Emotional abuse and difficult relationships

It took me over 40 years to overcome the emotional abuse I suffered from my father, and truly be able to describe myself as a Damsel Not In Distress. I have experienced the deep mental, physical and spiritual toll that emotional abuse causes. I know that it can take time to fully understand what has happened to you, to see the truth of the difficult relationship that entangles you - this can be particularly challenging if the problems started when you were very young. And I know what it takes to find freedom!

Healing from trauma

On my journey to overcome emotional abuse, I came to appreciate the importance of the different facets of our being when it comes to healing from trauma. I learned how to heal my trauma by liberating my mind, my emotions, my body and my spirit. I don’t believe there is a one size fits all, cookie cutter, 100% guaranteed approach to healing, but rather a way of approaching it that each person can adapt to their own circumstances and preferences. However deep our wounds, I believe that there are ways that we can journey through to the light, ways that we can heal and transform beyond our wildest imaginings.

Reclaiming Christmas

I had always loved so much about Christmas – the beauty, the joy, the magical feeling that it brought. But this joy was stolen from me by emotional abuse from my father. After our sad but inevitable estrangement, I decided that enough was enough and embarked on a project to reclaim the season as my own. I describe my journey in my new book, Reclaiming Christmas, available from Amazon UK here. There are a range of reasons why people find the prospect of Christmas hard, and this book is intended to provide a beacon of hope – that it is indeed possible to reclaim the season you have loved!

Complicated grief

Losing a loved one is always challenging, and there is no single “right” way to grieve. But what about when there are more complex factors involved? Perhaps a difficult relationship with or estrangement from the person who has died. Maybe there are complex feelings associated with the person who died, which are hard to resolve. Or maybe the death was sudden or traumatic. There can be a range of factors which complicate the grieving process, and I have direct experience of successfully navigating this process.

Seeking and fulfilling life purpose

Successfully working through challenging circumstances is often a catalyst to want to help others achieve the same success – and of course that is what I am seeking to do through Damsel Not In Distress! But how best to go about that? It can be bewildering to figure out all that is required to build a business from scratch, to stake a claim in a new field. It also takes considerable courage to step out into the world with boldness to make the dream a reality.