Welcome to episode 296 of Live Happy Now.

This is your host, Paula Phelps, and there's no question that the last year was stressful

for everyone in one way or another.

And as the new year has begun, much of the uncertainty and unrest has only increased.

For many, that can move us beyond feeling stressed and create

trauma in our lives. Today's guest, Dr. Carol Darza, is a licensed psychologist and founder

and executive director of Reconnective Integrative Trauma Treatment Center in Los Angeles.

She has worked extensively with trauma survivors and is author of the book, The Trauma

Map, Five Steps to Reconnect with Yourself. She's here today to talk about how stress and trauma

affect us and what strategies we can use to manage our feelings in a time of uncertainty.

Carol, welcome to Live Happy Now. Hi, thank you. Thank you for inviting me here.

Well, we had this call set up and then a lot of things changed.

I thought we were going to talk about simply how rough last year was on us.

And, you know, most of us entered this year with a lot of hope for a better year and already we're off to a rough start.

So I guess to start, can you explain how do we start to create a mentally and emotionally

healthy new year?

Okay.

That's a good question for difficult times, right?

It's a big one too.

It was a big one.

So what's important is I think the first step is really just accepting everything as they

are coming, including feelings and events, things that are out of our control.

...