Do I Tell Them? Sitting with the Weight of Sharing Your Story with Your Parents

Do I Tell Them? Sitting with the Weight of Sharing Your Story with Your Parents

by | Jun 30, 2025 | Attachment Trauma, Boundaries, Building Resilience in Healing, Childhood Sexual Abuse, Complex PTSD Healing, CPTSD, CPTSD and Inner Child Work, Emotional Wellness, Family Estrangement, Grief, Guest Contributor, Healthy Relationships, Hope, Life Management Skills, Post Traumatic Growth, Recovery, Relationships, Self Care, Silent Bystander Parents

There comes a point on the healing journey when the question doesn’t whisper. It roars. Do I tell my parents?Do they deserve to know what happened to me?Would they believe me?Would they hold it with care, or would it break me all over again? If you’re here, standing...
Fawn Response: The Trauma Survival Pattern That’s Mistaken for Kindness

Fawn Response: The Trauma Survival Pattern That’s Mistaken for Kindness

by | Jun 5, 2025 | Boundaries, CPTSD, Guest Contributor, Healing from Toxic Shame, Mental Health Awareness, Mental Health Professional, Polyvagal Theory and CPTSD, Self-Acceptance, Symptoms of CPTSD

It often looks like compassion. It often gets praised as loyalty. But for many trauma survivors, the behavior known as the fawn response isn’t about kindness—it is about survival. The fawn response is the least recognized of the four primary trauma reactions: fight,...
When You See the Warning Signs of Triangulation

When You See the Warning Signs of Triangulation

by | Feb 6, 2025 | Boundaries, Complex PTSD Healing, CPTSD, CPTSD and Narcissistic Abuse, CPTSD and Parenting, Estrangement, Family Estrangement, Guest Contributor, Toxic Relationships, Triggers

“Mom,” Harper started, “Grandma Clare sent me a text inviting me to dinner at her house for my birthday. Is that weird that she only invited me and not all of us?” Grandma Clare, my stepmother, is a narcissist. Over the past decade, I have set boundaries and distanced...
It’s Beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

It’s Beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

by | Dec 23, 2024 | Anxiety, Boundaries, Building Resilience in Healing, Combat Trauma, Complex PTSD Healing, CPTSD, CPTSD and Parenting, Feeling Good Enough, Guest Contributor, Healthy Relationships, Holidays

It is Christmas Eve, and Christians worldwide are celebrating one of the most important holidays of the year – the birth of Christ. It is a season to be jolly and happy. A time to celebrate with family and friends. It is a time for everyone, no matter what their...
When a Victim Doesn’t Know She’s a Victim: Survivor’s Guilt, the “Fawn” Response, Trauma Bonds, and Setting Boundaries

When a Victim Doesn’t Know She’s a Victim: Survivor’s Guilt, the “Fawn” Response, Trauma Bonds, and Setting Boundaries

by | Nov 8, 2024 | Boundaries, Complex PTSD Healing, CPTSD, Guest Contributor, Healing Self-Shame

“I can’t forgive myself.”  Daily, I uttered this phrase.  When I said it, my loved ones were concerned. “But what do you need to forgive yourself for?” They’d ask, perplexed. For them, there was nothing I’d done that needed forgiving.   The voice in my head screamed,...