. You bring a wealth of understanding to this topic, having worked with so many clients, but I imagine that diversity of experiences is quite expansive. It’s challenging to generalize, but maybe there’s more to consider in that area. Ketamine has been getting a bad rap. So, there's that too.
Some individuals have sought advice about visiting clinics, but I find myself hesitant to provide guidance there, as my faith in the field is a bit shaky at the moment. It feels so unpredictable. I can’t predict what someone’s experience will be like in places like Ohio, Texas, Florida, or New York—so many variables come into play, including different practitioners, philosophies when it come to working with trauma and client histories. Outcomes can vary.
How many sessions do you find that most clients with complex trauma histories need? Also, do you feel that clients have an intuitive sense of when their work is done? For myself, I might consider another session. At the same time, I feel ketamine delivered the medicine that I was meant to receive. I don't feel like it has more much to offer me. I wonder if you relate to any of these thoughts. Or maybe you see it entirely differently.
These are all fantastic questions Anna! I think it will be hard to do them justice in writing, but I'll try. I'm also happy to meet up for a chat if you like.
First off, I think your intuition to wait before sharing is a good one. Integration can take a while, especially for the more challenging journeys. I had one that took months or a year to fully integrate. Sharing prematurely risks you loosing the "juice" to really dig in and integrate it for YOU first. Plus, you may share something out of excitement that you mater may feel was private. It's hard to know when you are in the glow of excitement and awareness.
Yes, ketamine is getting some bad press and sadly some of it is warranted. But the worst part is that the bad press is coming from misuse and misunderstanding. I had someone ready to do the work and changed their mind because of the association with a certain billionaire making questionable choices. The field also has significant shadow elements - psychedelic exceptionalism, spiritual narcissism, spiritual bypass and psychedelic capitalism are all teetering on the edge of what is dangerous. This will work itself out over time, but we really need to slooooow things down. Ketamine for depression is pretty straightforward. But ketamine for trauma is not and there is psychological risk here. Caution is warranted around recommendations unless you have direct experience. Outcomes vary A LOT, as you said.
For complex trauma, a 6 session induction series is not adequate and it is much better to work with the same provider for KAP and for integration as opposed to adjuctive KAP (different provider for ketamine work). Its very case dependent but I will often spread the sessions out more and work longitudinally, sometimes for years. A possible scenario would be a short series of KAP sessions (perhaps 3-6 weekly sessions) then a break and doing booster sessions of KAP as needed to address a specific intention, or doing a second series many months later. It is highly individual.
This entirely makes sense to me — every point you made.
1) Integration can take a while… many months!
2) Ketamine getting bad rap.
3) Shadow elements and spiritual bypassing prevalent in the field
4) Ketamine for trauma. Proceed with caution!
5) Outcomes can vary tremendously
6) Best to work with one provider 👍
Thanks for taking the time to respond so thoroughly.
I like the whole aesthetic vibe you've got going on here. The lavender and the gold. It’s quite lovely. 🥰
As you contemplate sharing your experiences, you may enjoy this essay if you haven't read it already, written many years after the work.
https://linneabutler.substack.com/p/beads-on-a-mala-birth-of-a-medicine
(I have not yet written about the journey that took me to the heart of existential terror, but was remarkably transformative.)
Linnea,
I just took a breath after reading—what a profound introduction. So clearly laid out, so thoughtfully paced, and so welcoming for anyone who’s lived in a fragmented state for too long. I felt seen in every line, not pathologized, simply reflected with warmth and deep comprehension.
The image of the frozen river returning to motion? That one settles right into my fascia. And the way you hold each response—Fight, Flight, Freeze, Submit, Attach—with reverence, as intelligent protectors, reminds me how much grace lives in even our messiest moments.
Thank you for offering such a grounded, generous beginning. I feel held by your clarity and already curious about where the series will lead. I'm with you for the next one.
One of the ways that I believe we heal is through simple (though not easy) non-judgmental witnessing. When we can be witnessed in whatever state of fragmentation we are in, be that the frozen River or the collapse or neediness, and held with love instead of judgment we begin to come back to our true authentic Self. 🙏💜🙏
I am absolutely with you on this assessment.