Trauma + me

Thank you to my therapists Lian and Holly who have been and continue to be the pillars of my recovery. I wouldn’t be where I am today without you both.

Writing this is uncomfortable but it has shaped the person I am today and should therefore no longer be ignored and hidden away. Between the ages of 11 and 14 I was sexually abused by two separate people in my family circle. I buried these events as deep as I could and pretended that they never happened. Although my brain had theoretically deleted 90% of the abuse, my emotions remained which means that I was incredibly volatile, cynical and at times robotic, making day-to-day activities and relationships more broadly difficult. My past came back to haunt me in my late teens when I started university.

It was not just the sexual abuse that caused deep emotional distress. Many other events and factors contributed to the deterioration of my mental wellbeing. Roughly five years ago one of my younger brothers was addicted to heroin and we nearly lost him a few times which was extremely difficult for everyone involved. He is now a changed man though! Overall, my family situation is complicated which also contributed to various feelings of sadness, confusion, anxiety and loneliness.

In the summer of 2017 I went to rehab in South Africa for a few months because my mental health had hit rock bottom. To keep it short, the experience was traumatic (you can read more about it in my blog or ask me about it!) however it gave me a real desire to make a difference in the mental health field, more specifically with people suffering from trauma who need help with healing emotional scars.

I want to give as many people as possible access to informative and educational content regarding trauma in order to learn and grow. I also want to give people the right tools to confront their past and start enjoying certain aspects of live that they previously didn’t. Not enough is being done in this particular space. I want to disrupt the space and put care and love at the forefront when supporting those in need of help and guidance.

Thank you for reading my story.

And a huge thank you to those who helped make this website come true: my brother Max, my boyfriend Euan, my friends Eliza, Gen, Lara, Margaux, Justine, Denys, Harry, Emily G., Emily M., Amelia, Erato, Shah, Mark and Bella. And thank you to my dad for supporting me with my therapy.