In this powerful episode of Not That Girl Anymore, host Dawn Bouillion sits down with artist and future therapist Ashley Woodard to share her courageous journey of surviving religious trauma, family abuse, and the struggle of growing up in a home filled with control, violence, and silence.

This is part one of Ashley’s story, where she bravely reveals what it means to grow up in survival mode, wrestle with faith, and carry the hidden scars of trauma. Her honesty reminds us that healing begins with telling the truth.

✨ If you’ve ever struggled with religious trauma, childhood abuse, or the ache of not being seen, this conversation will make you feel less alone.

#trauma, #narcissistic, #religious trauma,

NTGA- Episode 12

Hey friends. Welcome back to Not That Girl anymore. I'm your host, Dawn Boon, trauma therapist and coach and the founder here of Embrace Your Brave, and this is a space where we talk about healing. We we're reclaiming our voices and we're stepping in the fullness of who we are meant to be here. We honor the hard stories.

It's absolutely beautiful. You should be selling that somewhere. By the way, Ash, she has a gift for creating beauty and warmth in whatever she does and wherever she goes. Ashley's also pursuing a path in therapy or mental health coaching, and she's deeply passionate about creating spaces for honest conversations around healing, faith and mental health.

Ashley has played an essential role in our local embrace, your brave events like Worthy that we did last year, where her creativity with decorations, you had the place looking beautiful, Ashley, and all the food was just as pretty as the decorations, and you just helped us create something truly special and welcoming.

So Ashley, welcome.

Speaker 2: I'm so glad you're here. Hi. Thank you so much for having me. It is such an honor to be here with you. Um, to just be able to be your friend and also be able to do this with you is such an honor. Mm-hmm. So, I'm excited.

Speaker: I'm excited too. Yay.

So let's just jump right in.

Speaker 3: Okay.

Speaker 2: Yeah, so for me growing up, I grew up in a family of 11 siblings.

And we were, you know, advent, churchgoers. We went to church every Sunday. Every Wednesday. Um, we had like this really kind of, we were also homeschooled.

Speaker 4: Mm.

Speaker 2: So my parents were like the, you know, all store nineties Christian parents. They were very strict. Um, yeah. Couldn't wait.

Um, there was a lot of physical abuse, mental abuse. Um, there was a lot of. Controlling behaviors from my dad. Mm-hmm. Um, he was very controlling of my mom. He was very controlling of us, and, you know, um, and he would abuse us as well as my mom. He would call it, discipline, but it was really just abuse.

And she would confront him about it. And then he would lash out and he would be like, you're crazy, you know, making this up. Um, you're lying, you know, whatever the story that he could, he could. Tell her to basically like break her down. And I even remember him, you know, making her admit that she was lying even though she wasn't, you know, just making her admit that she was lying, that she was not telling the truth.

Mm. You know, like, why, like why am I even being pulled into this? How old were you? I think I was like, probably, I mean, the first time that I remember, I think I was like six years old. Um,

Speaker: six? Mm-hmm. Oh my goodness. Yeah. You're, you're probably like, well, who's, who's taking care of me. Yeah.

Yeah. And you said you have 11 siblings?

Speaker 2: I have 11 siblings. Yeah. And

Speaker: where are you in the mix. So I

Speaker 2: I'm kind of a middle child, kind of. Okay. If there is one in that many siblings, but, um, so I have four underneath me, and then I think it's six above me. Wow. Um, so yeah. Or three, no, three below me.

Yeah. But in my family it was kind of taken to an extreme. 'cause I think we did a little bit, we were all kind, kind of parentified. Mm-hmm. Um, and we were all responsible for taking care of each other. And you know, like even my sister was like five years old, she was changing diapers.

Speaker 4: Oh wow.

Speaker 2: And my 10-year-old sister, she was cooking dinner.

And, you know, so just, and doing laundry and just, uh, just kind of things that I think parents should still be doing. Yeah. Like we were all kind of just taking care of each other. Um, and so, yeah, so that went on for a while.

Speaker: Um, so not much of a childhood. I mean, we are quickly skipping, getting to be like a carefree.

Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, definitely.

