29/05/2026
This week, I had the privilege of joining a fascinating conversation with international author and trauma-proactive educator about her work, Beyond the Trauma Wall.
The conversation stayed with me.
It prompted me to reflect on my own experience of trauma, the years that followed, and what I now understand about the protective barriers our nervous systems build in an effort to keep us safe.
In the blog, I share parts of my own experience. Not to shock, trigger, or overshare, but because sometimes the truth of trauma is best understood through lived experience.
My own experience involved significant and repeated threat, including circumstances where the police believed we were at serious risk and moved us out of the area for our safety.
However, trauma reactions do not require experiences like mine.
They do not require the “worst thing imaginable.”
They simply require threat.
A threat to life.
A threat to safety.
A threat to belonging.
A threat to identity.
A threat to connection.
What overwhelms one nervous system may not overwhelm another, and trauma is never a competition.
What matters is how our nervous system experiences and responds to what happened.
For years, I didn’t understand why I kept running.
Why I couldn’t settle.
Why I struggled to trust.
Why I remained on alert long after the danger had passed.
Writing & research has helped me connect those experiences to what I now understand about trauma, survival, safety, and healing.
It’s also an opportunity to acknowledge Florence Koenderink work, which inspires us to reflect more deeply on how trauma shapes our lives and how healing becomes possible when enough safety exists for the protective barriers to lower.
I hope it resonates with anyone who has ever wondered:
“Why am I still reacting when the danger is over?”
👇 Link to blog:
Earlier this week, I had the privilege of being invited by Florence Koenderink to join a conversation about her work, Beyond the Trauma Wall.
