trauma – The Honest Healing Journey with Kristi

Note from the author

There comes a moment in healing when you realize you’re no longer tending to the wounds of your inner child — you’re standing as the woman she grew into. For a long time, speaking the truth felt like survival. Silence felt dangerous. Not because I was hiding anything — but because I was taught thatContinue reading “Note from the author”

What People Pleasing Really Is: A Trauma Response Born in a Childhood That Never Felt Safe

Intro: People often misunderstand people-pleasing. They think it means you’re “too nice” or “too giving.” But people-pleasing is not a personality trait—it’s a survival strategy learned in childhood when your emotional needs were ignored, mocked, dismissed, or punished. A child who grows up unseen and unheard does not learn resilience; they learn adaptation. They learnContinue reading “What People Pleasing Really Is: A Trauma Response Born in a Childhood That Never Felt Safe”

Part 2: How to Know What Layer You’re In (Before You Apply the Lesson)

Why misidentifying your layer keeps you stuck—even when you’re doing everything “right” If Part 1 resonated, this part answers the next question most people ask—sometimes without realizing it: “Okay… but how do I know where I actually am?” This matters more than most people understand. Because when you misidentify your layer, you don’t just feelContinue reading “Part 2: How to Know What Layer You’re In (Before You Apply the Lesson)”

Part 1: When Truth Is Placed in the Wrong Layer

Not all truth heals at the same time.
This piece explores why advice that is technically “right” can still cause harm when it’s applied too early—or to the wrong layer of healing.

Part 3: Trauma & Awareness

Triggers, CPTSD, nervous system realizations, and the patterns I couldn’t see until I became healthy Part 1 of my healing was silence. Not the cold kind of silence—more like solitude. Space. Safety. Part 2 was the mindset shift that changed everything: There are only two states in this world—healthy and unhealthy. That applies to physicalContinue reading “Part 3: Trauma & Awareness”

Silence & Solitude — Part II

The Clarity It Brings After healing, silence and solitude stop being something you enter — and start becoming something you live from. The noise doesn’t disappear overnight. What changes is how your body responds to it. I started noticing clarity first in my reactions. Things that once sent me into panic, over-explaining, or shutdown no longer had theContinue reading “Silence & Solitude — Part II”

If you’re in a place so dark…you don’t believe you will ever heal…

I was there once too in survival mode 🩹 and where i discovered that stepping out of survival mode, was my journey to healing ❤️‍🩹 Healing from trauma was never something I believed I could do. I thought trauma—complex PTSD, triggers, painful memories—was so deeply embedded in my nervous system that healing wasn’t possible. IContinue reading “If you’re in a place so dark…you don’t believe you will ever heal…”

Healing layers part 2:

Survival vs Healing: The Difference Changed My Whole Life Healing isn’t linear, and this reflection comes from a real moment in my journey. I share it as lived experience—honest, unfiltered, and still unfolding. One of the biggest things I’ve learned this past year is the difference between surviving and healing. It wasn’t obvious to meContinue reading “Healing layers part 2: “

🌿 March 2025: When Healing Became Real

In March 2025, I started telling my story again — but this time differently. I stopped giving details. I stopped reliving the scenes. I stopped trying to convince anyone of what happened. Instead, I began looking inward. I sat with my triggers. I faced memories instead of suppressing them. I learned how trauma lived inContinue reading “🌿 March 2025: When Healing Became Real”