Speaker: What role do you see that you kind of played in the family as a 6-year-old? Like were you already assuming those roles?

Speaker 2: Yes, so my, we definitely had like the classic dysfunctional roles in the family, like the golden child, the scapegoats, the.

And the four children, the enablers, you know, all of that. And I think for me, I was probably more so like an in between an invisible child and a scapegoat. Mm-hmm. Like I kind of went, I kind of wax and waned in between the two because I think I would step out and I would, you know, try to say something or try to kind of like have my own perspective or have.

If you felt sad about it, you were considered like a victim. You were considered, you know, like if you displayed any healthy emotions. Hmm. Related to the trauma, you were considered a victim, you were considered, um, just sensitive. You were just being too sensitive. You were, you know, whatever, whatever the word is they would use.

Speaker: Wow. Yeah. I mean, I'm just imagining Ashley being six years old and seeing the violence, I mean just like I imagining how terrifying that must have been for you, just like day in, day out, probably like what's gonna happen next?

Or how did you like survive

Speaker 2: that? So when the abuse would happen, usually I would go and we would hide in the closet and I'd have my three other young siblings with me. And we'd usually pray and we'd say, think, just think about ice cream. Just think about ice cream. And that was like, that was like what we did.

We'd just be like, you know, just think about something good and we would just pray and kind of just hope and wait for it to end.

Speaker 2: I didn't realize until I was much older that what was happening in my family was not normal. Okay. What was happening in my family was very dysfunctional.

So as a kid, you

Speaker: just thought it was

Speaker 2: normal?

Speaker: Yeah. I

Speaker 2: thought everybody, I thought everybody was experiencing what I was experiencing.

Speaker: Really? Mm-hmm. Oh my goodness. So you're, did anybody comfort you?

And I remember like, you know, even my younger sister, I used to sing her lullabies to sleep at night.

Speaker 4: Yeah.

Speaker 2: And like, you know, read her stories or whatever. And I was only two years older than her. But I'm still lullabies to her to help her fall asleep. Um, so I think I was kind of just put into that role.

And so when I, when those things would happen, I would just go into my role and I would go to protect, you know? Mm-hmm. The little ones and kind of make sure that they were okay.

Speaker: Wow.

Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.

Speaker: So you, you said your mom and dad's relationship was really volatile, like it was. What was your relationship like with your mom and dad?

Like I just didn't know what version of him I would get. And so I just kind of stayed away. 'cause I was like, I don't want to rock the boat. And so, yeah, with him and then my mom, she was just kind of, she was kind of in her own world and so,

Speaker 4: mm-hmm.

Speaker 2: You know, every once in a while I felt like she would kind of like.

You know, be interested maybe in us a little bit, or she would talk to us a little bit. But for the most part, she kind of just stayed in her own little world and she didn't really, she wasn't, both of my parents weren't really interested in us, as you know, or at least me as a person. Like they never asked us, Hey, how was your day?

You know? Absolutely. I'm keeping up on all that stuff, and those are the things that my parents just, they didn't know, you know? I think they just didn't know me at all.

Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Just thinking about that right now, like what, what comes up for you? Just thinking about that for little Ashley, that just makes

Speaker 2: me feel so sad.

Speaker 4: take me

Speaker 2: out of this situation.

Um, like kind of fantasize about that I did. Yeah. I did. I definitely did. Yeah. And even as a, even as a teenager, I remember still being like, man, I wish, you know, just, I just wanted to be, no, I just wanted someone to see me and be like, she matters. And she mm-hmm. You know, just see all the good things. 'cause I had so many good characteristics in me that were just being used and abused.

Speaker 4: Right. Like

It was like if you were good at something, like I had a sister who was a really talented dancer and she was so talented. She was the most talented out of all of the siblings. Yeah. And I remember, you know, because she was so talented, they kind of like honed in on her and would be like, oh, you're just. You know, you're just trying to get attention.

You are just trying, you know, just for, just for being a good dancer. They would be like, you're just trying to get attention. You are just trying to be famous. You know, whatever, blah, blah, blah. When she was just being herself

Speaker: From her parents.

Speaker 2: Yeah, the parents. People that were

Speaker: supposed to be lifting her up and celebrating her, they were putting her down.

