In this deeply personal episode of Self Aware & F**ked Up, Sandtrice Russell (Tree the LPC) opens up about her journey of confronting and reprocessing childhood emotional and physical abuse through EMDR therapy.

For years, survival looked like strength. Functioning looked like healing. But underneath the self-awareness, accomplishments, and ability to “keep it together” were unresolved wounds, trauma responses, and a nervous system stuck in survival mode.

Tree shares what led her to EMDR, what the process actually felt like, and the difficult realities of revisiting painful childhood memories in order to finally process them differently. From uncovering core beliefs shaped by abuse to learning how trauma lives in the body, this episode explores the messy, exhausting, freeing process of healing beyond intellectual understanding.

This isn’t a polished story about “overcoming trauma.” It’s an honest conversation about what happens when you stop avoiding the pain and start reprocessing it.

If you’ve ever struggled with childhood trauma,emotional triggers, hyper-independence, people-pleasing, or feeling emotionally stuck despite being self-aware, this episode will remind you that healing ispossible—even when it’s uncomfortable.

Trigger Warning: Discussions of childhood emotional and physical abuse.

#SelfAwareAndFckedUp #EMDRTherapy#ChildhoodTrauma #MentalHealthPodcast #TraumaHealing #SelfAwareness#EMDRHealing #TherapyJourney #HealingFromTrauma

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