Academy of Therapy Wisdom

02/03/2026

In clinical work, the overlap between ADHD, autism, and trauma is rarely theoretical—it shows up in real time, in the nervous system.

This graphic points to something many of you notice but struggle to articulate: sensory processing differences and survival responses can look strikingly similar on the surface, even when their roots are different. Behaviors often interpreted as “forgetfulness,” meltdowns, or emotional reactivity may reflect under-stimulation, sensory overload, dissociation, or trauma triggers—depending on what the nervous system is responding to.

That’s why a nervous system lens matters so much. In trauma therapy training at academy of therapy wisdom, there’s an emphasis on observing how a response unfolds before deciding what it means. Differentiating sensory overload from trauma activation isn’t about labels—it’s about supporting regulation and recovery in ways that actually fit the person in front of us.

At Academy of Therapy Wisdom, this kind of discernment is central to how we think about neurodivergence, complex trauma, and embodied clinical practice—especially when symptoms mimic one another and certainty is elusive.

If this framework is useful in your work, comment “System” below and we’ll share a link to Linda Thai’s free webinar: Bottom-Up Strategies for Trauma Stabilization: A Phase-Oriented Approach.

Curious how others are navigating this overlap in assessment and treatment.

02/01/2026

Many therapists find themselves asking the same clinical question again and again:
Is this trauma, ADHD, autism… or sensory processing?

In clinical practice, overlap between these nervous system patterns is not the exception — it’s the norm. Sensory sensitivities, emotional dysregulation, dissociation, attention differences, and shutdown can emerge from multiple pathways, not a single diagnosis.

This is why Trauma Therapy Training at Academy of Therapy Wisdom emphasizes discernment over diagnostic certainty. When you move away from either/or thinking and toward a both/and nervous system lens, your work becomes more precise, attuned, and stabilizing for clients.

At Academy of Therapy Wisdom, we focus on bottom-up, nervous-system-informed approaches that honor complexity — not labels alone.

Comment “SYSTEM” below and we’ll send you a link to Linda Thai’s free webinar:
Bottom-Up Strategies for Trauma Stabilization: A Phase-Oriented Approach

Save this for clinical reflection.
Share with a colleague who works with complex nervous systems.

01/28/2026

So many of the behaviors you see in practice don’t fit neatly into one box.

What gets labeled as ADHD, autism, or trauma often reflects a shared nervous system reality—especially when sensory processing is involved. This overlap can make clinical discernment challenging, particularly when “checking out,” explosive reactions, or hyperarousal may serve very different functions depending on context and history.

This is where a nervous system–first lens becomes essential. In trauma therapy training at academy of therapy wisdom, the emphasis is on slowing down, observing patterns, and asking a different kind of question—not “What is this?” but “What does this behavior do for the nervous system?”
The visual invites us to hold both neurodivergence and trauma with care, without collapsing one into the other. It’s a reminder that affirmation, stabilization, and sensory awareness often need to come before interpretation.

At Academy of Therapy Wisdom, this kind of nuanced, embodied understanding is central to how we think about clinical practice and continuing education.

If this framework resonates with you, comment “SYSTEM” below and we’ll share a link to Linda Thai’s FREE webinar: Bottom-Up Strategies for Trauma Stabilization: A Phase-Oriented Approach.

Curious how others are navigating this overlap in their work.

01/26/2026

There's something deeply sad and utterly lonely in the quest for purity that characterizes contemporary supremacist gestures.

Lurking behind the state-sponsored language that formalizes the pathologizing of the "illegal", beneath the suspicion that the stranger always hides a dagger between the creases of his appearing, and alongside the proclamation of superiority that assures one of his vaunted place in the scheme of things, is a loss of faith in the astonishment of being.

The lyrics to this sad song declare: "If we get rid of those that don't resemble us, those that unsettle us, those that confuse us with their customs and tongues, their hues and blues, maybe the world would be safer. And maybe that safety would mean something worthwhile."