Speaker 3: Yeah.

Speaker 3: notice

Speaker 2: what?

Speaker: Oh, you noticed that they did that to her?

Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I do. I was thinking about this the other day. 'cause I was like, I still see it showing up. You know? And it's just that that whole dynamic of, you know, we can't take the spotlight off.

The narcissist.

Speaker 5: Oh

Speaker 2: yeah.

Speaker 5: I'm just gonna throw that word out there. Yeah. Because I would say my dad would definitely

Speaker 2: be a narcissist. Okay. Um, like definitely a classic. I thought he was maybe just like bipolar and a sociopath. Mm-hmm. But I'm starting to realize now, I'm like, no, he was, he was a narcissist.

Like he was, you know, and I don't use that term lightly.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker 4: Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2: Um,

Speaker: but,

Speaker 2: and

Speaker: he used, uh, religion too.

Speaker 2: Yes. Yeah, he actually, what's crazy is he used the Bible to validate why he was beating my mom. Wow. He was like, I don't remember the scripture verse, but it was some scripture verse about basically putting your wife in line.

Speaker 4: Oh.

Speaker 2: And he would be like, yeah, this is like why I am doing what I'm doing.

So he would use the Bible. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 4: And,

Um, which was just total misuse of scripture altogether. Thank God. Yeah. But yeah. So that was really confusing for me 'cause I was just like, how can God condone this? How can God, how is God okay with this? How is he okay with this treatment, with, with someone being treated this way? With someone being beaten, with someone being, you know, she would have bruises and he would pull her arm out of socket or, you know, like just crazy stuff.

we trying to think of how to say this, but we basically, like she was demon possessed and we were. What is it called when they take demons out of people? Oh, trying to exercise the, we were doing an exorcism. Okay.

Speaker 3: Yes.

Speaker 2: So we, he like had us all like push her down to the bed and I remember all had to participate.

We all had to participate. We were pushing her down on the bed, her arms and her legs, and I remember it was in their bedroom. We were like pushing her down. I remember she's just like screaming and crying and he's on top of her and he's like pushing her head into the bed and like screaming at her and I guess praying or you know, whatever.

Speaker: Yeah. Wow. Yeah. You had to participate outta survival.

Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.

Speaker: So that you wouldn't be the next one that's being abused.

Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.

Speaker: Cow, we, Ashley, just that my heart just breaks for you, just to think about you being a little. Girl trying to survive that. Yeah. Yeah. And make sense of it, you know, trying to make sense of that and even making sense of God if God's okay with that. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2: And that's a big thing. When I was a teenager, I didn't want anything to do with God.

Wow. Yeah. That makes sense. This is God,

Speaker 2: yourself?

Um, I had, I was pretty open about what was going on once, so he went to jail when I was 13.

Speaker: Oh, okay. So he did get some consequences.

Speaker 2: Yes. He went to prison for I think three or four years. Um, and that was when we all kind of, or at least me and my three older sib, my two older siblings, we were very like.

More vocal about what was going on in the home, what had been going on in our home. Um, okay. And now, so did somebody,

Speaker 2: um, no, we had, I mean, we had CPS come to our house and, you know, all of that before this too. Like he didn't, he didn't go to jail for the abuse though. He went to jail for something else.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker 2: Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Speaker: So you had CPS at your house like all the time.

Speaker 2: Um, I remember at least like four or five times.

That I remember them being there, and I remember just like sitting there eating my ramen noodles and just like smiling and pretending like we were a big happy family and just being like, this we normal. Oh my goodness. Yeah. We had to put on a big, we had to put on a show, which we were good at it because we did it every time we've been out in public.

So it was kind of like, okay, we're just putting on the performance now in our house.

Speaker: Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2: For CPS now. Really.

Mm-hmm. But it's very validating of people that have experienced this type of religious trauma, you know? Um, but like, they all have like smiley faces, you know, just like, oh man, like that was

Speaker 2: us. We, we looked so perfect. Like you would've never, never guessed. What was going on?

Speaker: You became like good actors.

Speaker 2: Mm-hmm. We were

Speaker: excellent performers. Excellent performers. Yeah. Wow. Wow. Out of survival. Mm-hmm. Yep. Out

Speaker 2: survival.

