Gibson Center for Behavioral Change, recovery from trauma

One of those speakers is Laura Emmons, she is the Clinical Coordinator at the Gibson Center for Behavioral Change. She shared her story on recovering from an eating disorder saying, “It hid for a very long time, as a competitive athlete, and as someone who appeared to have it all together. Eating disorders hide so easily, and in a lot of ways much easier than other, addictive type behaviors.”

Emmons says that one way people can heal is by hearing the stories of others and knowing they’re not alone in the process.

“I love the quote; shame dies when stories are told in safe places. It’s like the core of what I do, and so by a lot of the times for people to feel comfortable enough to share their story, they need to hear others.” Says, Emmons.

Courtney Trankle is a Peer Specialist at the Gibson Center and she specializes in helping with the treatment of women who may be battling a substance use disorder. She says,  “I’m their advocate, I’m someone who has lived experience with substance use disorder and so I get to kind of model recovery for women, what worked for me, what didn’t work for me and help them find their own path through recovery that’s going to work for them.”

Trankle says her story is an open book so she can help more women like herself heal from the trauma that brought them to that point, she adds, “You know it’s a common treatment theme that our secrets keep us sick, and it’s so true, so rather than letting that fester, and cause us to feel restless, irritable, and discontent, we want to dig it up and deal with it.”