Blog

Blog

A space for exploring trauma, the nervous system, relationships and the ways our past can continue to shape how we experience ourselves and the world. These reflections offer gentle, practical ways of understanding ourselves more deeply, with less judgement and more curiosity and compassion.

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Ewan Nicholson

What Is Complex Trauma?

Sometimes trauma isn’t one thing that happened. Sometimes it’s the environment you had to adapt to. When we hear the word trauma, we often imagine an event. An accident. An assault. A disaster. Something happened, and there was a before and an after. But some experiences don’t fit that shape. Perhaps nothing happened once. It […]

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Ewan Nicholson

What Is Inner Child Reparenting?

And no, it doesn’t mean pretending to become your own parent. The idea of an “inner child” can sound a little strange. For some people, it immediately makes sense. For others, it sounds like therapy language they’d rather avoid. I understand both reactions. When I talk about the inner child, I’m not suggesting there’s literally […]

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Ewan Nicholson

Growing Up With a Narcissistic Parent

How do you begin to reclaim your life when so much of it has been organised around someone else? Growing up with a narcissistic parent can create a strange kind of relationship. You may spend years wanting their approval. Trying to make them happy. Managing their emotions. Trying to become the son or daughter they […]

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Ewan Nicholson

The Surprising Truth About Insecure Attachment

Additionally, your attachment style may make more sense than you think. In this context, Attachment Therapy Brisbane offers a helpful perspective. Additionally, you know your partner loves you, which is relevant to Attachment Therapy Brisbane. But they seem slightly distant today, and something in you changes, Attachment Therapy Brisbane. Perhaps you start wondering what you’ve […]

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Ewan Nicholson

How Addiction Disconnects You From Your Body

And how slowly reconnecting with yourself can become part of recovery. One of the things I’ve come to appreciate about addiction is that it rarely makes much sense when we look only at the substance or behaviour. Why would someone keep doing something they know is hurting them? Why drink again when you promised yourself […]

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Ewan Nicholson

Can Mindfulness Help With Trauma? Why Being Present Isn’t Always Calming

Mindfulness is often presented as though it’s a fairly straightforward solution. Feel anxious? Be present. Notice your breathing. Feel your body. Observe your thoughts. Come back to the moment. And for some people, this can be genuinely helpful. But if you’ve experienced trauma, turning towards the present moment doesn’t necessarily make you feel calmer. Sometimes […]

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Ewan Nicholson

Signs of Childhood Emotional Neglect in Adults: What You Might Have Learned to Ignore

You can have a childhood that looked perfectly fine from the outside and still grow up feeling that something important was missing. Maybe your parents weren’t abusive. You were fed, clothed and sent to school. Perhaps they worked hard, provided opportunities for you and genuinely loved you. And yet, as an adult, you might struggle […]

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Ewan Nicholson

Why Do I Feel Unsafe Even When I Know I’m Safe? | Somatic Therapy Brisbane

How somatic therapy can help us understand why the body sometimes doesn’t get the same message as the mind. Have you ever noticed how you can know something intellectually, yet your experience tells a completely different story? You know your partner isn’t angry with you, yet something inside you braces when their voice changes. You […]

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Ewan Nicholson

10 Signs You May Be Experiencing Symptoms of Religious Trauma

Religious trauma does not always announce itself clearly. Sometimes there is no single dramatic event. No obvious moment when everything changed. Instead, it can develop slowly through years of fear, shame, rigid expectations, conditional belonging, or the feeling that parts of you were simply not acceptable. .....
Ewan Nicholson

Background Anxiety: What It Is, Why We Have It, and What to Do About It

Today, I want to explore something that quietly shapes the emotional tone of many people's lives, whether they realize it or not. It’s called background anxiety. You might not even know it’s there. It’s like a fan whirring in the background. Until you switch it off, you suddenly notice the silence. Let’s talk about what background anxiety is, where it .....
Ewan Nicholson

Healing Childhood Trauma: Why Going Slow Is the Fastest Way

If you’re beginning the journey of healing from childhood trauma, or maybe you're halfway through, feeling around in the dark, or even circling back for the tenth time, I want to offer one simple, underrated, essential bit of advice: .....
Ewan Nicholson

How to Be Okay with Everything Not Being Okay

This question first came up in a conversation with my friend Tim, back in Australia, during one of those drawn-out global crises. You know the kind, where uncertainty floods the air and the internet offers up all the familiar slogans of reassurance. .....
Ewan Nicholson

Kindness or Willpower: What Heals Emotional Wounds?