Speaker: Oh yeah. So, um, so you were a teenager when your dad went to jail?

Mm-hmm. And then transitioning to, you know, going to a public school. In a not great area.

Speaker 4: Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2: And I remember just like, you know, people would fight all the time. Like there would be like fights breaking out and they would be like, people would cuss at each other, which I wasn't used to that. I was like,

Speaker 5: Hey, don't cuss anybody.

If somebody was mad at me, they were calling me a B word and I'd be like, I'd be like, oh my God. Like I've never been told that in my life. Um.

Speaker 2: A little

Speaker 5: culture

Speaker 2: shock.

Speaker 2: Um, and

yeah, I just, and I remember, you know. My and my mom, she just went into this major depressive state, you know, even more so than I think she was before. I think she had always kind of struggled with it. Okay. Um, but she had gone into this, you know, major depressive state, almost like catatonic, where she would leave early in the morning before we'd go to school.

Mm-hmm. She would come back like eight or nine o'clock at night most days. And so we were kind of, and I was 13, you know, I had three younger siblings that were all like a couple years behind me, and so we were all pretty young. Yeah. And so at the time, I think it was just, there was 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 of us in the house still.

Um, and I remember my older sister, she would. Always make sure our uniforms were clean. She would always put 'em in the wash for us. I don't even know what we did for food 'cause we just, we'd never had food. Um Wow. So I think sometimes I would just like eat a can of tuna for dinner,

Speaker 3: you know?

Wow.

Um, and there was like holes in the floor of the trailer. Mm-hmm. Um, 'cause there was a leak in the door, in the front and the back door. They were not, they were not like sealed. And so anytime it would rain. The rain would like come rushing in. I remember the bottom of the door. And so we'd have to put like towels down to like get all the water from, and slowly that deteriorated the floorboards.

And then holes like that started to have holes in them. So there was holes there. There was holes for some reason near where the ac units, where the ducks on the floor. Mm-hmm. Um, used to be, there was holes there too, like around where the. Little thing. The metal thing used to be mm-hmm. There's like holes in the floor right there.

Speaker: very, very poor.

Um, I mean, it sounds like you guys were also, you, you figured some stuff out. Like you, you figured out how to heat your house.

Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Did. We definitely, oh. So I, I got a job as soon as I was able to, I was like, I think they, they hired me like a couple weeks before I actually turned 16. Um, I found a place that they were like, yeah, we'll hire you, but you know, it, it needs to be like two weeks before you turn 16.

You know, anytime we ate out, I would have to pay for my food, which our version of eating out was like the dollar menu at McDonald's. Right. You know? But, so you were

Speaker: doing that at 16?

Speaker 2: Mm-hmm. Wow. I was, and I was really, I mean, completely responsible for myself in every area. Mm. Um, and I remember even the volleyball coach, like I was one day, I remember I was in.

And I was like. I was like, I'm sorry, I, I can't, and she was like, I don't understand. She's like, we, you know, like you, you'd be, I think you'd be really great at this. Mm-hmm. Like, you should join the team. And I remember telling her, I was like, I can't, I don't have money to buy uniforms. I don't have money for the equipment.

Like I don't have a ride to school. I don't have a, I wouldn't have a ride back from practice 'cause I rode the bus until I got a car when I was like 17 or 18.

Speaker 4: Wow.

Yeah. And so, and that still breaks my heart to, you know, to this day I'm like, man, I wish that. Me too. So I would've had that opportunity to just like play a sport or to just be a kid. Absolutely. So just to be a normal teenage kid.

Speaker 4: Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Speaker: You didn't get to be a kid and do kid things.

Yeah. Yeah. That's so, that's so sad. What's kind of coming up for you, just as you think about that?

I think just,

Speaker 2: just sadness, you know? Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's heartbreaking. Um,

Speaker: it's okay. Who's gonna cry for that little girl?

Speaker 2: Yeah. And I think there's so many other kids too that, you know, experience those things and that just breaks my heart, you know?

