Trauma Interrupted with Jan Broberg

[Content Warning]: Discussions of childhood sexual abuse, domestic abuse, suicidal ideation

Leanne Sheargold spent 25 years as a teacher before a stroke at 28 left her relearning how to walk, write, and dress herself. Decades later, on an ordinary evening, when her husband went through her phone, cracks opened in a marriage she hadn't yet let herself see clearly. In this episode of Trauma Interrupted, Leanne tells Jan Broberg how her body carried a childhood secret for 52 years, what happened the night she finally left her marriage, and how she rebuilt her life as a quantum healing practitioner who now helps other women release trauma stored in their own bodies.  

They talk about the slow, hard-to-name shape of financial and emotional control, what it means to become a “chain breaker” in your own family line, and why Leanne calls herself lucky that her memories waited until she was ready to hold them. She also shares the book that helped her finally understand her body's symptoms, why she chose a gentler healing modality after months of intensive EMDR, and one simple grounding practice you can try today.  

This is a conversation about the wound, the work, and the way forward; about naming what happened, setting boundaries with people who won't, and choosing, morning by morning, to come home to your own body.  

 Where To Find Leanne: 

Her Website: PureGoldHolisticWellbeing.com
Leanne’s Insta: @leanne_sheargold
Pure Gold Holistic and Wellbeing Insta: @puregoldholisticwellbeing
Leanne’s Facebook: @Leanne.Sheargold
Pure Gold Holistic and Wellbeing Facebook: @PureGoldHolisticWellbeing

Mentioned Resources:
The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk

If you or someone you know is experiencing emotional distress or suicidal ideation, please access the resources below:

National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: Call/Text 988
National Sexual Assault Hotline  (RAINN) : 1-800-656-HOPE (4673)
National Alliance for Mental Illness: 1-800-950-6264  

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[Content Warning]: Discussions of coercive control, financial abuse and exploitation, isolation, dissociation; non-graphic mentions of child sexual abuse and sexual assault by a partner, suicidal ideation

Sarma Melngailis was a Wharton-educated entrepreneur who built New York City’s first upscale raw vegan restaurant, Pure Food and Wine, and the wellness brand One Lucky Duck. From the outside, she had it all. Then she met a man online who, over five years, siphoned her business, her savings, her mother’s money, and ultimately her sense of self, a slow-motion collapse she now recognizes as textbook coercive control. 

In this conversation with Jan Broberg, Sarma, author of her memoir The Girl with the Duck Tattoo, talks about how a predator uses “data mining” to learn your fears and dreams before ever meeting you in person, what it feels like to dissociate into what she calls a “zombie state,” and why she believes intelligence and openness make people more vulnerable to manipulation, not less. She also opens up about being diagnosed with autism at 51, the arrest that she says ultimately set her free, and her frustration with how her story was mangled in the Netflix docuseries Bad Vegan. 

Jan and Sarma talk through the mechanics of coercive control, isolation, gaslighting, financial exploitation, and the confusion and fear that keep someone locked in place long after their instincts are screaming at them to leave. It’s a conversation about how brilliant, accomplished people get pulled into these dynamics, and how they find their way back to themselves.


Buy Sarma’s Memoir: The Girl with the Duck Tattoo: A Memoir
TheGirlWithTheDuckTattoo.com

Where to Find Sarma:
Insta: @sarmamelngailis
Substack: @sarmamelngailis

Mentioned Resources:
Mariana Van Zeller’s works: MarianaVanZeller.me

If you or someone you know is experiencing emotional distress or suicidal ideation, please access the resources below:

National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: Call/Text 988
National Sexual Assault Hotline  (RAINN) : 1-800-656-HOPE (4673)
National Alliance for Mental Illness: 1-800-950-6264  

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❣️ JAN BROBERG FOUNDATION
🌐 JanBrobergFoundation.org
🫂 Survivor Circle (free community)
⏳ T.I.M.E. Program
🔎 SPOT6
📖 The Jan Broberg Story (book)
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[Content Warning]: Discussions of childhood emotional neglect, adoption-based abandonment wounds, inappropriate aged relationship, domestic violence, suicidal ideation

Jessica Anne Pressler grew up in a home that looked safe from the outside, two successful parents, financial security, good schools, but there wasn't much room inside for feelings. Her father's alcoholism and her mother's emotional distance taught her early to be the good girl, to stay invisible, and to look the other way. At nine years old, she learned in a matter of minutes that she was adopted and was going to have a sibling. By fifteen, she was in a relationship with a twenty-year-old that would turn abusive. 

