THOUGHTS & MIND: SELF-BLAME AFTER TRAUMA
“Was it my fault?” and other painful thoughts
Self-blame can become one of the most painful parts of living after trauma. This interactive Thoughts & Mind guide explores why the mind can turn responsibility inward and helps readers examine what they actually knew, controlled and had capacity for at the time.
Inside the guide:
• Why trauma can create self-blaming thoughts and a powerful search for control.
• Hindsight bias and the difference between what was known then and what is known now.
• Fight, flight, freeze, appease/submit and dissociative survival responses.
• The difference between guilt, shame, responsibility and blame.
• A five-part interactive responsibility check.
• A Responsibility Pie exercise for looking at all contributing people, circumstances, power differences and systems.
• Challenges to common thoughts such as “I should have known,” “I should have fought back,” “I trusted them” and “I should be over it.”
• A section on blame that may have been imposed by another person, family, institution or culture.
• Guidance on when professional trauma support may help.
• A fillable personal Self-Blame Plan.
• A tailored message from Maggie, books, resources and clinical sources.
The interactive PDF does not ask readers to write a detailed trauma narrative. Its fillable reflection areas are designed to help people examine responsibility more proportionately and reduce shame without forcing positive thinking.
Space to Breathe Therapy | Thoughts & Mind | Trauma
