For 25 years, I have moved through the world as if I am one by paying attention to my thoughts and feelings and making decisions about what, when and how I do things. During this time of crisis, I noticed that things are so kicked up inside me that I’ve struggled to be able to [...]
Olga Trujillo, JD and Patricia Moen Share Tips (available for download) on Enhancing Victim Advocacy, Legal Advocacy and Access to Justice through Trauma- Informed Approach[...]
Olga shares her story with McLean Hospital's project, Deconstructing Stigma: Changing Attitudes About Mental Health as part of their campaign to change attitudes about mental health through interviews and photographs with people across the United States affected by mental illness. Deconstructing Stigma - Olga's Story
Olga was a guest on the Mindful Things Podcast discussing dissociative identity disorder. She explains how she retreated within her own mind each time she experienced trauma and discusses her dedication to helping others who are struggling. You can also listen the podcast here and listen to other episodes.
A few weeks ago I described some of the ways that people helped me talk about what had happened to me as a child and by talking about it, begin the healing process. These people weren’t clinicians, they just wanted to help me: people like my husband, friends and co-workers. As I mentioned in part [...]
April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month and Child Abuse Prevention Month. I am reposting this for those who know someone who has been abused. This is how you can help. We all know -- and many of us are close to -- people who have survived sexual abuse or rape. Chances are, many of [...]
Now after many years of healing I am happy, and not just on the surface. Despite how difficult it can still be to grieve and remember all I have been through, I am proud to say that I am better than I have ever been. I feel more stable. I believe this is because [...]
In Latino culture you aren’t supposed to talk about your problems. You aren’t supposed to think about yourself if you are a woman. You are supposed to think about your family and care for them. Discussions around consensual sex are not engaged in very easily. So what happens when you bring a group of [...]
I've been healing from the trauma of Child Sexual Abuse for years off and on. My work both personally and professionally has been to help others understand the impact of trauma and more recently to help people understand Dissociative Identity Disorder. My belief in my stregnth has been steadfast but recently I gave in [...]
My upcoming memoir, The Sum of My Parts: A Survivor’s Story of Dissociative Identity Disorder, emphasizes the healing process and the nature of resilience. These installments from Chapter One contain some descriptions of violence only for the purposes of illustrating why and how dissociative identity disorder is formed. Please take care in reading these [...]
