Hey ,

"I'm not getting anywhere."

That's what my client told me after 6 weeks of consistent trauma work….

She felt stuck….frustrated…like nothing was changing.

So I asked her a series of specific questions and pulled up her tracking data from when we first started working together:

"Let's look at where you were when we started vs now.

\What would you say your minimum distress level was over the past week?

Your maximum?

And then your average?"

She thought for a moment….

"Minimum was 3….

Maximum still hit 8 during that trigger at work…

Average was about 6."

I smiled….

"And when we started 6 weeks ago?"

She looked at the numbers on screen….

"Whoa….Minimum was 7. (now 3)

Maximum was constantly at 10. (now 8)

Average was... 8.5? (now 6)"

"EXACTLY. That's a MASSIVE change."

"Yeah," she admitted, looking genuinely shocked.

"I had no idea..."

"And how many hours of processing did you get in this month?"

"About 12 hours."

"And when we started?"

"I couldn't even do 20 minutes without dissociating."

Then I asked…

"And what’s your positive thoughts to negative thoughts ratio right now, where would you put that?"

"I think it's like 70% positive most days, maybe more."

"Hell yeah. And when we started?"

She laughed….

"Maybe 5% positive on a GOOD day."

This was absolutely EXTRAORDINARY progress.

But she hadn't noticed.

Why? Because she'd been measuring her progress by how she FELT day to day, not by objective metrics over TIME.

And because she was comparing herself to where she WANTED to be...

Not where she HAD BEEN.

This is one of the biggest traps in trauma healing:

Relying on how you feel day to day to tell you if you're making progress.

Here's why this approach fails:

1. Trauma healing isn't linear…in the short term (it is linear in the long term, but that’s a conversation for another day). You'll have days where you feel worse before you feel better (especially during active processing).

2. Your perception is biased toward the negative. You'll notice when things go wrong more than when things go right.

3. Your conscious mind often misses subtle changes that are hugely significant.

4. Many improvements happen gradually, making them hard to notice without long-term measurement.

This is why TRACKING SPECIFIC METRICS is absolutely critical for trauma recovery.

Because the data doesn't lie.

That’s always something that annoyed me with therapy….

NO METRICS!

As an engineer that drives me crazy…

How the hell can you tell if what you’re doing is working or not if you don’t have metrics to accurately measure your progress?

Haha insanity!

That’s why I have my clients track:

• Daily distress levels (minimum, maximum, average)

• Hours of active processing completed

• Positive-to-negative thought ratios

• Distress levels on specific negative beliefs

• Believability levels on specific positive beliefs

When you measure these concrete factors OVER MONTHS, you can see progress that your feelings might miss completely.

One client swore she wasn't getting better…

Until we looked at her six-month data and discovered her flashbacks had decreased from daily to twice a month.

Another was convinced her processing wasn't working….

Until we reviewed her belief ratings and saw her core negative belief had dropped from "completely true" to "I know this isn't true" in a gradual progression she never noticed.

But there's an even bigger reason why measuring matters:

It gives your logical brain EVIDENCE that healing is happening, which helps override the emotional brain's insistence that "nothing's changing."

This creates a positive feedback loop:

Seeing objective progress → Increases hope → Enhances motivation → Leads to more consistent practice → Creates more progress → Which you can measure and see

So here's what I want you to do:

1. Create a simple tracking system (even a notes app on your phone will work)

2. Each day, record your:

   • Minimum, maximum, and average distress levels (0-10)

   • Positive-to-negative thought ratio (estimated percentage)

   • Hours of active processing completed

   • Any specific symptoms or triggers that occurred

3. Each week, rate:

   • Distress level of your core negative beliefs

   • Believability of your core positive beliefs

4. Review these metrics MONTHLY and compare to past months to see the ACTUAL trends in your healing

Holy shit.

Do you know what I’m giving you right here?

Insane.

WHO ELSE GIVES YOU THIS STUFF?

Hahaha.

But if you do track these numbers?

I guarantee you'll start to see progress you never noticed before….

Because if you’re putting in the processing time with the right tools I can tell you that healing and transformation is happening right now, whether you FEEL it or not.

The problem might not be that you're not making progress...

It might be that you're so focused on the gap between where you are and where you want to be that you've completely missed the incredible distance you've already covered.

— Big Bad BRAD

PS

If you’re struggling with trauma and would like my personal coaching, there’s a link below this email where you can schedule a free call to see if we’d be a good fit to work together…no pressure either way, just there for those who might want it.

“No one can heal you, but YOU.”

Struggling With PTSD and Don't Know Where to Start?

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