This week on the Overcomer’s Podcast we are talking with Heather Deffenbaugh. She is an author, speaker, and wellness advocate who aims to help people overcome strongholds and become the very best version of themselves.
Heather was inspired to share her story 22 years ago being a child of 2 mentally ill parents (Dad has schizophrenia and Mom has Schizoaffective disorder). She wants to use the pains that she’s been through to reach people who are also struggling like her or have been in the same situation as her. She wants to have a purpose in her pain.
She wrote a book called "From Ashes to Beauty: how a child of two mentally ill parents went from surviving to thriving." In her book, she uses different genres of music to explain her situation, in fact some of the titles in the chapter are song titles. Because she feels connected and not alone in her times of difficulties when she listens to music. Also, her father loves music too, her father influences her in listening to music, because when her father listens to music she said that her father also feels connected to the music. She opened her life in her book, including her childhood traumas, which she mentioned that as an adult we have to “revisit, process, desensitise, grieved over it, processed it, to know that it is not your fault, that it was a terrible thing that happened in your life.” She also suggested consulting a licensed therapist even if it's very long ago.
She dealt with a lot of traumas growing up, including toxic relationships and even sexual abuse with the people who she thought would take care of her. As she says “Trauma does not leave your body.”
She also explained that when you get down to the root, then you’ll be able to have an actual life change, a shift that’s gonna lead to thriving. But if you're chasing symptoms all the time, then you're just chasing the tail, and it’s exhausting.
Take away from the book and how to embrace challenges.
Inspiration
Connection
Action
Listen to this episode of the Overcomer’s Podcast to learn more about Heather and the wisdom she has to offer. If you wish to connect with Heather, visit her website at https://www.heatherdeffenbaugh.com/, find her on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/heather_deffenbaugh/ or email her directly at info@heatherdeffenbaugh.com.
For more of the Overcomer’s Podcast, check out our website at overcomers-podcast.com or listen to all of our podcasts on iTunes, Spotify or Google Podcasts.