When Your Crazy isn't Crazy - it's Trauma -- With Elizabeth Powers

In today's episode of Channel Your Genius, I'm joined by the brilliant and refreshingly real Elizabeth Power,  founder of the Trauma Informed Academy, intuitive translator, and longtime infiltrator of the systems that pathologize our pain.

If you've ever felt like your emotions were "too much," or wondered why it's so hard to focus, cope, or make a decision when life gets overwhelming… this conversation is for you.

Elizabeth unpacks the difference between real dysfunction and natural trauma responses, and offers a powerful, practical path to reclaiming your emotional wholeness without shame, stigma, or spiraling. With decades of experience consulting for psychiatric hospitals, corporations, and government orgs, she lays out exactly what it takes to move from trauma reaction to emotional resilience.

From Swiss cheese development to "trauma Olympics," from invisible disabilities to the power of glimmers, this episode is full of wisdom, humor, and radical truth.

Talked about in today's episode:

00:01:10 – What is trauma, really?
Why most people's "crazy" is a normal response to abnormal events

00:03:00 – The system isn't built for healing
Why diagnoses are often required for care — and how that hurts us

00:04:47 – Swiss cheese development
How trauma interrupts emotional learning and leaves "holes" in our growth

00:06:00 – Trauma Olympics & emotional hierarchy
Why comparing wounds keeps us stuck

00:07:45 – A different lens on healing
How the Trauma Informed Academy supports people without retelling their stories

00:09:15 – Self-soothing and the power of feel-good glimmers
What to do when your nervous system feels like it's had enough

00:11:15 – The 55-gallon barrel of pain
How to add more "good" to the system instead of forcing things out

00:14:00 – What is overwhelm?
How to expand your capacity and build resilience without bypassing reality

00:17:30 – We're not broken
Why most emotional struggles aren't disorders — they're unfinished development

00:20:18 – The myth of the bad brain
Rethinking diagnoses through trauma, epigenetics, and neuroplasticity

00:22:00 – Barking like a dog
A powerful story of symbolic communication and misunderstood behavior

00:26:00 – Healing at the foundation
Why emotional intelligence skills and trauma recovery go hand in hand

Guest Bio:

Intuitive. Exotic. Translator. Infiltrator.  All words used to describe this Founder of The Trauma Informed Academy. The TIA offers online and onsite training in Trauma-Responsive Emotional Intelligence to help people reduce the time, distress, and costs of recovery as well as increase protective factors for the future.

Connect with Elizabeth:

https://www.instagram.com/thetraumainformedacademy 
https://www.facebook.com/ElizabethPoweronTrauma 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethpower 

Free Resource: Unlock Life: Build a More Resilient Self

https://the-tia.org/unlockingyourstrength 

Unlock Your Genius with Mellissa Seaman:

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Keywords:

Trauma Recovery, Emotional Intelligence, Healing from Trauma, Overwhelm, Invisible Disabilities, Swiss Cheese Development, Mental Health, Intuition, Spiritual Growth, Feminine Leadership, Energy Alignment, Resilience, Neuroplasticity, Channel Your Genius, Glimmers, Emotional Healing, Inner Wisdom