Blink of an Eye

#95 - Radical Inclusion   Back to Baltimore. Back to school. Back to life outside of the ICU  — if only for a minute. While Billy stayed with Archer back at AtlantiCare for a few days, Louise turned her attention towards her other kids: two starting new semesters at college, one starting seventh grade. How do families and children transition through trauma and loss?  Join Louise as she opines abou...

#94 - Southern Exposure   Our bodies – yes, our bodies — can help us make better, wiser, more informed decisions. When we are faced with big decisions — like Louise and her family faced in this week’s episode — paying attention to the sensations in our bodies can provide somatic wisdom about what decision to make. In this week’s Trauma Healing Learning, Louise explains how to cultivate that awaren...

#93 - Southern Exposure   The hospital said Archer was deteriorating and was not transportable. Louise knew they were up against time. She believed in Archer and what was possible but was facing medical and institutional barriers.  What weighed heavily on their minds was how to get Archer out of AtlantiCare and where he would be going, potentially making a large decision that would uproot Archer f...

#92 - The (New) North Star   A north star isn’t just a goal: it’s a guide. A guide towards something greater than our current scenery, our current circumstances. In trauma, like other times in our lives, we can lose sight of our North Star. When that happens, we can try our best to be graceful and adaptable as we look for guidance and what is the right direction. In this Trauma Healing Learning, L...

#91 - The (New) North Star   Part 3 of a trilogy. As Louise was culling through her archive of text messages in 2015, she had her own epiphany: with so many different things happening all at the same time, she wanted to provide a window into this intense period of time by bringing the voices to life.  In today’s third part of this text trilogy, you’ll hear about the fast paced orchestration by Lou...

#90 - Hot Cocoa   When Archer was too weak to consent due to collapsed lungs and the inability to take in much oxygen, Louise clung to a Youtube video that Archer had made for a school project the year before to hear his voice. Patient voices — not just their literal voices but their opinions and consent— are important to consider in the first place, regardless of their capacity or age as it relat...

#89 - Hot Cocoa   Part 2 of a trilogy. As Louise was culling through her archive of text messages in 2015, she had her own epiphany: with so many different things happening all at the same time, she wanted to provide a window into this intense period of time by bringing the voices to life.  In this second part of this text trilogy, you’ll continue to hear about confidential negotiations to bring a...

#88 - Caught in No Man‘s Land   Belief, simple belief in possibilities, is powerful. And it has healing capabilities. In this Trauma Healing Learning, where Louise and her family felt like they were caught in no man’s land, they also chose to believe that they had options — that there was more to be done to care for Archer. Maybe it wouldn’t be at AtlantiCare, but it was there somewhere in the wor...

#87 - Caught in No Man‘s Land   Part 1 of a 2 part companion episode.  As Louise was culling through her archive of text messages in 2015, she had her own epiphany: with so many different things happening all at the same time, she wanted to provide a window into this intense period of time by bringing the voices to life. Join Louise in this special 2 part Episode for a fast-paced chock full unvarn...

#86 - Radical Forgiveness   Forgiving someone who wronged you (even unintentionally) is tough, especially when it comes to forgiveness associated with a traumatic event.  And yet, forgiveness might be a necessary act towards trauma healing. Listen to this week’s Trauma Healing Learning for a delicate and impactful discussion about Radical Forgiveness and how it serves us (or not!) on our journey t...

#85 - Radical Forgiveness   As Archer’s temperature rose dangerously in his ICU room, Louise was rushing to get ice to pack around him. At the sink next to the ice machine, she ran into someone she didn’t expect to see: the nurse responsible for the medical error that contributed to a cascading sequence of what seemed to be irreversible events. Listen in on what transpired in #85: Radical Forgiven...

#84 - Moving Towards the Pain   Pain is a sensation of the body.  It can be all encompassing. It physically and emotionally can overwhelm us, and often beyond the point of tolerating it. But we have the tools and resources inside ourselves to cope with pain and other unpleasant sensations. In #84: Moving Towards the Pain, Louise  helps us to understand the brain from past conflicts and injuries an...

