Holding On And Letting Go, Breaking The Silence!

                     June 28, 2022                                       Show #59 My Guest Tonight Is Linda Lee Blakemore, She is a national speaker, author, advocate, and survivor of workplace and intimate partner sex assault, child sex abuse, unhealthy relationships, and divorce. She is a member of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence Speakers Bureau (VOICES), and is currently working with Domestic Violence Services, Dress for Success, and other agencies that support and empower women. Her new class “From Survivor to Author” is designed to help women heal and share through the art of writing and storytelling. Linda has appeared on national and international radio, podcasts, and television, including the Montel Williams Show. Articles written about Linda’s books have appeared in local and national magazines including Teen Voices, America’s Family Resources, and Seventeen. With her first book Linda traveled the country speaking at universities, roundtables, and child abuse conferences where she educated and advocated for children. With her current book she is advocating for and educating women, especially those who struggle to confront their past or break from unhealthy relationships.  On average a woman will leave an unhealthy relationship seven times before leaving for good. Why? And why do women choose the wrong partner in the first place? The answer can most often be found by exploring past trauma. Our past formulates self-worth, how we attach to others, and how we believe we deserve to be treated. When that past is cloaked in unresolved childhood trauma, it can lure us toward unhealthy partners as a way to remember, confront unresolved psychological issues, gain control over something we could not control as a child, or, like Linda, get the outcome we did not get as a child. Linda’s first book tells the true stories of fifteen child survivors to educate and keep children safe, to intervene when a child is trapped in silence, and to offer hope for healing. Kids Helping Kids Break the Silence of Sexual Abuse Her latest book, Entrenched: A Memoir of Holding On and Letting Go, Given the important and timely focus on workplace sex assault/harassment, intimate partner sex assault, child sex abuse and trafficking, Linda's autobiography, "Entrenched: A Memoir of Holding On and Letting Go" will resonate with anyone who has been a victim -- and the numbers of such women are staggering. Statistics On average a woman will leave an unhealthy relationship seven times before leaving for good. Why? And why do women choose the wrong partner in the first place? The answer can most often be found by exploring past trauma. Our past formulates self-worth, how we attach to others, and how we believe we deserve to be treated. When that past is cloaked in unresolved childhood trauma, it can lure us toward unhealthy partners as a way to remember, confront unresolved psychological issues, gain control over something we could not control as a child, or, like Linda, get the outcome we did not get as a child. Blakemore writes for each of these women. She is one of them. Her poignant true story sheds light on the aftermath of child sexual assault and highlights the pain and self-blame a victim often feels following intimate sexual assault. As the author confronts her past and heals, her journey creates a powerful resource for any woman who has experienced intimate sexual assault, workplace sexual assault, childhood sexual abuse or abandonment.  Website:  LindaLeeBlakemore.com         https://soundcloud.com/bailey-smith-369208333/holding-on-and-letting-go-breaking-the-silence?utm_source=clipboard