Cissy White - How To Live On Earth When You Raised In Hell?
Cissy grew up in Hell, as she puts it. Hyper-competent and emotionally disconnected, she managed to keep her trauma at bay, until it came crashing in in the form of panic attacks in college. She was diagnosed with PTSD and started therapy, but her redemption came through writing and through mothering her adopted child. Through mothering she realized what she truly missed as a child: to feel safe, to be seen, to be loved. It's not the bad stuff that happened to her that matter the most, it's what was missing. Once she could see that, she could heal.
Bio:
Cissy White’s goal is to make talk about trauma and healing less clinical and more conversational, less abstract and more accessible. She's currently working at the ACEs Connection as the Northeast Community Facilitator and Parenting with ACEs Community, Manager. She has given national speaking events, and her advocacy and writing have been featured in publications such as the Atlantic, the Boston Globe, Revelist, Ms. Magazine, and Spirituality & Health. She believes the trauma-sensitive movement must be survivor-led and anything that claims to be trauma-informed must be informed by trauma survivors.
Links:
Health Journeys (Guided Imagery Resources)
Belleruth Naparstek, founder of Health Journeys, author of Invisible Heroes: Trauma Survivors and How They Heal
Bernie Siegel, author of Love, Medicine & Miracles
ACEs Study-Related
ACEs Connection,ACEs Too High,Childhood Disruptedbook by Donna Jackson Nakazawa and TedTalk on Childhood Traumaby Dr. Nadine Burke Harris