WRANING

The following episode contains content that may be triggering to some listeners. Please check the show notes for more detailed descriptions and take care of yourself.

It contains discussions of complex trauma, the depiction of traumatic events, graphic descriptions of violence against children with sounds of a beating, has references to emotional neglect, child abuse, sibling abuse, sexual abuse, bullying, dysfunctional family, and childhood trauma: 

Listener discretion is strongly advised.

With that said, the story that we unravel has a positive ending. It’s truly an incredible, compelling, and inspiring story about someone who experienced trauma during childhood and recovered from it with EMDR therapy.

All his life Michael suffered tremendously from the effects of trauma. He experienced severe symptoms, fears and phobias and felt lost, like he had nothing, that he was nothing. He developed survival strategies to cope with his pain. 

At the age of sixty-one, despite years of therapy, he was no closer to understanding why so many things that came effortlessly to others were impossible for him: sustaining a relationship or a career, even using public bathrooms. In 2017 when he started EMDR therapy he had such severe symptoms that his life felt like a prison.