by Heather Jurvelin | Jan 26, 2026 | ACEs, Childhood Sexual Abuse, CPTSD, CPTSD and PTSD, CPTSD Poetry, Guest Contributor
Trigger Warning: Detailed Description of Child Abuse I wrote this poem a few months ago, drawing from the well of ancient, long-buried feelings about the first time my mom forced my mouth open and poured Dawn dish soap into it. I was four. Although I had received...
by Heather Jurvelin | Oct 9, 2025 | Attachment Trauma, CPTSD and PTSD, CPTSD Poetry, Guest Contributor
I don’t always feel hopeful or strong. Abandoned insecurities masquerade as anxiety Splintering me into a million shards I seek safety in an impossibility A home to isolated and...
by Sunny Lynn, OMC | Aug 23, 2023 | ACEs, Complex PTSD Healing, CPTSD and Inner Child Work, CPTSD Poetry, Guest Contributor
The Game Afoot: Repatterning Old Patterns (as published in The Friday Edition of HeartBalm Healing at https://heartbalm.substack.com) There is a game afoot! It is there lying in wait for the next time you do something or act a certain way that mirrors an old pattern...
by Sunny Lynn, OMC | Nov 9, 2022 | Anxiety, Building Resilience in Healing, CPTSD, CPTSD Poetry, Dissociation and CPTSD
Haunted: The Recurring Horrors of CPTSD (as published in The Friday Edition of HeartBalm Healing at https://heartbalm.substack.com) It’s that time of the year – scary ghost stories, eerie face masks and costumes, and tricks and treats. Yet while it feels natural to be...
by Roseanne Reilly | Jan 4, 2022 | Anxiety, Building Resilience in Healing, Complex PTSD Healing, CPTSD Poetry, Hope, Hypervigilance, Polyvagal Theory and CPTSD, Self Care, The Brain and CPTSD
We can know we are safe and still not feel safe? We come into the world wired for connection and safety. How do we shift from the appearance of safety to the experience of this at a neurological and physiological level? While we may think our brains are in charge, our...
by Cassie Sands | Jul 2, 2021 | Complex PTSD Healing, CPTSD Poetry, Guest Contributor
A survivor poem… And through all of this messiness and brokenness and trauma I begin to piece together a more cohesive story of me I discover forgotten, wounded parts of myself Sealed into catacombs of silence and submission long ago Demanding to be heard I find...