Jessica is now a Columbia-trained psychotherapist with almost four decades in the field, and in this conversation with Jan Broberg, she introduces the concept she calls the Traitor Within, the coping mechanisms we build as children to feel safe, and the ways they quietly work against us as adults. She traces her own path from that first toxic relationship through years of therapizing, her own therapy, being a grief counselor, and finally to writing Traitor Within, a novel that lets readers recognize themselves in a story rather than a clinical label.

Jan and Jessica talk about naming trauma responses instead of pathologizing them, how an abandonment wound shapes adult relationships, careers, and friendships, and what it looks like to interrupt an intergenerational cycle, even decades into doing the work.

Traitor Within is available for pre-order now and ships September 22, 2026. Learn more at jessicaannepressler.com.

Pre-Order Jessica’s Book:
Traitor Within ByJessica Anne Pressler  

After You’ve Pre-Ordered, To Receive The Year of Journal Prompts Follow These Steps: 
1) Find your Amazon or Barnes & Noble order number
2) Go to JessicaAnnePressler.com/the-books
3) Fill out the form and await your email

Where to Find Jessica:
JessicaAnnePressler.com
Insta: @JessicaAnnePressler

If you or someone you know is experiencing emotional distress or suicidal ideation, please access the resources below:

National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: Call/Text 988
National Sexual Assault Hotline  (RAINN) : 1-800-656-HOPE (4673)
National Alliance for Mental Illness: 1-800-950-6264  

🎧 LISTEN & SUBSCRIBE
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🎵 Spotify
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❣️ JAN BROBERG FOUNDATION
🌐 JanBrobergFoundation.org
🫂 Survivor Circle (free community)
⏳ T.I.M.E. Program
🔎 SPOT6
📖 The Jan Broberg Story (book)
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[Content Warning]: Discussions of childhood sexual abuse, family disbelief and blame, self-harm, and domestic and financial abuse.

Sophia Moreno is a survivor, author, and advocate who turned decades of silence into a mission of belief. In this episode of Trauma Interrupted, Sophia joins Jan Broberg to talk about surviving childhood sexual abuse by a family member starting at age seven, the disbelief and blame she faced from part of her family, and the long road to finding her voice. 

Sophia is the founder and president of Sophia's Hope for a Safer Tomorrow, a survivor-led nonprofit and support community, and the author of two books, “I Am a Survivor: Saying No More to Domestic Violence” and “A Message to My Abuser: Saying No to Abuse,” with a third book on breaking generational trauma currently in progress. She shares how writing letters to her abusers became a turning point in her healing, why she chose to become a rape crisis counselor, and how her family navigated financial abuse after her father's departure. 

Jan and Sophia talk honestly about generational trauma, the corrosive effect of blame and shame, and what it means to finally be seen, heard, and believed. Sophia also offers practical guidance for anyone questioning a relationship or situation that doesn't feel right: trust your instinct and find a person you can talk to.

Where To Find Sophia:
Sophia’s Website: SophiasHopes.org
Facebook: Sophia's Hope for a Safer Tomorrow

Sophia’s Books:
I Am a Survivor: Saying No More to Domestic Violence
A Message to My Abuser: Saying No to Abuse

If you or someone you know is experiencing emotional distress or suicidal ideation, please access the resources below:

National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: Call/Text 988
National Sexual Assault Hotline  (RAINN) : 1-800-656-HOPE (4673)
National Alliance for Mental Illness: 1-800-950-6264  

🎧 LISTEN & SUBSCRIBE
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🎵 Spotify
▶️ YouTube  

❣️ JAN BROBERG FOUNDATION
🌐 JanBrobergFoundation.org
🫂 Survivor Circle (free community)
⏳ T.I.M.E. Program
🔎 SPOT6
📖 The Jan Broberg Story (book)
🗞️ Newsletter  

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[Content Warning]: Discussions of childhood trafficking (including trafficking by a parent), fragmented and somatic trauma memories, mild language, two near-death experiences involving resuscitation (mention of suicide)

Kristin Howe is a Canadian author whose psychological thriller carries real trauma survivor narratives inside. Her debut novel, Unbound, follows Piper, a survivor of childhood trafficking, and the emotional truth behind Piper's story comes straight from Kristin's own life.

