Category: Uncategorized

  • Breaking Down and Moving On

    Buying My Own Car (Finally) Some women mark milestones with flowers or jewelry. Me? I will be marking mine with a new (to me) car. Not because I wanted to. Because life forced me to. Let me take you back a few months: I was driving my faithful-but-fragile 2003 Mercedes. She was old, tired, and…

  • What I Wish I had Known Before Reporting Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence

    When I reported the my abusor, he was charged with sexual assault. But that was just a single sliver of the truth. It didn’t include the years of emotional torment, verbal degradation, financial control, psychological manipulation, technological surveillance, or the coercive control that ruled my life. And what still breaks me today is this: I…

  • Tech Troubles, Triggers, and Taking Control: A Survivor’s Journey

    When you have survived abuse – technology isn’t neutral and can cause reoccurring trauma long after the abuse itself has stopped.It’s not just phones and apps and passwords—it’s the memory of being tracked. Controlled. Hacked. Watched. Silenced. It’s the anxiety that spikes when your screen lights up at midnight. It’s the sick feeling in your…

  • Financial Abuse

    The Hidden Chains of Control I know when I first thought about abuse I used to go think of bruises and broken bones. But abuse comes in many disguises. One of the most silent and invisible forms is financial abuse—and it’s more common than many realize. And can be one of the biggest hurdles to breaking…

  • 20 Minutes a Day

    A simple practice for Healing After Trauma and Abuse When you’ve survived trauma or abuse, healing can feel like an impossible mountain to climb. There are days when just getting out of bed feels like a victory and days when you cannot even do this. So the idea of rebuilding yourself may seem overwhelming —…

  • The Breaking Point – When Survival Becomes a Decision

    People think the breaking point is loud. Dramatic. A suitcase thrown into a car, a door slammed, a final scream echoing down a hallway. But for most survivors of abuse, it’s much quieter. My breaking point came not during the worst fight. Not when I was hit or humiliated or gaslit into silence. It came…

  • Poetry Helped Heal Me

    When I couldn’t speak the pain—I bled it onto the page I still find it hard some days to explain how I feel. Where therapy sessions open my wounds faster than I can heal them. When the silent screams inside my head won’t silence after a trauma trigger. And then I went to a Poerty…

  • The Narcissist: A Different Breed of Abuser

    The Abuse You Never See Coming Not all abuse leaves bruises. Some abusers don’t scream, punch, or push.They smile.They charm.They manipulate you into believing you are the problem.And by the time you realize what’s happening, you’re already emotionally bruised, mentally shattered, and questioning your entire reality. The abuse may stay like this or it may…

  • Is This Even Abuse?

    Have you ever asked that question? I did. I didn’t think it was abuse unless I was being hit. For years, I told myself it wasn’t “that bad.” I believed him when he said it was my fault. That I was too sensitive. That I was imagining things. But what I was really living in…

  • 🧳 How to Build a Safety Plan — Even If You’re Still Living With Them

    You don’t have to leave today. But you do need a plan. I didn’t have a safety plan when I left. My hand was forced when the police got involved after a night that could have turned much darker. I was lucky — if you can call that kind of trauma luck. He was arrested,…