In this very special episode of the Being Well Podcast, Dr. Jacob Ham and associate therapist Elizabeth Ferreira join Forrest to discuss their trauma therapy work. They talk openly about the messy, unglamorous reality of struggle, mistakes, and repair that characterizes trauma work, its nature as both art and science, how their work has changed over time, and what they’ve learned along the way. Topics include self-disclosure, working with shame and grief, dealing with situations where the client wants an apology, the difference between trauma work and more manualized approaches, therapist training and supervision, and “polishing the mirror.”
I loved listening to Dr. Ham and Elizabeth talk during this episode. It’s a truly unique one, and I hope you enjoy it.
About our Guest: Dr. Jacob Ham is a clinical psychologist, Associate Clinical Professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and the Director of the Center for Complex Trauma there. He’s the clinician featured in Stephanie Foo’s wonderful book What My Bones Know.
Key Topics
- 0:00: Introduction and nervousness
- 6:21: The role of disclosure
- 11:34: Mistakes, rupture, and repair
- 23:20: Sharing grief
- 33:04: Supervision and parallel process
- 36:29: Therapy as an art form
- 47:52: Structure, flexibility, and ‘opening the hand’
- 52:50: A listener question: how to let it all go
- 1:02:40: How trauma therapy changes you
- 1:07:46: Recap
Forrest is now writing on Substack, check out his work there.