#83 - Moving Towards the Pain   On Day 24 of Archer’s stay in the AtlantiCare ICU, Louise received a phone call from an unknown number. The voice on the other line said: Get your son the hell out of AtlantiCare now. Louise listened carefully to learn and discern a new course. While Archer felt crushed with excruciating physical pain from procedures to water board his system and then sear the linin...

#82 - Low on Options, Full of Community   When a person dies, often a community surrounds the grieving — whether in person, virtually or any other number of ways. In this Trauma Healing Learning, Louise looks at the value of community rituals as they provide needed comfort to those experiencing grief amid times of crisis and loss, and she explores some of the medical research findings linking supp...

#81 - Low on Options, Full of Community   After Louise returned to Cape May from the rehabilitation visits in Baltimore, it felt as if both she and Archer’s medical team at AtlantiCare were running out of options to stabilize Archer enough that he could be transported.  Louise interviews the chief pulmonology surgeon as they look back on this medical dilemma. But while the medical team was low on...

#80 - Establishing Ties   When we face high stress situations or are under pressure in a medical environment, one of the most helpful and grounding things we can do is make a plan. But often that plan or the process of planning does not just involve one person. It involves a whole cast of characters: your loved one in the ICU, their doctors, other family members, right? In this #80: Establishing T...

#79 - Establishing Ties   Louise had almost too much on her mind as she drove from Cape May, New Jersey, to Baltimore, Maryland to check out rehabilitation facilities for Archer close to home. Join her with an inside look at the mind of a worried mother, and what she was haunted by for her son’s future, including the memory of a young couple and their baby and plans to tell the essential truth and...

#78 - Mounting Pressure   When our lives are incredibly busy or we experience a crisis, the pressure on our bodies and brains can show in a lot of ways: stomach aches, overwhelming emotions, and other physical and emotional symptoms. In Trauma Healing Learning: Mounting Pressure, Louise reveals a few key tips, tricks and methods to help provide some respite from the chaos inside and outside our bo...

#77 - Mounting Pressure   When Louise and family convened with Archer’s medical team, one of Archer’s pulmonologists said something that threw everyone for a loop: he wouldn’t make it through pacemaker surgery in the state he was in. The reply from Dr. Talucci, another of Archer’s doctors? “We are stuck in between a rock and a hard place.” In #77 Mounting Pressure, Louise walks listeners through t...

#76 - Seeking Answers   Collaboration is key when your loved one is in an ICU. It can take many forms including connecting physicians with outside providers for consultation and family meetings with medical teams. In #76: Seeking Answers, Louise offers valuable wisdom about how to communicate and advocate with medical providers and she provides powerful information about what she calls relational...

#75 - Seeking Answers   As Louise was culling through her emails and text messages from August 2015 for this episode, she stumbled upon a gift, something she had completely forgotten about: a half hour recording of a real life bedside conversation with Dr. Mohammed Hany Elnahal, Head of Cardiology at Atlanticare, about potential pacemaker surgery for Archer.  So, in #75: Seeking Answers, we’ll air...

#74 - Let‘s Pause for a Moment   Sometimes when tragedy strikes someone else and it’s similar to your own trauma, it’s important to allow yourself some space. So, in this episode, Louise dedicates some time to honor a lifeguard who died in a boating accident in Cape May — where Archer was initially injured — on August 19. She takes a pause to do the real time Blink of an Eye trauma healing work wi...

#73 - Little Breakthroughs   Neuroscience and psychology concepts like brain chunking can teach us so much about not only trauma healing but also about how our brains work in conflict. In #73 Little Breakthroughs, Louise teaches a relational skill to be more effective in navigating conflict and difficult decision making, and to be more healing-centered: reflecting. She draws from her career as a m...

#72 - Little Breakthroughs   So much was going on, so much was uncertain and uneven as Louise mulled over the decision for Archer to have permanent pacemaker surgery and experienced collaboration with the medical team for the first time. There were tough decisions to make as the Senft family's community surrounded them with love and support in tangible ways. In #72 Little Breakthroughs, Louise tak...

#71 - I Don't Want To Talk About It   In the last episode of Blink of An Eye, Louise reflects on her son Dutch’s response to Archer’s accident and stay in the ICU: To be quiet, to not want to talk about it. In this #71 I Don't Want To Talk About It, Louise shows us the research around this response and why it is so common. She also reflects on why this may happen in men and boys, too, and names so...