Safety in relationship, when danger was predicted.
A yellow frog is often dangerous. Ours is safe. And that’s the paradox of working with complex trauma.
The yellow frog became a symbol for us of how we often predict that relationships will be dangerous, when in fact they can be safe. It started with a soft toy used by Sally with a client with DID (dissociative identity disorder) as a transitional object. Yellow-bellied frogs are poisonous – in order to protect themselves. And this seemed like such an apt representation of so many of the behaviours associated with disorganised attachment, and how, as trauma survivors, we often protect ourselves – but in ways which keep people at a distance. The therapist’s ability to come close and to stay close – to be ‘the somebody who is there’, and never to abandon – forms the bedrock of our approach to working with complex trauma. But very little training addresses how to be ‘the somebody who is there’. Yellow Frog Training exists as a collaboration between two trainers in this field to fill that gap: to provide two complementary perspectives on how to become the therapist that the client needs you to be.