Ep 126. How Trauma Patterns Shape Identity And How Awareness Creates Choice

In this episode, Christine speaks with Keri Lefave about trauma, identity, triggers, and the daily work of choosing a different response. Keri describes how early experiences of restriction and abuse shaped her sense of self, her relationships, and her ability to speak up. She also shares the turning points that helped her recognize repeated patterns, leave an abusive relationship, and begin rebuilding her identity from the inside out. The conversation goes beyond personal story. It explores how patterns persist, how triggers show up in everyday life, how the body can signal old responses, and why awareness creates the possibility of choice. Topics include: how trauma can shape identity and relationship patterns why understanding a pattern is not the same as changing it how silence and shrinking can become body-based warning signals why vulnerability can become a strength how gratitude can shift fear-based thinking what it means to move from victimhood toward learning and choice Keri also talks about her two memoirs, Unfinished and The Chrysalid, and the spiritual perspective that now shapes how she understands life, pain, and growth.