Today I want to talk about something that’s been a longtime companion on my healing journey: the tension between willpower and kindness. When it comes to facing our emotional wounds, is it better to meet them with tough resolve, or with gentle compassion? .....
Ewan Nicholson

Ours Is Not a Caravan of Despair: Finding Hope in the Midst of Healing Childhood Trauma

One of the most challenging battles on the healing journey, especially when it comes to childhood trauma, is despair. Defined as the absence or complete loss of hope, despair can feel like a wall we hit after we’ve taken those first brave steps toward healing. We think we’ve made progress, we’ve begun to look at our past, and suddenly, there .....
Ewan Nicholson

Should We Rage Against the Dying of the Light?

Today I want to sit with a big question. One that’s haunted poetry, film, culture, and maybe, in quieter ways, each of us: “Should we rage against the dying of the light?” That line, of course, comes from Dylan Thomas’s famous poem: Do not go gentle into that good night Old age should burn and rave at close of day; .....
Ewan Nicholson

The Humility of the Mystics (And Why We Need It Now More Than Ever)

If you read John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, Julian of Norwich, or really most of the mystics from that time, you’ll notice something right away: They didn’t just value humility, they actively asked for it. Julian of Norwich had three spiritual wishes. One of them was to be made so gravely ill that she would come to death’s .....
Ewan Nicholson

The Problem with “Loving Yourself” (And What Might Work Better)

If you’ve been on any kind of healing journey, from childhood trauma to CPTSD to working through shame, you’ve probably come across this message dozens, if not hundreds of times. It’s in Instagram quotes, podcasts, self-help books, therapy rooms, and casual conversations. And it’s usually delivered like this obvious, non-negotiable truth: .....
Ewan Nicholson

Small Lies, Big Shame: How Little Truths Can Reduce the Toxic Shame of Childhood Trauma

Lying, to some degree, is a natural part of growing up and being human. Most people tell little fibs here and there. The most common lies are typically related to weight, age, or height. I even read once that “I love you” came in at number seven on the list, which is a bit worrying, but that’s a topic for .....
Ewan Nicholson

How Do We Become a People Pleaser?

Today, I want to explore the question: how does someone become a people pleaser? What actually is people pleasing? Why do we use it as a way to manage our emotions? And most importantly, how do we begin to discharge the energy of it? For most of us, people pleasing ends up feeling exhausting, futile, and never-ending. .....
Ewan Nicholson

Back Home in Brisbane

I moved to Brisbane when I was 15 and lived here until I was 30. And after years of living and working overseas, I eventually came back home. For the past four years, I’ve been running my private therapy practice here in Moorooka, on the south side of Brisbane. Coming back wasn’t just a lifestyle decision. It was personal. Brisbane .....
Ewan Nicholson

The Number One Superpower for Healing Childhood Trauma

Today, I want to explore what I see as the number one priority, the real superpower, when it comes to healing childhood trauma. I’m not going to say “accelerate” your healing, because we’re not in a rush here. But if you want to deepen your healing, if you want something that genuinely supports real change, this is where it starts. .....
Ewan Nicholson

Why the Parts of Us We Hold in Contempt Need The Most Love

The subject we're exploring today is why the parts of us we hold most contempt and disdain are worthy of the most love and kindness. This is a subject that is very much easier said than done. The idea of loving the parts of ourselves that we feel disgust or real contempt toward is deeply challenging. But often we end .....
Ewan Nicholson

The Role of Humility in Healing Childhood Trauma

oday, I want to explore the role of humility in healing childhood trauma and why it’s surprisingly helpful, important, and a virtue worth developing and nurturing in this process. Humility is a complicated word. We often carry very fixed ideas about what it means. On social media you’ll see things like a cocky YouTuber getting humbled by an MMA fighter. .....
Ewan Nicholson

Why Do I Keep Thinking About What People Think of Me?

Do you find yourself stuck thinking about what people think of you? Replaying conversations, imagining reactions, going over it again and again? It’s exhausting. And somewhere inside, you probably know it’s not really helping. But it’s not something you can just switch off. .....
Ewan Nicholson

You can’t heal what you hate about yourself.

What I want to explore today is something that sounds simple when you first hear it, but becomes incredibly challenging when you actually try to live it. It’s this idea that the parts of us we feel the most contempt, shame, or disgust toward are actually the parts that most need our love and kindness. And for most of us, .....