About the Author of this Website
Who am I, you may be wondering.
(I wondered that for years.)
I'm just a simple cavegirl, on my own healing journey.
All my life, I have been deeply affected by my own and others' unresolved trauma.
(To a lesser and lesser degree with each passing year now, thankfully.)
I experienced all 10 ACEs from the original list of Adverse Childhood Experiences.
(I forget what my score was from the expanded list, but it was high.)
I developed Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (Complex PTSD, or CPTSD),
as a result of the chronic stress and episodes of violence in my childhood.
After being diagnosed with CPTSD,
I did talk therapy for several years, but I did not find it very helpful.
Due to fear, I did not avail myself of opportunities to do EMDR and Hypnotherapy
during that time, which I now think probably would have helped a lot.
I have tried EMDR recently and find it very helpful, although it is not
the fastest technique for neutralizing past trauma at my disposal.
(Sometimes it takes several sessions to completely neutralize the trauma.)
What did finally start to help with my symptoms (flashbacks) was something I read in a magazine article -
the practice of burning off adrenaline by doing a physical activity in order to
regain my ability to think clearly. (See Other De-Escalation Techniques Page.)
Burning off adrenaline shortened my cptsd episodes/flashbacks
from 1-2 weeks down to 1-2 hours and elliminated the after-effects (nausea and shame).
I have multiple other invisible disabilities, including some disabling chronic health issues,
which I believe are effects of trauma
(due to my immune system being compromised by my nervous system being stuck in survival mode).
I spent much of my 20's and 30's trying to figure out how to heal my physical health issues.
I did succeed in greatly reducing my chronic physical pain after discovering that my pain flare-ups
were linked to stress and eating sugar and starch (grains and white potatoes).
But nothing I tried made a substantial dent in the chronic fatigue.
Eventually, I just learned how to adjust to a compromised lifestyle and pace myself.
Now, most of my efforts are directed toward finding ways to get my nervous system to feel safer in general,
so I can get out of this low level chronic freeze state I have been stuck in (functional freeze).
And giving my digestive system extra support in the meantime.
I studied Neuroscience at the public library when I was in high school and then majored in it at college.
That has come in very handy on my trauma healing journey.
Understanding the science behind my trauma symptoms has helped me deal with them
more effectively and be less judgemental.
Although I was a straight A student before college, I flunked out of college, due to my alcoholism.
I have since recovered from multiple addictions and view addiction as a symptom of unresolved trauma.
(Although, maybe it is a symptom of amino acid deficiency - but that can also be a symptom of trauma.)
After college, I studied Reiki for 4 years and dabbled in several other energy healing modalities.
(Cranio Sacral Therapy, Kinesiology, Flower Essences, Qi Gong.)
For decades, I did a ton of inner work - self-reflection, reflecting deeply on life, journaling, meditation, daydreaming,
soul-searching - and dabbled in A Course In Miracles and RC (Re-Evaluation Counseling).
I went through several dark nights of the soul and transformed many breakdowns into breakthroughs.
All of my recovery and healing efforts yielded many postitive results and growth,
but my overall physical health and emotional maturity levels still remained fairly low.
My real trauma healing finally began at the end of 2017 when I started to learn how to
uncover and resolve past trauma. A mentor appeared, who could guide me on that path.
And I finally started to gain traction with untangling my root issues.
As I liberated parts of my psyche that had been frozen in time,
I gained more and more emotional maturity.
After four years of this trauma resolution work (focused on neutralizing anchors)
and one concurrent year of nurturing my inborn talents,
I came across what was blocking my creative self-expression and unblocked it.
Now I am able to use my creative talents to share what I have learned
about unresolved trauma and how to resolve it and move beyond it.
I also discovered other creative work I can do despite being disabled.
In fact, when I am doing that work, I don't feel disabled at all.
It took me three more years to write all the content for this website and begin to put it online near the end of 2024.
A lot more about resolving trauma and healing from the effects of trauma was revealed to me in those three years, and
I am sure a lot more will continue to be revealed with each passing year.
I hope that, as this website grows, it will be a valuable source of information for others on their healing journeys
as well as for the rest of the world, because we all have to deal with the effects of trauma -
either in ourselves, in others, or both.