In this conversation with Jan, Kristin talks about writing Unbound as a way to finally hold pieces of her own memory that had been locked away for years. She describes what EMDR therapy actually felt like from the inside, how implicit memories become explicit ones, and why trusting a fragmented memory is still trusting the truth. She also opens up about the Stellate Ganglion Block, a treatment that gave her, for the first time, a sense of what it feels like to live outside constant fight-or-flight.

The conversation moves into some of the harder truths about trafficking, including how survivors are sometimes coerced into recruiting others and then charged as traffickers themselves, and into Liam, a character in Unbound whose story opens up a conversation about male survivors that doesn't get talked about enough.

Kristin also shares how healing changed her parenting, how creativity rebuilt pathways her trauma had shut down, and how two near-death experiences reshaped her sense of purpose as a child. She's the founder of Project Raven, an initiative helping survivors tell their own stories on their own terms.

This episode covers heavy ground with care. If you need support after listening, resources are linked below.

Buy Kristin's Book:
Unbound: Not All Chains Are Visible

Where To Find Kristin:
Project Raven (via Kristin's site): InnerPanda.ca
Insta: @inner.panda.ca
Facebook: @InnerPanda

Mentioned Resources:
Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends on It by Kamal Ravikant

If you or someone you know is experiencing emotional distress or suicidal ideation, please access the resources below:

National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: Call/Text 988
National Sexual Assault Hotline  (RAINN) : 1-800-656-HOPE (4673)
National Alliance for Mental Illness: 1-800-950-6264  

🎧 LISTEN & SUBSCRIBE
🍎 Apple Podcasts
🎵 Spotify
▶️ YouTube  

❣️ JAN BROBERG FOUNDATION
🌐 JanBrobergFoundation.org
🫂 Survivor Circle (free community)
⏳ T.I.M.E. Program
🔎 SPOT6
📖 The Jan Broberg Story (book)
🗞️ Newsletter  

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[Content Warning]: discussions of childhood sexual abuse, addiction and substance use, and generational family trauma.

What if the trauma you're carrying didn't start with you? In this episode of Trauma Interrupted, host Jan Broberg sits down with Lisa Arrigo, a licensed clinical social worker with 30 years in private practice, to unpack the science and lived experience of intergenerational trauma. 

Lisa explains how trauma can leave measurable marks on our biology, pointing to Dr. Rachel Yehuda's research on Holocaust survivors and their descendants, and why understanding epigenetics offers real hope, not just theory, for breaking painful family cycles. She and Jan talk about why talk therapy alone often isn't enough, how the body holds what the mind can't always name, and why modalities like EMDR, somatic experiencing, and Internal Family Systems (IFS) exist alongside traditional talk therapy. 

Drawing on her own family history and decades treating trauma and addiction, Lisa walks through the window of tolerance, why addiction is almost always a trauma response rather than a character flaw, and how complex PTSD can fragment a person into different “parts.” She and Jan also talk candidly about shame, vulnerability, and why curiosity, not perfection, is the real doorway to healing.

This conversation is equal parts science lesson and permission slip: permission to feel what's in your body, to ask for help, and to believe that whatever was passed down to you doesn't have to be passed any further.


Where To Find Lisa:
LisaArrigo.com
Insta: @lisa.arrigo.therapy
Keep Your Eyes Peeled for Lisa’s upcoming book Fall Risk

Mentioned Resources:
Transforming the Living Legacy of Trauma - Janina Fisher (psychoeducational flip chart)
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute (Therapist Directory)
The Window of Tolerance (via NICABM)

If you or someone you know is experiencing emotional distress or suicidal ideation, please access the resources below:

National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: Call/Text 988
National Sexual Assault Hotline  (RAINN) : 1-800-656-HOPE (4673)
National Alliance for Mental Illness: 1-800-950-6264  

🎧 LISTEN & SUBSCRIBE
🍎 Apple Podcasts
🎵 Spotify
▶️ YouTube  

❣️ JAN BROBERG FOUNDATION
🌐 JanBrobergFoundation.org
🫂 Survivor Circle (free community)
⏳ T.I.M.E. Program
🔎 SPOT6
📖 The Jan Broberg Story (book)
🗞️ Newsletter  

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[Content Warning]: Discussions of domestic violence, strangulation, prolonged stalking, attempted murder, failures of the legal system.

