Hello Trauma Brain

⚠️ Content warning: Childhood sexual abuse, family estrangement, and trauma. Pause or skip if you need to. Estrangement can hold grief and relief, love and anger. I sit down with Stephanie Weaver to discuss her memoir Bitter, Sweet , estrangement, forgiveness, and limited contact. 👤 About Stephanie Weaver Stephanie Weaver, MPH, is a writer, speaker coach, storytelling strategist, and author of Bi...

Content Warning This episode discusses childhood narcissistic abuse, hair-based control, bullying, and physical abuse involving a hairbrush. Please take care while listening and pause or skip if you need to. Episode Overview In this episode, I share how hair-based control, criticism, and abuse shaped my relationship with my natural curls. I talk about reclaiming my hair through a curly cut, bangs,...

Season 4 Is Almost Here In this trailer, I'm announcing Season 4 of Hello Trauma Brain, premiering October 22, 2026. This season, I'm digging into toxic shame, shame that was never mine to carry in the first place, and I'm giving it back to the people it actually belongs to: my abusers. What's Coming This Season Season 4 premieres October 22, 2026 This season's theme: releasing toxic shame A mix o...

⚠️ Content warning: This episode touches on place-based trauma triggers, institutional gaslighting, references to a dangerous situation (no specific details), financial abuse, and OCD/rumination. Please take care of yourself while listening. In this episode, I get real about what happened during my latest vacation. It was three days, a lot of layers, some real joy, and some genuinely hard stuff, a...

Episode Overview This bonus episode is a quick update from me: I was recently a guest on The Chaos to Connection Podcast with Diane Sorensen, where we talked about C-PTSD, estrangement, boundaries, and inner child reparenting. I'm sharing a few reflections on what came up for me after listening back, plus a preview of what's ahead for Hello Trauma Brain. In This Episode I announce my guest appeara...

⚠️ Content Warning: This episode mentions trauma and references to suicidal ideation. Please take care of yourself. Heads up: some audio distortion + no YouTube this time (copyright claim). Full video on Spotify. 💛 Have you seen K-Pop Demon Hunters? This award-winning animated film is stunning, but what stopped me cold was how accurately it portrays toxic shame: where it comes from, how it's used...

In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Michael J. Greenberg, licensed clinical psychologist and the director of OCD Associates, to talk about something I've lived with since childhood but only recently learned has a name: rumination OCD. For a long time, I thought rumination was something that happened to me, a side effect of trauma. But Michael's work helped me see that rumination is actually somet...

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and in this episode I share my personal experiences as a survivor of sexual abuse and emotional incest. For a long time, I didn't have names for what happened to me. I just knew something felt wrong. Chapters 00:00 Sexual Abuse Awareness Month 05:20 Trauma Anniversaries 09:40 Emotional Incest 25:27 Consent and Boundaries 33:21 Spectrum of Sexual Abuse 36:13...

Welcome to Hello Trauma Brain, a podcast where I share my personal journey of living with Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD), and the tools and practices I'm using to heal, recover, and grow. 🎙️ In this episode, Sara Avery, executive director of the Learned Distress Removal Process, joins me to discuss why healing from complex trauma can feel so difficult, even when we're doing all th...

Welcome to Hello Trauma Brain, a podcast where I share my personal journey of living with Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD), and the tools and practices I'm using to heal, recover, and grow. 🎙️ In this episode, Dr. Sherrie Campbell shares her personal experience of recognizing emotional abuse from her own parent and the tools that helped her cope and grieve as she began to distance h...

Welcome to Hello Trauma Brain, a podcast where I share my personal journey of living with Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD), and the tools and practices I'm using to heal, recover, and grow. 🎙️ In this episode, I explore why current events hit differently when you have C-PTSD, and what happens when the world around us mirrors the original system of abuse we survived. Why news cycles...

Welcome to Hello Trauma Brain, a podcast where I share my personal journey of living with Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD), and the tools and practices I’m using to heal, recover, and grow. 🎙️ In this episode, I reflect on my healing journey from complex trauma over the past year. I share what has worked and what hasn’t, and I talk about how important self-compassion, boundaries, an...

