Rape, Abuse, Domestic Violence, Child Sexual Abuse, Sickness, Grief, Depression, Anxiety, Guilt, Shame, Anger....we can go on and on naming situation and/or feelings that can cause us trauma and put us in a state of loneliness and defeat. What happens when we make these feelings and emotions apart of our lives by not dealing with them but going through the motions of acceptance because we feel like there is nothing we can do. This week, Latonia does commentary on how we can normalize trauma by just going along and letting the feelings consume us instead of finding healthy ways to address those issues that distress us. Do not bring the accepted baggage from 2021 into 2022. Stop making trauma normal and see it for what it is so you can move forward in life!

I had the honor of having to interview a guest for the 1st first time on my 5th episode of A Womans Soul Restored in season 1.  Ms. Burrell is a Pastor, Co-author-and now new author, Empowerment Speaker, and a Counselor with a Masters Degree in Clinical Mental Health. The journey from The Big Island to America has not been an easy one. 

She has had many trials in her life, and has been verbally and sexually abused, but has not let those occurances hold her back. She gives a powerful empowerment session during this podcast. "Abuse can stop you in your mental tracks!" Pastor Sharon A. Burrell

The situations that happen to us as children can either shape us or break us as adults. When adult traumas happen to children, it forces you to grow up very quickly. Many adults cannot process the trails that some children are forced to endure. Some things were supposed to be a secret because of the events that had taken place but there is healing in speaking your truth and letting the past propel you instead of haulting you. Join Latonia on this repeat 2nd highest rated episode of Season 1 as the songstress, and the many other hats she wears, Divine Favor aka Min. K.C. Webb shares how she was Restored from sexual abuse by the Word of God and Music!

Trauma can rear its head in many forms; regression, supression, anger, depression, hostility, remorse, and self-loathing are a few. Our sense of self can be lost in the muddleness and consumption of a predator that fills up more of our lives than we are willing to give. The predator that clings to us like the leach they are and refuses to let go. The snake that slithers into our lives, robs us of our essence, and tries to drag the life we have left out of us. They take up our mental space and our thoughts are not our thoughts anymore but the predator raids our physical and emotional space as well and is content with merely being around us as a form of keeping control. Join Latonia in a conversation with her guest Lashaunda Jamerson as she shares how her love for Christ restored her and broke the 25 year hold her predator had over her.

The trauma that we experience can cause us deep interior pain. That pain can remain bottled up inside or be displayed outwardly in unhealthy ways. Self-Mutilation is the mutilation of oneself, especially as a symptom of mental or emotional disturbance or to cause physical harm to oneself from some sort of trauma. Latonia's guest for December's First Sunday Conversation lived with a terrible secret that she learned to hide for many years. Please listen in as Patricia E. Wiggins-Plummer discusses a time in her life that she was in a very low place, but through her belief in God and having a strong prayer life, she made it and her secret became her testimony.  Check out Latonia's First Sunday Conversation with Patricia here on A Woman's Soul; Restored.

There have been many prolific events that have taken place over the years with sexual trauma and domestic violence; even to the point of domestic violence being coined that term. The legalaties of the system have not always been favorable toward a woman that was in the midst of a traumatic event. Over the years, there have been successes and failures in the areas of crimes against women, and the lacking of after care, leaving her feeling lost and sometimes confused about how she should feel and what to do to get back on track. Finding a light after sexual trauma can be very difficult if a woman has to do it alone. Latonia's guest Susan Omilian is a trailblazer in the area of helping women reclaiming their lives after abuse from start to finish and aftercare. Listen in on the conversation as they discuss Susan's long-standing career, the work she has done as an attorney advocating for women, and the hundreds of women she has helped to Thrive as they discuss, "A Legal Perspective!"

As children, we are taught to listen to our parents/adults, do well in school, and to be good boys and girls. The parent(s) job is to love and protect; to provide and to be that comfortable place when we fall. The lessons that we learn as a child are supposed to equip us for the future but what if those lessons were learned because we had to grow up fast? Learned because the role of the parent became our role? What if we learned that we had to sacrifice ourselves for the well-being of others when we should have been outside playing with our friends? Season 2 Episode 24 guest Aeriel White discusses with Latonia what it felt like having reversed roles as a very young girl and how her early beginnings of abuse, neglect, and being failed by multiple systems equipped her for what she is doing in her life today. Join the conversation as they talk about, "Still Standing!"

An emotional grinding of bones can be described as a Cringe. A bottomless pit of an unexplainable emotion that carries a crushing wave of agony that singes through joy and happiness and leaves you temporary debilitated. Scars; physical reminisces of an healed up action from a perpetrator that forever bears its mark from someone else on your body. The personification of them looking at you daily with no regret; but you wear the burden. Looking at a crippling memory in a physical state. This week, Latonia gives commentary on the lasting effects of Cringes, Scars, and Things that Makes You Say, "Oh My! She also gives her personal story of her Cringe and Scar moments and some from her former guest.

There are some instances where the situational trauma is just as bad, or worse, than the event trauma. These are instances that would not have happened if we were not in a particular place, or with certain people/person, that lead to drastic circumstances that causes both situational and event trauma. As we think back over the emotional and sexual stressors that have happened in our lives, we may even look at the situation and see that if our choices were different then our outcome may have also been different as well. This week Latonia, and her guest social media maven and rising TicToc star Ashley Michelle, discuss her traumatic event-which is a first for this podcast-and how her life has been after her traumatic event and how she uses her platforms to raise awareness.

There are severe traumas that we are mentally protected from by a blockage of certain memories that would otherwise cause more harm than good. These moments in time, for a period, are better forgotten than remembered. One medical term for this phenomenon is called Traumatic Dissociative Amnesia (TDA) meaning the brain has a protective mechanism and pockets some stressful memories to preserve the mental state of a person. Sometimes these memories are hidden for a short term, but 87 percent of patients that remembered their traumatic event experienced TDA for decades. A medical diagnosis is one way to explain this occurance, but some believe that this is a way that God provides His Divine Protection by blocking the stressed memories of a person. November's First Sunday Conversations with A Woman's Soul Restored, Latonia and her guest Tamara Brown-Hodges, discuss recovered memories of Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) and the adulthood feelings and emotions associated with supressed memories that have been remembered. Tamara will also be giving away a copy of her book.