WRITER SPEAKER mentor
MY STORY
IT WAS THE LATE EIGHTIES and I was just an adolescent girl. In an opportunistic, I became
the victim of a sexual predator. Before releasing me, he threatened me so I would stay silent and he could protect his reputation.
LACKING THE COGNITIVE ability to process the traumatic event would leave me feeling trapped inside myself. I would hide behind my smile and secretly wish I was never born.
FOR YEARS, I suffered with panic attacks, flashbacks, rage, anxiety, disordered sleep patterns, disrupted appetite, safety and control issues and self sabotage. I would disociate for weeks at a time.
I THEN FOUND MYSELF struggling with my identity as a young woman, navigating my way in a patriarchal society, where the expectation of being female, was to deny our own existence.
BY ADULTHOOD, I was high functioning, so I was able to work, study, travel and contribute to society, but my mental health was in turmoil.
HOW I DID IT
I WORKED WITH a trauma SURVIVOR AND PTSD SPECIALIST
SHE CREATED a Process and together we designed a program that would bridge the gap from my past to my present and into my future.
WE INCORPERATED the education of neuro-science and physiology to prepare me for the deconstruction and reconstruction of my entire thought process.
WE IMPLEMENTED holistic techniques to help me reconnect to my body and to relearn how to trust my intuition.
WE EXPLORED different practises to help me release my stored emotions and combined alternative methods to finalise incomplete memory formations.
I WAS GIVEN weekly assignments and experiments in which I would explore and examine with anticipation as I delved into the deepest recesses of my heart and soul.
AS I UTILISED what I had learned, my symptoms began to subside and dissipate.
FOR FIFTEEN YEARS I experimented with numerous traditional methods of therapy. Some yielding little to no results, whilst others rendered me worse off.
IT GOT TO THE POINT where I decided to stop talk therapy altogether. I had spent eight years talking in circles and I had nothing left to say.
A FEW MONTHS LATER I attended an online Trauma Seminar. The first Speaker was a Trauma Survivor and PTSD Specialist. She had embarked on a healing rampage and healed her own PTSD, after traditional therapies had also failed to help her. She said survivors have no real concept of time or the future....
THAT WAS ME! Time was always getting away from me and I could never quite keep up with it. As for the future, the only thing I planned was my next vacation.
IN THAT MOMENT, I knew, the victory would be mine. I reached out to her and soon after, we began the Trauma Recovery Process.