Welcome to Hello Trauma Brain , a podcast where I share my personal journey of living with Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD), and the tools and practices I’m using to heal, recover, and grow. 🎙️ In this episode, join me, Raysa, as I talk about my experience with estrangement. As I reach my third year estranged from the main abusers in my life, I share what it has been like to make, a...

Welcome to Hello Trauma Brain, a podcast where I share my personal journey of living with Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD), and the tools and practices I’m using to heal, recover, and grow. ✍🏽 I’m excited to share that I’ve collaborated with the blog About that Jack. I did my first Q&A series called Raysa on CPTSD Recovery & Healing. 🎙️ In this bonus announcement episode, I...

Welcome to Hello Trauma Brain, a podcast where I share my personal journey of living with Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD), and the tools and practices I’m using to heal, recover, and grow. ✍🏽 I’m excited to share that I’ve collaborated with The Healing and C-PTSD Chronicles (A Virtual Magazine). My very first published article, Listening to My Screaming Body, is featured in their...

In this heartfelt episode of Hello Trauma Brain , I sit down with Franceska McCaughan , author of SurThriving , to talk about what it really means to heal from childhood trauma and find ways to thrive after surviving. Franceska and I explore the complexity of going no contact with a parent, how boundaries can protect your peace, and why allowing both survival and thriving to coexist is an act of d...

Welcome to Hello Trauma Brain, a podcast where I share my personal journey of living with Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD), and the tools and practices I’m using to heal, recover, and grow. In this episode, join me, Raysa , as I talk with Cathy and Geraldine , founders of Transcend Trauma , about the healing journey after complex trauma. We dive into the importance of trusting your...

Welcome to Hello Trauma Brain, a podcast where I share my personal journey of living with Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD), and the tools and practices I’m using to heal, recover, and grow. In this episode, join me, Raysa, as I reflect on my recovery from perfectionism and how embracing the “good enough” standard has allowed me to be more human. References & Resources Mentioned...

Welcome to Hello Trauma Brain, a podcast where I share my personal journey of living with Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD), and the tools and practices I’m using to heal, recover, and grow. In this episode, join me, Raysa, as I kick off Season 3 of Hello Trauma Brain. I’ll be exploring why rest often feels unsafe for people with C-PTSD, how trauma impacts the nervous system, and why...

Welcome to Hello Trauma Brain — a podcast where I share my experiences living with Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and what I’m doing to heal and grow. 🎙️ You are invited to join me, Raysa, for Season 3, premiering September 25, 2025. In the meantime, you can listen to Seasons 1 and 2 anytime on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen to your podcasts. ✨ Stay conn...

Welcome to Hello Trauma Brain. A podcast where I share my experience living with Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and what I am doing to heal and get better. In this Season 2 Finale episode, Raysa celebrates her progress so far and talks about the vicious inner critic and how it was created. Raysa reflects on how she is fighting back against her own inner critic that has bullied her for a l...

Welcome to Hello Trauma Brain. A podcast where I share my experience living with Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and what I am doing to heal and get better. In this episode, Raysa continues her show illustration on how Bluey (a children’s animated series) depicts examples of healthy and realistic parenting. This is Part 2 and you are invited to check out Part 1 before listening to this epi...

Welcome to Hello Trauma Brain. A podcast where I share my experience living with Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and what I am doing to heal and get better. In this episode, Raysa shares how Bluey (a children’s animated series) shows examples of healthy and realistic parenting. This is Part 1 and you are invited to return next week for Part 2 of this Show Illustration. References (this pod...

Welcome to Hello Trauma Brain. A podcast where I share my experience living with Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and what I am doing to heal and get better. In this episode, Raysa celebrates Pride Month and shares the tools that have been helpful to her as she came out as a late bisexual/queer person. All LGBTQIA+ members and allies are welcome! 🦄🏳️‍🌈 Proudly Coming Out|EP.028 Reclaiming...

Welcome to Hello Trauma Brain. A podcast where I share my experiences living with Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and what I am doing to heal and get better. In this episode, Raysa is delighted to be joined by Dr. Ingrid Clayton, a fellow survivor of narcissistic abuse who developed Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and clinical psychologist. In this episode, Ingrid talks about how w...