by Jenney Clark | Mar 4, 2025 | Abandonment and CPTSD, Abuse, ADHD, Betrayal, Borderline Personality Disorder, CPTSD, CPTSD and Inner Child Work, Depression, Estrangement, Family Estrangement, Generational Trauma, Guest Contributor, Isolation, Rejection, Relationships, Self-Acceptance, Toxic Relationships, Trauma
Who am I? Growing up, I was a child with trust issues due to emotional and physical abuse. Then, at 18, I was assaulted on a date. Trauma often leaves invisible scars. While most physical wounds can heal, mental and emotional wounds run deep. I have faced many traumas...
by Jack Brody | Feb 18, 2025 | Abandonment and CPTSD, CPTSD, CPTSD Survivor Stories, Grief, Guest Contributor
I was once told that we had to explore the darkness in our healing before we found the light; I never quite understood what that meant or how hard it would be until I really dug deep into my own healing. What people don’t understand is how exhausting healing...
by Jack Brody | Nov 26, 2024 | Abandonment and CPTSD, Childhood Sexual Abuse, Complex PTSD Healing, CPTSD and PTSD, Guest Contributor
Having cPTSD often makes you look at life through a black-and-white lens, and your trauma response to life is not just constantly assessing whether or not people are safe but also whether our environments are safe. For a really long time, my thinking was on a...
by Rebekah Brown | Aug 16, 2023 | Abandonment and CPTSD, ACEs, Complex PTSD Healing, CPTSD, CPTSD and Narcissistic Abuse, Guest Contributor, Trauma
Meaning—What does the loss & its impact say about me? I sat on the back porch of our custom-built little house in the backwoods of Virginia. I had everything I’d ever dreamed of except for one thing. A life. I thought I’d be free. Instead, I was drowning in...
by Madelon Wise | Jul 14, 2023 | Abandonment and CPTSD, ACEs, CPTSD and Narcissistic Abuse, CPTSD Survivor Stories, Guest Contributor
After my mother died, there it would be in my lunch box: Wonder bread enveloping two slices of flabby, sodium-laden meat. Second, only to the chemicals, the processed-beyond-belief combination of pork, spices, and beef was infused with green olives and pimentos. Yes,...
by Sunny Lynn, OMC | Mar 10, 2023 | Abandonment and CPTSD, CPTSD and PTSD, Guest Contributor
Surviving While Trying to Thrive: Life with CPTSD (as published in The Friday Edition of HeartBalm Healing at https://heartbalm.substack.com) “Surviving while f*cking trying to thrive” was the initial title for this piece but it is a better explicit beginning...