Speaker: Yeah, absolutely. You know, you're not the only one. Yeah, absolutely. Um. And it's so brave for you to let that little girl share her story right now. Yeah. You know, because it matters and it matters to you and, you know, um, what do you wish that little girl knew?

Just right now?

Speaker 3: I wish that she just knew that she was, she was loved.

And that she didn't just need to take care of everybody else That's right. And do for everybody else. And that it was okay for her to just take care of herself.

Speaker 4: Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.

Tears are healing ash, you know? Um. Because that pain matters. Yeah. So I'm really proud of you for sharing that and for letting yourself feel for that little girl in you

Speaker 4: mm-hmm.

You're, you're playing on the volleyball court and you have your, your people in the stands cheering for you, you know? Yeah. Like, um, just all the things that you deserved to have. Mm-hmm. As a little girl. Yeah. You still deserve that.

Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.

Speaker: And I'm cheering for you.

Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. And that's been a huge part of my healing too, is just.

Mm. Letting myself, just investing in myself. Yeah. You know, just investing in all those things that I never got to do as a little girl.

Speaker: That's right.

Speaker 4: Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2: Ask somebody else, like, Hey, I need this.

And then to have people show up. Mm. Yeah. That's honestly, and honestly, that's like,

Speaker 4: mm.

Speaker 2: One of the hardest parts too, is letting people show up. Mm. You know, because it's, it can be so heart wrenching when people start showing up. Yeah. Because then it's like you realize how much. That you missed out on?

Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. Well, it's like bittersweet. You're, you're thankful that they're showing up now, but like Yeah. Heart breaks for that little girl that nobody showed up for.

Speaker 3: Yes,

Speaker: yes.

Speaker 3: It really is.

Speaker 2: Mm-hmm. Mm.

Speaker: Yeah.

Hmm. You're so brave to give her a voice today.

Thank you. So these were teenage years, right?

Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.

Speaker: Mm-hmm.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker 2: Once my dad got out of prison mm-hmm. He would, you know, show up at her house unannounced.

Um, he would yell, scream, threaten, just very, very intimidating. He was also like six foot, he was very buff. He would work out, you know, all of that. So he was very intimidating person. Um. He would come over, he'd scream at us, tell us we were demon possessed, or you know, whatever we were of the devil. Just like whatever he could throw at us to try to scare us.

Mm-hmm. And he would also steal things from us, which I still don't understand. Like he would steal, like all of our civil war. Like one day we'd come home and like all the silverware would be gone. Wow. Or like our, we had a water cooler. And it had like the, the big five gallon water thing or whatever. It had like a Yeah, a water cooler.

More silverware, you know, I guess we gotta get, well, we never got a new water filter, but yeah. Wow. That was just kind of like our day-to-day life and, um, like he, he took your basic needs and from his own children. Yeah. Which I still, to this day, I'm like, I can't imagine. I don't even know why, how. Like, I just can't even fathom, can't, can't wrap

Speaker: your brain

Speaker 2: around that type

Speaker: of evil.

Speaker 2: Yeah, no, not at all. Just the cruelty, just very, very cruel to, to steal from your own children

Speaker 4: and

Um, wow. Yeah, so, and I remember at that time too just being like so angry with God and so like, why? If this is who you are, I want nothing to do with you. You know, just being so angry with God and so angry with all the things that had been excused and swept under the rug in, you know, in the, the name of God, you know, and the, just all the cruel, evil things that had happened.

Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.

Speaker: He was maybe your first narcissistic abuser, you know, if that's the same as your dad and he's okay with what your dad does.

Speaker 3: Yeah.

Speaker: That's such a, a very confusing, scary thing to like have to think about and make sense of.

Speaker 3: Yeah.

Speaker 2: It was very, very confusing and I remember I stopped gonna church and I was just like. I don't want anything to do with this. This is not the shit that I wanna be involved in. Exactly. You know, I don't want anything to do with that. Yeah. Like, stay over there, um, and. Yeah.

I remember my siblings and my mom made a really big deal about it. Yeah. About being like gonna parties, but like, I was like a really good kid. Yeah. You, I like got drunk like maybe three times. Yeah. Maybe two times. Yeah. Um, like not hardly at all. I didn't like go and kiss boys at parties. I didn't like sleep around.

