TraumaTies

In this episode of TraumaTies, Bridgette and Lindsey are joined by Dr. Jaquel Patterson, a nationally recognized doctor of naturopathic medicine who has taught thousands of doctors in integrative medicine. They discuss the connection between trauma and physical health, why treating symptoms alone often isn't enough, how Dr. Patterson helps patients uncover the root causes of illness, and why she b...

This week on TraumaTies, Bridgette Stumpf and Lindsey Silverberg discuss categorization, bias, and how we respond to people and conversations that challenge our perspective. How do our implicit biases shape our relationships? Where does implicit bias or categorization influence government, policy, and history? And how does this all tie back to Zootopia ? Bridgette and Lindsey explore these questio...

In this episode of TraumaTies , Bridgette Stumpf and Lindsey Silverberg explore how behavior is shaped by environment, experience, and survival. Through famous studies on addiction, learned helplessness, and hope, they challenge the idea that behaviors like avoidance, substance use, or shutting down are signs of weakness. Instead, they ask a different question: What purpose did this behavior once...

In this episode of TraumaTies, Bridgette, Lindsey, and Dr. Stacy Phillips discuss childhood trauma, polyvictimization, how we can shift the conversation from blame to understanding and invite us all to go beyond being trauma-informed to trauma- sensitive . Dr. Phillips is the founder and CEO of IMPACT (Intervening Mitigating Preventing Adolescent and Childhood Trauma), an organization working with...

In this episode of TraumaTies , Bridgette Stumpf and Lindsey Silverberg explore how healing is shaped not only by what happens inside of us, but also by the environments around us. From neuroscience and trauma research to forest bathing and the hidden communication systems of trees, they unpack how nature, community, and physical spaces impact nervous system regulation and recovery. In This Episod...

In this episode of TraumaTies , Bridgette Stumpf and Lindsey Silverberg continue their conversation about support, resilience, and the neuroscience of healing. Through research, personal stories, and reflections on trauma and grief, they explore how connection can fundamentally change the way we experience suffering—not by removing the weight, but by helping us carry it. In This Episode 💡 Why Sup...

TraumaTies — Season Premiere: Welcome back to TraumaTies and the beginning of a new season. This chapter of the podcast expands beyond trauma awareness into deeper conversations about neuroscience, resilience, relationships, nervous system regulation, and the ways healing shows up in everyday life. In this season premiere, Bridgette Stumpf and Lindsey Silverberg explore a powerful question: Why do...

Season Four of “TraumaTies” explored how trauma lives in our bodies, our systems, our digital spaces. In this finale episode, hosts Bridgette Stumpf and Lindsey Silverberg look back but also share exciting news about the podcast going forward. Recording in Podcasthon , the world's largest podcast charity initiative, Bridgette and Lindsey revisit standout Season Four moments such as Ila Kumar's con...

The criminal legal system inflicts trauma at every stage — arrest, incarceration, and prosecution — not only on those accused but on victims, witnesses, and even jurors. Patrice Sulton has spent her career working to change that dynamic. The executive director of the Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law at NYU School of Law, Patrice is an attorney, professor, and nationally recognized criminal...

What if trauma isn't just something that happened to you, but something your body has been carrying for generations? Adaku Utah offers their perspective on that question in this episode of “TraumaTies.” Born in Baltimore and raised in Nigeria, Adaku is an Igbo, queer, non-binary healer grounded in a lineage of farmers, healers, and community caretakers. They approach healing not as a private endea...

What does it mean to lead through a trauma-responsive lens — and why does it matter across legal systems, government, and academia? For answers, host Bridgette Stumpf sits down with Anna Boucher , associate professor of Public Policy and Comparative Politics at the University of Sydney, solicitor, and global expert on migration, labor rights, and systems-level inequality. Anna works at the interse...

The word “inheritance” brings to mind images of a financial legacy, but Reesie Sims suggests another meaning: an inheritance of trauma that ancestors may have left behind. The director of therapeutic services at Volare , Reesie explains why she considers a client’s emotional inheritances in this conversation with hosts Bridgette Stumpf and Lindsey Silverberg . “The tree remembers what the ax forge...

Healing from trauma doesn’t happen only in clinical spaces. Digital spaces can also be a lifeline, as Ila Kumar explains in this visit with hosts Bridgette Stumpf and Lindsey Silverberg . A PhD candidate and research assistant in the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab, Ila focuses her scholarship on non-traditional pathways that support mental health care, particularly for youth in f...