But even if it were possible to disinfect oneself and discard the offending impurities, to build a wall so high that nothing foreign could scale it, to purge the body politic of every unsettling presence, to achieve at last the gleaming sterility of the Same, what would remain?

A world without encounter. A self without edge. A mirror that reflects only itself, endlessly, until the reflection forgets it was ever a reflection at all. Until the reflection wonders if it too harbours impurities.

The tragedy of purity is not merely its violence - though that violence is real, and bloody, and ongoing. The tragedy is its poverty. The pure world is an impoverished world. It has traded the fecundity of the crossroads for the barrenness of the gated compound. It has exchanged the dangerous gift of the stranger - who arrives bearing questions we did not know we needed - for the stale air of the echo chamber.

What the supremacist gesture does not understand, cannot understand from within the fortress of its certainty, is that the very thing the self seeks to expel is the condition of its own aliveness. The stranger is not the threat to the self. The stranger is the invitation through which the self discovers it was never singular to begin with. We are composed of what we did not choose, touched by what we cannot control, and constituted by arrivals we did not sanction.

To be pure is to be alone. I do not speak of the fertile solitude of the mystic; I speak of the sterile isolation of the one who has refused the call of the world.

The border wall is not a protection. It is a tomb. A tomb called safety.

Báyò Akomolafe

01/22/2026

🧠 4 Levels of Trauma Processing — Part 2
How Therapists Can Support Each Stage

Once you understand where a client is processing trauma, the next question becomes: how do you meet them there? In many conversations within Academy of Therapy Wisdom Trainings for Therapists, this distinction is essential for practicing safely, especially in experiential and somatic work.

1️⃣ Stabilization
At this level, the focus is on safety, pacing, and consent. The therapist helps regulate the nervous system before moving toward depth.

2️⃣ Curiosity
Here, gentle exploration and meaning-making are supported — without forcing emotional access before it’s ready.

3️⃣ Attunement
The therapist tracks affect, body cues, and relational signals, helping clients stay present with emerging emotion.

4️⃣ Integration
Support shifts toward embodiment and application, helping new experiences translate into daily life and relationships.

✨ Trauma-informed therapy isn’t about doing more — it’s about doing what fits the moment.

💬 Comment “Safe” below and we’ll send you the link to Jules Taylor Shore’s FREE webinar on Experiential Therapy Techniques.

01/19/2026

🧠 4 Levels of Trauma Processing in Therapy

Trauma processing doesn’t happen all at once — it unfolds in layers, shaped by safety, relationship, and the nervous system. In many trauma therapy trainings at Academy of Therapy Wisdom, clinicians explore how recognizing these levels can prevent pushing too fast and help clients feel more supported in the work. This perspective reflects the experiential and somatic orientation of the Academy of Therapy Wisdom.

1️⃣ Protective Detachment
Clients may feel numb, distant, or say they’re “fine.” This is often a protective nervous system response, not avoidance.

2️⃣ Narrative Meaning
The story of what happened can be told and understood, but emotions and body sensations may still feel out of reach.

3️⃣ Emotional Processing
Feelings begin to emerge in the present moment with safety and support, allowing clients to stay connected rather than shutting down.

4️⃣ Integrated Experience
Story, emotion, and body come together, supporting regulation, flexibility, and lasting change.

✨ When therapy meets clients at the level they’re actually in, healing becomes safer and more sustainable.

💬 Comment “Safe” below and we’ll send you the link to Jules Taylor Shore’s free webinar on Experiential Therapy Techniques.

01/15/2026

🔄 Rethinking Addiction: The Shift to Harm Reduction

Traditional addiction models often create barriers instead of access. That’s why many clinicians are turning toward harm reduction — an approach grounded in compassion, engagement, and real-world change. This perspective is central to Academy of Therapy Wisdom Trainings for Therapists, where care starts with safety and relationship, not rigid demands.

This graphic highlights the difference:
🚧 Traditional models focus on abstinence and “rock bottom,” often leading to dropout and harm.
🌱 Harm reduction meets clients where they are, addresses underlying trauma, and prioritizes the therapeutic alliance.

