Recently I had the pleasure of chatting with Heather Tuba, a friend that I met on a survivor chat on Twitter. Heather is a blogger, advocate, and spouse of an abuse survivor.
She writes and advocates for spouses, family members and friends of abuse survivors; sexual, physical, emotional, every part of abuse that has affected her husband and countless others across this planet. Her goal is to encourage and inspire those who love and are involved in the life of a survivor.
For so many survivors, trying to find anyone to be supportive of their journey can be a struggle, but for those that do have any type of support system around them, it’s important for us to recognize those amazing people and encourage them as much as possible.
There are a plethora of resources available for survivors themselves, and helping professionals, but the resources for spouses and family members are not near as plentiful. This is exactly the
struggle that Heather has found herself in, so she had to adapt in order to be able to help her husband, herself, and their relationship.
In this podcast, we discuss the 7 truth’s about childhood abuse and what they mean for the ones who are supporting the survivor themselves. We also discuss PTSD and C-PTSD, how it relates to the survivor, and how living with it can be such a challenge for a spouse.
- Childhood Abuse Affects the Brain.
- Trauma Recovery Requires Trauma Therapy
- Education is Key
- Lack of Support for Spouses and Family Members
- Growing number of online Support Groups and Communities
- Learn to look below the Surface
- C-PTSD is not the same as PTSD
Each truth is important in its own way, because they validate both the survivor, their friends and loved ones who are on this journey with them. It’s so important for those that are close to us, to be able to understand what we as survivors go through on a daily basis. After all they are on this journey with us, because they care about, love, and want to help the survivor in their life. It’s equally important for those of us that are survivors, to understand what our supporters are feeling and experiencing.
Often times the ones who support us day in and day out, who aren’t survivors themselves, go un-noticed. Their compassion, concern, and willingness to stand by their partner or family member can be such an integral part of healing. They deserve all of the support and validation that they can get, as much as the survivor himself, or herself.
I sincerely hope that you will give a listen to the podcast and follow Heather’s blog. She’s an amazing person who is dedicated to her husband and to providing support for all who support the survivor in their life.
You can follow Heather on Twitter: @HeatherTuba and on her blog, HeatherTuba.com.
-Matt
If you’d like to be a guest on a future podcast, just contact me anytime and let’s share YOUR story.
Pictures courtesy of Pixabay. Social Media images created using Canva.
I’m the spouse of an emotional abuse survivor so I’m really glad I found this podcast!
I’m so glad Brittany you found it too Brittany, and I hope it encourages you as much as possible. 🙂 Spouses of survivors are so very important, and deserve every bit of understanding and support we can offer.