Tag: PTSD

13 Reasons Why, Book Club: Fiction to Reality, Depression/Anxiety, Trauma

From “13 Reasons Why” to “Facing Your Truth” – “Facing the truth about rape” (Part II)

Grace Chen, PhD. LMFT

13reasonswhyrape(Please Read “Facing the Truth about Rape Part I” first.)

Reaction 2: “If it truly happened, why didn’t she do something to stop it?”
“You might say I should have done more. At that moment I was already dead.”
~ Hannah Baker, Ep 12

Hannah said this after Bryce raped her. Her reaction was typical victim’s reaction: frozen. She also was frozen when she witnessed Bryce raped Jessica. So, before we question the victims “not doing more,” the reality is they can’t because their mind and body are in a status of shock and frozen to do more.

More so, we know that many victims lost their lives because of fighting against the perpetrators. At that moment, it’s either fight and possibly lose your life or let the perpetrator hurt you. So, are we blaming the victims who fought to survive for not fighting the rape? Continue reading “From “13 Reasons Why” to “Facing Your Truth” – “Facing the truth about rape” (Part II)” →

13 Reasons Why, Book Club: Fiction to Reality, Depression/Anxiety, Trauma

From “13 Reasons Why” to “Facing Your Truth” – “Facing the truth about rape”(Part I)

Grace Chen, PhD. LMFT

13reasonswhyrape

“Wanna know what’s worse than being a rapist? Hiding behind one. Fucking justifying a fucking rapist, that’s worse.You want to get the story straight? We all know the story. Everything Hannah said on the tapes is true.”
~Alex, EP12

“I think it’s about time we stop think about what Hannah wants but what she needs and Jessica, and every girl who “practically beg Bryce to fuck her”.”
~ Clay Jensen, EP 13.

Years of working with survivors of childhood sexual abuse have taught me this: there are two sources of wounds contributing to the trauma: the sexual abuse itself and the responses from the people close to the survivors. When I was working on my doctoral dissertation, I went back and forth reading the literature debating which one caused the trauma or PTSD. There is no conclusion, and the only conclusion is both of them contributed to the trauma and post-trauma experiences. Continue reading “From “13 Reasons Why” to “Facing Your Truth” – “Facing the truth about rape”(Part I)” →

Depression/Anxiety

‘Love Yourself”: “I am exhausted!”

Grace Chen, PhD. LMFT

love yourself 2“So, how long is this (therapy) going to take?”

I am often asked by the clients with the above question. Some of the clients who asked this question because they have not been in therapy before and needed to get an idea about this process. On the other hands, some of the clients have been in treatment for few times or have been in treatment for a while. When they asked this question, it often communicates their concerns about the therapy process has been taking too long.

So, how long Is this going to take to “get rid of” your issues, say depression, anxiety, or relationship issues?

Continue reading “‘Love Yourself”: “I am exhausted!”” →