💬 Comment “Approach” below and we’ll send you the link to Andrew Tatarsky’s FREE webinar: Stop Saying “I Don’t Work With Addiction”.

01/14/2026

The Academy of Therapy Wisdom stands in solidarity with the addiction and mental health communities.

We are saddened by reports that federal grants supporting addiction treatment and mental health services are being terminated. These resources are vital for clinicians and the individuals and families they serve.

Addiction and mental health care require compassion, sustained support, and informed policy. Our thoughts are with all providers and communities impacted by this decision.

📎 Read more:
https://www.npr.org/2026/01/14/nx-s1-5677104/trump-administration-letter-terminating-addiction-mental-health-grants

—
Academy of Therapy Wisdom

The Trump administration sent hundreds of letters Tuesday terminating federal grants supporting mental health and drug addiction services. The cuts could total as much as $2 billion.

01/13/2026

From Content to Process: Experiential Therapy Skills with the STAIR Method

Experiential trauma therapy requires more than insight—it requires learning how to work directly with the nervous system in real time. Trauma Therapy Training at Academy of Therapy Wisdom focuses on helping therapists move beyond content and into embodied, moment-to-moment process. In this teaching session, Jules Taylor Shore introduces core principles of experiential therapy through the STAIR method (Self-Trust and Integrated Resilience).

This training explores how therapists can track nervous system activation, differentiate witnessing mind from embodied experience, and work skillfully with high activation without overwhelming or shutting clients down.

You’ll see live experiential demonstrations and learn how the STAIR method integrates somatic therapy, parts work, neurobiology, and deliberate practice into a single, coherent framework.

Watch the full webinar: https://youtu.be/D-1YJiSG83A
Self-Trust and Integrated Resilience (STAIR): https://therapywisdom.com/stair-level-1/?utm_source=fborg

01/08/2026

Therapy Training at Academy of Therapy Wisdom

“Your job is not to deeply, exquisitely understand every nuance of what is happening in their experience. That is not your job…
Your job is to create a facilitated space where they can come into relationship with whatever’s important and emerging in them—so they can discover how trustworthy and amazing they are.”

This is a quiet reorientation of power.
Not fixing.
Not deciphering.
But holding a safe, responsive field where wisdom can surface on its own.

For therapists and facilitators, this is a reminder: presence matters more than precision. Safety opens the door to self-trust. 🌱

✨ If this resonates, there’s a free live invitation for you.
Comment “SAFE” below and we’ll send you the link to
A FREE live webinar with Jules Taylor Shore

You don’t have to know everything.
You just have to make space.

👇 Comment SAFE to receive the link.



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01/06/2026

🌱 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗶𝘀𝘁 𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗣𝗮𝘁𝗵.

Becoming an integrative therapist isn’t about mastering everything at once — it’s a growth process. One that unfolds through learning, practice, reflection, and embodiment.

This developmental journey is at the heart of Academy of Therapy Wisdom Trainings for Therapists, where clinicians are supported in building skills that evolve with experience and deepen over time.

Here’s what that path often looks like:

01 — Learning Stage

You build your foundation by studying therapeutic models, theory, and integrative frameworks. This stage is about curiosity, understanding, and expanding how you think about clinical work.

02 — Application Stage

Knowledge meets the therapy room. You begin trying new techniques in session, learning through experience while staying grounded in safety and scope.

03 — Refinement Stage

Through supervision, consultation, and client feedback, your approach becomes more nuanced. You learn what works, when to pivot, and how to tailor interventions to each client.

04 — Mastery Stage

Integration becomes fluid and embodied. You move with confidence, presence, and flexibility—responding intuitively to what unfolds in the room.

✨ Growth in therapy isn’t linear, but having a roadmap helps.

💬 Comment “Safe” below, and we’ll send you the link to Jules Taylor Shore’s FREE webinar on Experiential Therapy Techniques—a powerful next step in your integrative journey.

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