Hope for Healing from Trauma

Before the age of twenty-one, I already had a lot of living under my belt. I’d earned my Associate’s Degree, moved to a new state, secured a full-time job, and had my own apartment. Oh, and I was a single mom. My life had been full.

When you’re twenty, your daughter is two, and the father is no longer in the picture, people know you’ve experienced a few things. I knew this, too. But my experiences were viewed as the past, often categorized as circumstances I’d overcome. This was true, but it promoted a giant misconception (by others as well as myself) that my past could no longer touch me.

What most people didn’t know, and I couldn’t articulate, was that my teen pregnancy and the turbulent relationship that ended during it had deeply affected my body, mind, heart, and spirit. My beliefs about people and myself had been shaped by my experience. I appeared to be strong and situated, but I was suppressing and minimizing complicated emotions, pain, and frequent trauma responses. The effects would be long-lasting.  

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