The Church became my community, my identity, my social network, my purpose, my friendships, and my support system. When religious abuse happened, not just in one church but in every church, I experienced, I began to ask myself hard questions. I wanted to understand what real healing looked like. I began to study about trauma, the body, the nervous system, and eventually how to process and regulate my nervous system. This was the moment everything began to change. As I learned to regulate my...

As the holidays approach, certain emotions or patterns may resurface. These familiar reactions are not setbacks, they're signals from your nervous system showing where safety is still learning to settle in. The nervous system loves patterns. It's wired to return to what feels familiar, the thoughts, reactions, and behaviors that once helped you survive. This is sometimes referred to as: A trauma loop, when the mind replays old stories or emotional experiences as if they are still happening...

I am 51 years old, and for the first time in my life, I'm showing up in my relationships as my full, embodied, healing self. Not the survival version of me. Not the "good Christian" version. Not the quiet, people pleasing, managing-everyone version. Just Me. When I enter Relationships now, I don't come with an agenda. I don't try to fix, save, or prove. I let people be who they are, and I show up as me. That is freedom, but its also been one of the hardest things I've ever done. Developmental...