In this episode of Trauma Interrupted, Jan Broberg sits down with psychotherapist and domestic violence survivor Kelly Sutliff, founder of Kelly's Canines: Tails of Courage. Kelly walks through the night her life changed, the stalking that followed, and the gaps she found in a legal system that couldn't keep her safe even with evidence in hand. 

She talks candidly about how a friend's offhand suggestion, "get one of those dogs that bite," led her to Stella, her first protection dog, and how that relationship became the foundation of her own healing. Kelly now trains and places protection dogs with survivors of domestic violence through her nonprofit, giving other survivors the same sense of safety that helped her rebuild her life. 

Jan and Kelly talk about what it means to find justice outside a courtroom, the emotional cost of speaking out publicly (including Kelly's experience on the true-crime series Toxic), and why healing has to start with safety before anything else is possible. Kelly also shares grounded, practical advice for anyone who feels stuck in a difficult relationship or trapped by their own past. 


Where To Find Kelly:
Kelly's K9s: Tails of Courage
Toxic: Sleeping with a Stranger
Kelly’s Insta: @real_talk_with_kelly
Kelly's K9s Insta: @kellys_k9s_tailsofcourage

If you or someone you know is experiencing emotional distress or suicidal ideation, please access the resources below:

National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: Call/Text 988
National Sexual Assault Hotline  (RAINN) : 1-800-656-HOPE (4673)
National Alliance for Mental Illness: 1-800-950-6264  

🎧 LISTEN & SUBSCRIBE
🍎 Apple Podcasts
🎵 Spotify
▶️ YouTube  

❣️ JAN BROBERG FOUNDATION
🌐 JanBrobergFoundation.org
🫂 Survivor Circle (free community)
⏳ T.I.M.E. Program
🔎 SPOT6
📖 The Jan Broberg Story (book)
🗞️ Newsletter  

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[Content Warning]: Discussions of childhood emotional neglect and humiliation, description of a sexual assault survivor's experience, references to substance use disorder, and grief following the death of a family member.

Kristine Jensen has spent more than four decades in the therapy room, first helping others, and eventually turning that same clinical eye on herself. A licensed psychotherapist and certified clinical trauma professional, Kristine spent her career treating clients for shame long before she recognized it in her own life. It wasn't until she retired and moved to the California coast, expecting a quiet next chapter, that a childhood memory resurfaced and cracked open decades of unexamined pain. 

In this conversation with Jan Broberg, Kristine traces the years-long process that led to her book, Bruised Not Broken: Healing the Shame of a Troubled Childhood, from naming shame as a distinct survival strategy (not just low self-esteem or depression) to recognizing the collapse-appease-submit response that so many survivors carry from childhood into adulthood. She and Jan talk candidly about over-functioning, "earning love," and the fraud feeling that can persist even after decades of outward success. 

The conversation moves into healing itself: how self-compassion, not reliving trauma, is often the path forward, why healthy anger is a sign of progress rather than a problem, and how humanizing the people who hurt us can become part of reclaiming our own freedom. Kristine also opens up about a harder discovery in her own story: that her stepfather wasn't the only source of her wounds.

This episode is for anyone who has wondered why the work of healing doesn't feel finished, even when life looks good from the outside.

