Thoughts Over Coffee with Shanon from Surviving Childhood Trauma ☕ Join me for a cup of coffee and some real talk about complex PTSD and trauma healing and recovery.
As the end of the year draws close, I have been spending time evaluating and reflecting on how and where I spend my time and energy.
Recent Freeze Mode
In October I went through a period of time where I just didn’t feel like I had the space (or want) to sit down and think about my healing let alone write about it. Which is what happens when I cycle through my freeze response.
I kept telling myself I would check in via my stories on Instagram with a short video saying hello to everyone and sharing that recently I have been overwhelmed and figuring out how to make the necessary space for myself that I need.
I wanted to share that over the summer it felt like one hit after another against my abandonment wound and it was demanding a lot of attention and healing.
I wanted to share that I felt like I am in a transition in my life as my work in peer support begins to shift into a sustaining profession.
I wanted to share that I was taking the breaks I needed, still doing the work I needed to do, and that I was still around. But every time I tried to record a message I fell silent.
I just couldn’t find my words.
Understanding How My Mind Works
In reflecting on how I operate in these moments of activation and protection, I realize that my ability to pull my thoughts together about what I am thinking and feeling is quite challenging. I realize I am far more successful at expressing myself clearly in my own head or on paper than I am when I try to speak the words out loud.
I can put my thoughts and feelings down in writing without issue and my vocabulary isn’t too shabby for making it captivating.
I can express myself on paper without fear as I share my deepest darkest embarrassment, shame, and struggle through healing.
But the minute I try to pick up the phone to call someone to share my real-time trigger, or look to my hubby for support as I move through big emotions – I lose my words. I stumble, I forget my point, I lose hold of the sense of myself that I had in my mind, and a lot of time, I lose my train of thought.
It is something I have always felt; this lack of confidence in my own voice, this fear of saying certain things out loud, and this belief that others won’t even care to hear me.
It is something I continue to work through as I find new pieces of myself and my voice every day as I heal.
On goes the journey 💪🏻❤️🩹🔥
Looking for Ways to Connect With Other Survivors and/or Receive Support as You Heal?
CPTSD Support Group for Trauma Survivors
Survivor’s Circle Peer Support Groups might be just what you need.
These small groups meet on alternating Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays via Zoom. In these groups, survivors connect, share, and support each other through the ebbs and flows of healing. Attend a session and experience the magical healing that happens when survivors connect and support each other through shit only we can understand.
1:1 Peer Support w/ Shanon
You can also book individual 1:1 peer support sessions with Shanon for private support in a closed space. You deserve support as you heal, and I am here to help. You don’t have to heal alone.
On the Journey Peer Support Monthly Package
Get the support you need as you journey through your healing.
As a part of this monthly support program you will gain access to all Survivor’s Circle Peer Support group support sessions every month as well as individual 1:1 peer support sessions with Shanon each month.
I am a trauma informed, trained, and Certified Peer Support Specialist in the state of Wisconsin. I am also a survivor with years committed to my own trauma healing after being diagnosed with (C) PTSD due to childhood abuse. Additionally, I have a professional and personal history of community facilitation and peer work.
I specialize in helping survivors like you make connections between real time experiences and past trauma wounds, identify and communicate boundaries, create self-care plans that work, navigate big emotions and trauma responses, reparent your inner child, and embody your own self-worth through the healing process with confidence and personal empowerment.
These support groups and 1:1 peer support sessions should not replace professional therapy; they will however provide additional support and information.
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