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Veronika Železnik Psychotherapy
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Window of tolerance

The range of arousal in which you can feel and think at the same time; above it you're overwhelmed, below it numb.

Term

How it shows up in daily life

Above the window the body is on alert: the heart pounds, thoughts race, you can’t sleep, every sound is too loud. Below the window it is the opposite: emptiness, heavy tiredness, the sense that you aren’t quite here. Inside the window you can become agitated and also settle again — and that is precisely the difference.

What we do with it in therapy

When you’re outside the window, talking about content doesn’t take, because the brain isn’t in thinking mode. So first we learn to recognise where you are and how to come back — through breathing, grounding, the body. Only from within the window does it make sense to open difficult subjects.

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Preberi več na blogu

Insomnia: what happens in the nervous system when the brain won't let go of the day 12 min branja Hyperarousal: why chronic insomnia is not a sleep problem but an arousal problem 11 min branja How trauma stays written in the body — and how the body can let it go 12 min branja

See also

Denial The way the mind rejects a fact it can't take in right now. Trauma Not the event itself but the trace it leaves — when an experience exceeds the capacity to process it and stays in the body as the present. Boundaries within a family The invisible lines that determine who belongs where in a family and who decides what.

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Contact

Does some of this sound familiar?

An explanation is one thing, the experience another. If you'd like to talk it through with someone, write to me.

Write to me How therapy works
This is what insomnia taught me. What has it taught you? Traumatic experiences can leave you weakened — on recovery and strength. On the worries that drain our energy. On why differentiation matters in relationships. Self-confidence starts with self-awareness. On how hard it is to start — and harder still to keep going.