Back Porch Confessions

Let’s expose your brain a little bit… 👀 In this powerful episode of Back Porch Confessions , we’re breaking down the common thought distortions that quietly shape your emotions, your relationships, and your everyday life. From all-or-nothing thinking to mind reading , catastrophizing , and overgeneralizing … these mental patterns can keep you stuck in anxiety, trauma responses, and emotional cycl...

Trauma, Healing & Emotional Regulation In this powerful episode of Back Porch Confessions, Barbara McCormick breaks down the fight trauma response-what it is, where it comes from, and how it impacts relationships, emotional triggers, and healing. If you’ve ever struggled with anger, defensiveness, or feeling constantly on edge, this episode will help you understand your nervous system and begi...

If you’ve ever avoided hard conversations, left relationships without closure, stayed busy to escape your emotions, or felt the urge to run when things get real —this episode is for you. In this deep-dive episode of Back Porch Confessions , Barbara McCormick unpacks the flight trauma response —one of the four nervous system survival patterns (fight, flight, freeze, fawn). We explore how trauma, an...

During this extended conversation, Barbara speaks directly to listeners about how the human nervous system protects us through survival responses , why freezing is not weakness, and how trauma, emotional overwhelm, and past experiences shape the way we react in stressful situations. This episode explores: • What the freeze response actually is • How the brain and nervous system respond to trauma a...

“Sometimes survival doesn’t look like fighting or running… sometimes it looks like smiling and keeping the peace.” Have you ever felt responsible for everyone else’s emotions? Do you apologize when you didn’t do anything wrong? Do you avoid conflict at all costs just to keep the peace? You may be experiencing what trauma experts call the fawn response . In this deep-dive episode of Back Porch Conf...

🎙️ EPISODE 3 Title: Finding Your Way Back: Protecting Your Peace & Recovering After the Breaking Point In the final part of this 3-part series, we focus on healing, protecting your mental health, and rebuilding after emotional overwhelm. This episode explores how to slow the spiral, set boundaries, regulate your nervous system, and recover from burnout, chronic stress, and emotional collapse....

🎙️ EPISODE 2Title: The Slow Unraveling: Signs You’re Closer to a Breakdown Than You Think In Part 2 of this deeply emotional series, we talk about the warning signs that happen before a nervous breakdown. From emotional numbness and anxiety to physical exhaustion, brain fog, and feeling disconnected from yourself, this episode helps you recognize when you may be reaching your limit. Many people ig...

🎙️ EPISODE 1 Title: When the Mind Reaches Its Limit: What a Nervous Breakdown Really Is In Part 1 of this powerful 3-part mental health series, we break down what a nervous breakdown really is, what causes emotional collapse, and why so many strong people reach a breaking point without realizing it. This episode explores chronic stress, burnout, trauma overload, and the mental and physical toll of...

Can a marriage or relationship truly be rebuilt after it’s been broken? And how do you know when it’s time to keep fighting… or finally walk away? In this raw, honest, and deeply reflective episode of Back Porch Confessions , Barbara sits down for a powerful, heart-to-heart conversation about love, trust, betrayal, healing, and the difficult decisions that come when a relationship changes. This ep...

Why We Carry Grief After a Relationship Ends A deep dive into attachment, loss, and reclaiming yourself ...even when you know walking away was the right choice? In this deeply honest, trauma-informed episode of Back Porch Confessions , Barbara McCormick breaks down why we carry grief after a relationship ends and why “being over it” isn’t how healing actually works. This conversation explores the...

Let’s Talk About the Version of You That Loved Harder Than You Were Loved In this deeply personal, solo episode of Back Porch Confessions , Barbara McCormick speaks directly to the part of you that loved deeply, consistently, and selflessly, often without receiving the same love in return. This episode is for anyone who has ever over-explained, over-extended, or stayed too long because they believ...

Sometimes the deepest heartbreak doesn’t come from betrayal, it comes from waiting. Waiting for effort to match words. Waiting for clarity. Waiting for someone to finally choose you. In this powerful three-hour episode of Back Porch Confessions , Barbara McCormick explores the emotional cost of staying too long with someone who was never fully present. Together we unpack attachment patterns, traum...

