How did you find BTR? A Google search? The referral of a friend?

Your willingness to share this resource with other victims is one powerful way that you can help other victims of betrayal and abuse.

Lisa’s discovery of BTR.ORG through The BTR.ORG Podcast became a lifeline, offering a consistent source of understanding in the often tumultuous journey of trauma recovery. To hear more of her story, listen to the full episode and read the transcript below.

Full Transcript:

Anne (00:00): I’m very excited to have my new friend. I’m going to call her Lisa from Georgia, but that’s not her name and that’s not where she’s from. But we spent the weekend together at Determined To Rise, and that’s what I accidentally introduced her as over and over to people because I had trauma brain and did not remember her actual name or where she really was from. So the handy part is now we can use the name that I accidentally called her all weekend on the podcast to protect her anonymity. So welcome, Lisa.

Lisa (00:35): Hello, and thanks for having me.

Attending the Determined To Rise Retreat

Anne (00:37): We had a very long drive from Salt Lake City down to Zion to attend the Determined To Rise retreat. There were about 80 other women with us, and it was a really, really nice weekend where we could really connect with other women and experience the strength in numbers of knowing that we’re not alone.

Spreading the Word about BTR.ORG

Anne (01:38): And one of the things that Lisa mentioned on our drive home was that a lot of women have the desire to spread the word about betrayal, trauma recovery because before they found betrayal, trauma recovery, they didn’t realize that there were so many women experiencing similar things.

Lisa’s Journey and Motivation

Lisa (02:04): I’ve had women write me and say, had I found BTR sooner, it would’ve saved me years and years of pain or years of confusion. Is that how you feel?

Lisa (02:16): Initially? Just friends and maybe counselors and books? I would read them and listen to it, and it just didn’t resonate with me.

Importance of Consistent Support

Lisa (03:15): As evidenced by my trauma brain over the weekend. Women who experience trauma have a difficult time processing written information.

Lisa (03:26): Yes, definitely.

Anne (03:28): And we also have a very difficult time remembering things.

Lisa (03:31): Absolutely, yes. Writing things down is very important for me to make sense of things and to remember things.

Spreading Awareness of BTR.ORG

Lisa (04:14): I’m not probably going to have my podcast or website or blog or anything like that. It may be difficult for me to talk about these things with people in person. I want to do my best to promote you in the best way that I can to help other people.

Anne (05:26): Like you said, you were searching for things, but you didn’t know to type in betrayal trauma into Google because you didn’t know what it was that you didn’t know what you were searching for.

Lisa (06:37): Okay. I’m sure I wasn’t supposed to be interviewing you. It’s probably not how this was supposed to go.

Anne (06:47): That’s the cool part about this podcast is it’s by trauma survivors for trauma survivors, so we can make it whatever we want.

Finding Support in a Community

Lisa (07:07): Here in my town, I hadn’t found any groups that I felt comfortable going to just because they didn’t focus on my specific need.

Lisa (09:08): I want to throw out there that I’m sure donating helps continue how y’all are already working on spreading the word.

Anne (09:23): And because of your donations, I’ve been able to purchase a really nice microphone. So the sound has improved, and I’ve been able to purchase really nice editing software so that I can edit the podcast better. And Betrayal Trauma Recovery was built by all of us. There’s no way I could have started it without the emotional support of all the women that were listening, all the donations, small and large, and knowing that there was someone on the other side of the microphone listening to me.