Many survivors feel awkward in social situations. This episode encourages and exhorts survivors to get back out there! This episode is excepted from the upcoming book, Surviving, Healing, and Evolving: Essays of Love, Compassion, Healing, and Affirmation for Black People.

Happy New Year! January 1 is Haitian Revolution Day. As a part of our healing platform, we are starting a History & Healing podcast under our SHE (Surviving, Healing, and Evolving) brand. We want to tell the true history of Black people all over the world; and our History and Healing Podcast is designed to do just that. Much of our history is brutal, yes, but much of it is magnificent, too, as Black people have done brilliant and heroic things despite unspeakable obstacles. We want to give a more comprehensive picture—starting with the Haitian Revolution! The Haitians inspired Black people all over the world as they freed themselves from their French colonizers , declaring victory on January 1, 1804!

As contradictory as it sounds, we can be both friends and strangers to ourselves, sabotaging our brilliance and setting ourselves up for failure. This happens not because we lack the skills we need, but because we lack confidence.

So many of us have extraordinary talents, but sometimes those talents come so easy to us that we misperceive their worth and value. We feel like we have to work much harder to be great, when the truth of the matter is that these gifts are our avenues to our greatness. Then the useless and meaningless search for perfection, ultimately, undermines our belief in ourselves. Don’t let that happen!

Often women and girls who have been sexually traumatized do not see themselves as others do. The experience of sexual abuse or assault sometimes undermines our ability to perceive the inherent beauty we possess—inside and out. This episode encourages and challenges you to make a conscious effort to recognize and acknowledge the internal and external beauty that you possess, as well as the beauty that abounds all around you.

This short trailer highlights what is to be expected from the SHE (Surviving, Healing, and Evolving) podcast. This podcast emphasizes healing from sexual trauma. However, it also delves deeply into other traumas and issues Black women and girls deal with in a society that continues to devalue and marginalize Black life. Additionally, since many Black men have evidenced a strong interest in the work of the podcaster, they, too, are expressly invited to listen—as is anyone else who loves, or is concerned about, a survivor of sexual abuse and violence. This podcast is hosted and facilitated by Dr. Rhonda Sherrod, a clinical psychologist, lawyer, and journalist.