For Dr. Jaz Robbins , the nervous system is “the soapbox that I live, die on, breathe in.” In this conversation with hosts Bridgette Stumpf and Lindsey Silverberg , Dr. Jaz explains why. “In the work that I do with my patients in therapy, I'm aiming to balance their nervous system as opposed to targeting a single symptom, sleep or something, because I know that when the nervous system is balanced,...

As “TraumaTies” launches its fourth season, hosts Bridgette Stumpf and Lindsey Silverberg reflect on Volare ’s expansion over the past year and preview what listeners can look forward to in the year ahead. This season is about “taking and looking at the ways that people take old pain and create something new from it,” Lindsey says. Volare’s milestones include launching its Survivors’ Rights Watch...

In this season finale, hosts Bridgette Stumpf and Lindsey Silverberg are joined by Executive Assistant Christina Hadad to reflect on Season Three's exploration of trauma-informed storytelling as a resilience tool. They discuss key insights from conversations with guests including Sandy Hook teacher Kaitlin Roig-DeBellis , Columbine survivor Missy Mendo , and trauma-informed architect Todd Medd. Re...

Hosts Bridgette Stumpf and Lindsey Silverberg welcome Todd Medd, an expert in healthcare and mental health architecture. Todd shares his journey into the field of trauma-informed design, beginning with his work on a pediatric facility focused on trauma-informed design and neurodivergent challenges. As he explains, trauma-informed design leverages features like lighting, temperature regulation, way...

Missy Mendo uses these two Latin words to describe herself: ama odi . “It means I love what I do to help other people, but I hate what I do because it exists,” she explains to hosts Bridgette Stumpf and Lindsey Silverberg . At 14 years old, Missy was a freshman at Columbine High School School during the 1999 mass shooting. Since then, she has dedicated herself to supporting others as the director...

Tanaya Winder and her friends in the indigenous community wanted to raise awareness about the estimated 1,181 missing and murdered indigenous women. They asked for donations of 1,181 single-sided earrings to represent each woman. They received 4,000.  “There's so many metaphors, because sometimes people would send the earrings, and they would need repair. They got damaged in the shipment. Som...

December 14, 2012, will always be part of Kaitlin Roig-DeBellis . But, in the years since that tragic day, she’s refused to let it define her. And she’s worked relentlessly to take back control.  A teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, Kaitlin saved her first-grade students from a mass shooter. She is now an advocate, author, and storyteller who shares her journey with audiences ar...

There is a moment in the Broadway musical “Water for Elephants” when a ghost version of the character Wade, played by Wade McCollum , is on stage. The character Wade is crying, and the scene comes across as tragic to the audience. To the actor Wade, it doesn’t feel tragic.  “In that moment, I'm not just personally forgiving, I'm not just personally and character-wise invoking liberation. I am...

Serial killer Ted Bundy would abduct a victim from a parking lot. But who did he take? In the media, the victim would simply be named, followed by a comma… and another name. Kathy Kleiner Rubin has seen her name, followed by a comma, in many narratives about Bundy. He attacked her in her sorority house in 1978. She has a message for the media: “Understand that there were two parts to the story.” I...

Hosts Bridgette Stumpf and Lindsey Silverberg welcome listeners to the third season of “TraumaTies” by introducing the sponsoring organization’s new name: Volare.  The third season will focus on the power of storytelling to reshape trauma narratives. To help the hosts tell that story, they have a powerful roster of guests. These will include, among others, Kathy Kleiner Rubin, who survived an...

“In times of great need, look for the helpers.” Mr. Rogers’ words have never been truer than in Season Two of TraumaTies , where we spoke with some of the preeminent helpers navigating vicarious trauma in their fields. In the Season Two finale of TraumaTies , host and Executive Director of the Network for Victim Recovery of DC (NVRDC), Bridgette Stumpf, and co-host, Lindsey Silverberg, Deputy Dire...

“Food in and of itself can be a source of trauma or adversity. It can also be used as a response to this adversity and trauma.” In this episode of TraumaTies , host and Executive Director of the Network for Victim Recovery of DC (NVRDC), Bridgette Stumpf, and co-host, Lindsey Silverberg, Deputy Director at NVRDC, speak with a registered dietitian nutritionist and clinical trauma specialist. They e...