About Me

Much of my work, whether memoir, fiction, or art is grounded in the act of examining survivor’s guilt and its effects.

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There are long-term repercussions to the physiological and psychological health of children who experience trauma. As children, things happen that we cannot control, yet there is a tendency to blame ourselves regardless. Although we are powerless to stop them, or perhaps because we are powerless, we develop a proclivity for burying them deep in our subconscious as we age. It’s an act of self-preservation, a method for coping and moving on with our lives.

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But this stop-gap measure won't hold out forever. Buried childhoods traumas don't decay into nothing but instead work their way to the surface, eventually manifesting themselves in ways that adversely affect both our physical and mental health.

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I spent decades willing myself to be okay, pretending to be okay, and projecting an aura of okay out into the world. And when that didn't work, I began the hard work of digging up all my ghosts and confronting them one by one.  My art and my writing are a direct result of that process.

 

'Normal’ is a false construct and, statistically speaking, I know I am not alone in suffering childhood traumas.