Why Childhood Trauma Resurfaces When Abandonment Happens in Adult Relationships | Back Porch Confessions In this deeply healing episode of Back Porch Confessions , Barbara McCormick explores why adult abandonment doesn’t just break our hearts...it reawakens childhood wounds we thought were long buried. We dive into the nervous system’s role in trauma, how emotional memory shapes our relationships,...

What if the reason you’re exhausted, anxious, and emotionally drained isn’t because you care too much, but because you’re trying to control what was never yours to carry? In this powerful Back Porch Confessions episode, we unpack why Mel Robbins’ Let Them Theory is changing lives, relationships, and emotional health. and why the real transformation happens when you finally start practicing “Let Me...

Loving yourself after a breakup sounds simple, until you’re the one lying awake at night questioning your worth, replaying memories, and wondering how you lost yourself along the way. In this deeply honest episode of Back Porch Confessions , we unpack why self-love feels almost impossible after heartbreak and what’s really happening beneath the pain. This isn’t about toxic positivity or “just movi...

“You don’t move on when you stop loving them… You move on when you start loving YOU more.”Moving on isn’t just a decision, it’s a battle between your heart, your history, and the version of you that survived it all. In this episode, we’re digging deep into why letting go after a long-term relationship feels impossible, why some people stay emotionally stuck for years, and what it really takes to r...

Your body has been fighting for years. Now it’s time to let your soul rest. In this deeply vulnerable Back Porch Confessions episode, Barbara unpacks what it truly means to live in and finally release... the survival state. For years, many of us have been operating from fight, flight, freeze, or fawn without even realizing it. We grew up in chaos, we learned to read the room faster than we read ou...

When you release the hurt, you make room for your own restoration: In this powerful Back Porch Confessions episode, Barbara dives into the raw, honest truth about forgiveness, what it is, what it isn’t, and why it becomes one of the most transformational acts of healing you will ever gift yourself. Forgiveness doesn’t erase the pain. It doesn’t excuse what was done. And it doesn’t mean reconciliat...

Bonus Episode: Emotional Numbing - How It Hurts Us & How We Heal In this bonus Back Porch Confessions episode, we’re diving into something almost every woman has lived through but rarely talks about: emotional numbing ...that quiet shutdown of the heart that happens when life gets too heavy, too loud, or too painful to carry. This conversation uncovers: What emotional numbing really is How it...

“When your heart goes quiet, your healing begins.” Emotional Numbing: Why We Shut Down & How to Wake Back Up When life gets too heavy, the heart has a way of protecting itself. For some of us, that protection looks like emotional numbing, moving through life on autopilot, feeling disconnected, and surviving instead of truly living. In this powerful 2-hour Back Porch Confessions deep dive, we t...

When their unhealed life bleeds onto you: In this episode, we talk about what it feels like to grow up believing there was something wrong with you because of how a parent spoke to you, treated you, or emotionally handled you. We get honest about the kind of childhood where love felt conditional, where you learned to shrink yourself to survive, and where you carried the weight of someone else’s un...

When the people who were supposed to love you left, God never did. This is where we learn to heal that truth, one porch conversation at a time Sometimes the deepest scars come from the people who were supposed to protect us. In this Back Porch Confessions episode, Barbara McCormick opens the...door to a heart-to-heart about childhood abandonment the kind that lingers long after the memories fade....

You don’t need their apology to heal... sometimes peace comes when you finally stop waiting for it. In Episode 22, Barbara McCormick takes a deep, honest seat on the porch to talk about healing when nobody apologized. What happens when the closure never comes? When they move on and you’re left holding the silence and the scars? In this heartfelt conversation, Barbara shares how to: Release the nee...

Living with autoimmune diseases is kind of like having a drama queen roommate who never moves out, unpredictable, exhausting, but occasionally teaches you something deep. 😅 In this episode, we laugh, learn, and get real about what it takes to actually live healthier, body, mind, gut, and spirit. From anti-inflammatory foods to saying “no” without guilt, this is your reminder that you’re not broke...

Pull up a chair on the porch and exhale - this is where we laugh through the pain, unpack the past, and find the holy humor in healing. Hosted by Barbara McCormick , Back Porch Confessions is a raw and relatable space for women rediscovering themselves after life’s curveballs. From faith and forgiveness to boundaries and burnout, nothing’s off limits. You’ll cry, laugh, nod “same,” and walk away l...