Category: Trauma
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Birth Mama Drama
This feels like an episode of Jerry Springer lol. Grab some tea and buckle up! So, my birth mother was 18, and hadn’t finished high school when I was born and placed for adoption. I’ve always known that much – my (adoptive) parents were always open about it, and even made my teen mother sound…
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Meghan, Harry & Oprah: Trauma Doesn’t Care About Privilege
CW: suicidal ideation. It’s 5am here in North Carolina, and I just finished streaming Oprah Winfrey’s interview with Prince Harry and Dutchess Meghan. They royal family can suck it, I’m honoring their titles and you can’t stop me. So I guess you can tell already where I land on the Harry vs. The Firm question.…
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That Time the Parents Came to Therapy
CW: child abuse, gaslighting, verbal abuse, victim blaming So when last we joined our saga, I had had a flashback. I remembered vividly my dad holding me by the upper arms and shaking me, his face inches from mine. I could feel his hands gripping my arms. I remembered how he would grab one arm…
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The Collective Trauma of George Floyd’s Murder
I’m going to start with a disclaimer: I am not a Black person, so I hope to tread very carefully in this post. It is not my intention to center my pain as a white person over the ongoing trauma experienced by Black people who’ve seen too many of their own lives brutally taken. That…
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Biddy Early: Healing Comes With a Price
In the southwest of Ireland, midway between Galway and Limerick, a mother and father are worriedly tending their sick daughter. Tenant farmers in the time of Famine, most of the family was starving. They’d likely be evicted when the rent next came due. But none of that was as urgent as what was happening to…
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What A Flashback Feels Like
CW: child abuse. I was alone, waiting in the exam room for my Psychiatrist to arrive for my appointment. He was running a bit behind, and my mind began to drift. I’d been re-reading The Body Keeps The Score (again highly recommended) and a particular tidbit was tickling my brain. Basically, all of our traumatic…
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The Parents Return
In 2019, I was taking my second round of Lora O’Brien’s Meeting The Morrigan intensive. It’s a six month class, offered once a year and “intensive” is an understatement. I knew it would be, well, intense… but I had no idea how much trauma I would have to face and overcome during the class. As…
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Mom Joins The Fray
CW: Victim Blaming I’ve posted previously about how my dad and I originally cut ties. This is what happened next. So the original “incident” happened in October of 2016, a few weeks before the Presidential election. As you might imagine, since those apologizing for Mr. Trump’s “grab ’em by the pussy” remarks had triggered the…
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My Dad Goes Too Far
This article originally appeared on Pentecostal to Pagan November, 2016. It is the story of the first time I ever REALLY stood up to my father. CW: Verbal abuse, narcissistic manipulation, reference to sexual assault. Oh, and politics… So, my dad is a big Trump supporter. He’s also a huge Duke fan, so clearly he…
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Donald Trump and Sexual Assault
CW: Sexual Assault of a minor. First appeared on Pentecostal to Pagan in October, 2016 At the age of 14 I went to a concert. The adult relative who took me stayed in our assigned seats while I went down to the front to join the crush of other teen girls screaming over our heartthrob.…
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Twice Motherless; Adopted by The Great Queen
On a cold night in December, 1970, a barely 18-year-old girl was dropped off at an unwed mother’s clinic just over the state line from where she lived. Her father watched her get out of the car and then drove away. She was in labor, and nobody other than her parents knew it. Nobody –…
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Lugh’s Response To Family Trauma
Lugh is a fairly famous fellow, as Irish Gods go. He features pretty prominently in the old Irish sagas, from leading the Tuatha Dé Danann in the Battle of Moytura to being Cúchulainn’s father. According to Ye Olde Wikipedia, “Lugh is portrayed as a warrior, a king, a master craftsman and a savior. He is…
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Anthony Bourdain, Vincent Van Gogh and Actually Helping Suicidal People
CW: Suicide.This article originally appeared on our sister-site Pentecostal To Pagan on June 8, 2018 8 years ago this week, my beloved Doctor Who ran one of the best episodes in show history. The 11th Doctor and Amy Pond visited Provence and the slightly erratic Vincent Van Gogh. Vincent captured Amy’s heart, and sure she could prevent his…