Hello, fellow survivors!! I am a survivor and am taking part in the phase one peer support program at The Gatehouse. Since we began, we’ve discussed topics such as anger, addiction, and triggers. This week: the sixth session, was the first of three sessions that focus entirely on our “Inner Child.” I looked over the entire program when we first received it, but I had forgotten about this part of it, and it caused just a...
Andrea: To Heal Is Truth & Peace By Andrea Robin Skinner ***Trigger warning*** The sexual abuse of a child is a rape of the mind, in which any fledgling tools for healing are stolen. Without intervention, deep shame fills up the child’s life, and continues into adulthood. This is my story… I was nine years old when my stepfather climbed into my bed and sexually assaulted me. My mother...
*Trigger Warning My Inner Child Helped Me To Heal The memories of my abuse are fractured, like a mirror shattered into a billion pieces. How many times did it happen? I don’t know. How old was I when it started? I don’t remember. But my most vivid memory is when I am nine, I think. I am in my cousin’s bedroom and my uncle is in the bed. I have no idea why I...
Trauma Impacts The Body & Mind I had unusual physical symptoms for more than a decade that no medical professional was able to diagnose. In 2005 when my first son was born I started to experience unusual symptoms such as intense, unusual fatigue, left-sided headaches, tingling in my left hand and foot, mild balance and perceptual difficulties, attention, and memory problems to name a few. For years I saw specialists, had MRIs and follow-ups all to...
Marks Remarkable Story *Trigger Warning I remember watching a little boy open his garage door to get his bicycle out. As he pulled up the heavy door he watched himself opening it, narrating the events in his head as if he was a voice-over in a movie: Mark is now opening the garage door to get his bike, but first he’ll have to move the red wagon out of the way… I remember watching a little boy...