I was just like having fun, like just being like, you know, just being a kid and I. Didn't even think about those things. I remember wishing that I could like kiss a boy at a party. Yeah. But I was too shy and too afraid to like, you know, and I was always like kissing someone was like, I wanted to be interested in you.

Yeah. Like that happens a lot. Um. So I was kind of lumped in with them and I was kind of labeled as like, you know, this rebellious, this. Um, whatever child that I was doing all these things and I was, you know, going to parties and I was drinking and I was booty dancing and

a, a kid dude. You were trying to like actually enjoy your life

Speaker 5: a little bit.

Speaker: Even in the most responsible way, it sounds like you were still a good girl, even in your acting out.

Speaker 3: Yeah, I was. I was.

Speaker: I had, yeah,

Speaker 2: craziness, but yeah. Um, yeah, so, so that was kind of my high school and then my senior year before my, so two weeks before Christmas, my senior year of high school, my dad, so my mom, first off, she came to me.

And I was like. No, I cannot. Like, absolutely not. I was like, if he's gonna hurt himself, he's probably gonna take me and you know, my brothers with him. Like I'm not gonna no. So I would like absolutely not. Um, and the next day my oldest brother went to check on him 'cause they had like done a wellness checkup, which is when they asked the cops to go and like check on him.

But they can't like, break down a door or, you know, anything like that. Unless like, he'd have to open the door and like let them in basically. And he didn't, he didn't let them in or anything, so they had no right to break down the door or anything like that. And so my brother went the next day, um, and he found him in the bathtub and he had committed suicide.

Um, wow. Kind of. And I remember just the room being just like silent. Mm-hmm. Like it was just kind of like we all were just in shock. Yeah. We were all just kind of like, what just happened?

Speaker 4: Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2: And they were like, I remember my mom was like, you can go to school if you want to, but you don't have to kind of thing.

Everyone was just kind of like.

You know? Yeah. Mm-hmm. And so I was kind of like, I just, I knew that I needed to get outta that situation and I knew that I needed to like, kind of go somewhere where I was safe and school was like one of those places where it was, it was a safe place. Yeah. And so I remember that morning just kind of like trying to hold it all together, trying to still smile, trying to, you know, still.

Wow. Sounds sad. Um, and, and I remember just throughout the day I just kind of like tried to keep, a cheery face, tried to kind of keep it all together and not

Speaker 4: Mm, not

Speaker 2: And I remember I had like a French final that day, um, and I made it until like. Almost my last class of the day. And then I finally just broke down during my final 'cause I was just like, I can't even, like, can't even like focus right now.

Speaker 4: Yeah. Um,

You don't have to take the final, like, you know, just that, that kindness that I was, yeah.

Speaker 3: I was like shocked

Speaker 2: by the kindness even. Right. Wow. Yeah, and it was so crazy. I, I, for the longest time, I didn't cry, you know, like I hardly ever cried. I didn't allow myself to cry. About any of it. And I'm realizing now too that that has a lot to do with PTSD.

Like it like that happened. Yeah. Like all of that happened to somebody else. But it did it, it all happened to me. Wow. You know, and I'm still learning to cry about all of it and I can mean I could. I do cry now and I could really fall apart.

Speaker 5: Yeah. But I hold it together for pretty guys,

Speaker 2: but, but, um, yeah.

Yeah. It just, that was something that, looking back I'm like, man, that was, that was so, that was such a, such a terrible, terrible, terrible thing. Yeah. For someone to have gone through

Speaker: 17. Mm-hmm. You know, that really didn't have support to get through.

Speaker: Wow. Ashley's story is just so moving. The honesty, the courage she carries, really draws you in. And this is only the beginning. Next week, she's gonna share how she began to take her power back and create a life that feels true and free. You don't wanna miss it. Until then, remember, friend, you matter, and you're not that girl anymore.

Hey, friend, just a quick note. I am a licensed therapist, but this podcast isn't therapy. It's not meant to diagnose or treat anything. It's here to offer you support, encouragement, and real conversation. If you're struggling, please reach out to a trusted professional. You are not alone and you are so worthy of healing.

You are not alone. Embrace your brave sis. You're not that girl anymore.