Buy Kristine's Book:
Bruised Not Broken: Healing the Shame of a Troubled Childhood

If you or someone you know is experiencing emotional distress or suicidal ideation, please access the resources below:

National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: Call/Text 988
National Sexual Assault Hotline  (RAINN) : 1-800-656-HOPE (4673)
National Alliance for Mental Illness: 1-800-950-6264  

🎧 LISTEN & SUBSCRIBE
🍎 Apple Podcasts
🎵 Spotify
▶️ YouTube  

❣️ JAN BROBERG FOUNDATION
🌐 JanBrobergFoundation.org
🫂 Survivor Circle (free community)
⏳ T.I.M.E. Program
🔎 SPOT6
📖 The Jan Broberg Story (book)
🗞️ Newsletter  

📲 CONNECT
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✍️ Share Your Story

💌 Fan Mail

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[Content Warning]: discussions of domestic violence, coercive control, child abuse, grooming, sexual abuse, spiritual abuse, and complex PTSD.

What happens after you escape abuse? In this deeply personal conversation, Jan Broberg sits down with trauma recovery coach and Brave and Free founder Anna Lopes. Anna shares how childhood exposure to domestic violence shaped her understanding of love, how she entered a coercively controlling marriage at nineteen, and how she ultimately escaped with little more than a hidden passport and determination to survive. Together, Jan and Anna explore coercive control, financial abuse, digital surveillance, spiritual abuse, grooming, complex PTSD, and the long road of recovery. They also discuss the trauma response of fawning, rebuilding identity after abuse, and why healing happens through supportive relationships and community. This episode offers validation, language, and hope for survivors navigating life beyond survival mode.

Where To Find Anna:
Insta: @Iambraveandfree
Brave and Free community
Discovering Yourself After Abuse Workbook

If you or someone you know is experiencing emotional distress or suicidal ideation, please access the resources below:

National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: Call/Text 988
National Sexual Assault Hotline  (RAINN) : 1-800-656-HOPE (4673)
National Alliance for Mental Illness: 1-800-950-6264  

🎧 LISTEN & SUBSCRIBE
🍎 Apple Podcasts
🎵 Spotify
▶️ YouTube  

❣️ JAN BROBERG FOUNDATION
🌐 JanBrobergFoundation.org
🫂 Survivor Circle (free community)
⏳ T.I.M.E. Program
🔎 SPOT6
📖 The Jan Broberg Story (book)
🗞️ Newsletter  

📲 CONNECT
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In this episode of Trauma Interrupted, Jan Broberg sits down with Dr. Kate Lund, licensed clinical psychologist, resilience expert, author of Bounce and her new release Step Away: The Keys to Resilient Parenting, for a conversation about what it actually takes to build resilience, in ourselves and in the kids we're raising. 

Dr. Kate traces her path into psychology back to a childhood diagnosis of hydrocephalus and decades of managing a chronic medical condition, and the two explore how early struggle can shape a life's calling. They talk candidly about how trauma doesn't always surface right away, sometimes it takes decades, and why healing as an adult is one of the most powerful things a parent can model for their children.

The conversation moves through practical, usable tools: a simple breathing technique called the relaxation response, the power of daily gratitude journaling, a self-compassion exercise that sparked real breakthroughs in Jan's own survivor community, and honest talk about comparison culture, social media, and letting go of perfectionism.

Above all, this episode keeps circling back to one idea: there is always possibility on the other side of a challenge.

Where To Find Dr. Lund:
KateLundSpeaks.com
Insta: @dr_kate_lund
Resilient Parenting with Dr. Kate (Podcast)
The Optimized Mind (Podcast)

Buy Dr. Kate’s Books:
Step Away: The Keys to Resilient Parenting
Bounce: Help Your Child Build Resilience and Thrive in School, Sports and Life

If you or someone you know is experiencing emotional distress or suicidal ideation, please access the resources below:

National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: Call/Text 988
National Sexual Assault Hotline  (RAINN) : 1-800-656-HOPE (4673)
National Alliance for Mental Illness: 1-800-950-6264  

🎧 LISTEN & SUBSCRIBE
🍎 Apple Podcasts
🎵 Spotify
▶️ YouTube  

❣️ JAN BROBERG FOUNDATION
🌐 JanBrobergFoundation.org
🫂 Survivor Circle (free community)
⏳ T.I.M.E. Program
🔎 SPOT6
📖 The Jan Broberg Story (book)
🗞️ Newsletter  

📲 CONNECT
📷 Instagram
🎶 TikTok
✍️ Share Your Story

💌 Fan Mail

Support the show