About This Episode

What does it take to turn the most devastating moments of your life into a force for change?

In Episode 15 of From Trauma to Triumph, hosts Wade Robson and James Safechuck — both survivors of childhood abuse — sit down with Brianna Michelle, founder and CEO of Voices Beyond Assault (VBA), a nonprofit empowering survivors of sexual violence across the globe. Brianna shares her journey from childhood sexual abuse and a violent abduction and rape in college, to building one of the most compassionate survivor communities in existence.

This episode carries a trigger warning for discussions of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse.

What You'll Hear in This Episode

Brianna's story is raw, courageous, and ultimately deeply hopeful. She walks through the realities survivors rarely speak aloud — the self-blame, the instinct to hide, the re-traumatization of reporting — and how she found her way through all of it.

You'll hear about the moment a simple gathering of friends who'd all experienced sexual violence became the seed of something much larger. And you'll be left asking yourself: what would it feel like to finally be believed?

Key Themes Explored

The biology of trauma response

Why survivors don't immediately go to the police — and why that instinct is completely normal, not a character flaw.

Healing isn't linear

Brianna is honest about the coping mechanisms that didn't serve her before she found the ones that did. Her healing came in waves — and that's okay.

Community as medicine

Before therapy, before advocacy, there were simply people who said me too. That recognition — that you are not alone — is where healing often begins.

Setting boundaries as reclamation

How survivors can begin to communicate their worth to others rather than waiting to see how they'll be treated.

It's okay to not be okay

One of the most powerful moments in the episode — and a reminder that strength doesn't mean pretending.

About Voices Beyond Assault

VBA provides survivors with safe community spaces, subsidized therapy, legal support referrals, and educational programming on consent and sexual violence. They serve women, men, non-binary individuals, and the LGBTQ+ community across multiple branches, including VBA Español, VBA Sri Lanka, and Men of VBA.

Learn more or get support at voicesbeyondassault.org

This podcast is available on Spotify. Listener discretion is advised.

Episode 10 - Dr. Abi Blakeslee and Dave Berger on Somatic Experiencing, a body-oriented trauma therapy. (Feb 2023)

Without healing, traumatic experiences can have an enormous impact on defining who we are and who we will become. Hosted by Wade Robson and James Safechuck, both survivors of childhood abuse, the mission of their From Trauma to Triumph podcast is to highlight healing modalities, practices, and resources for trauma survivors, in order to inspire the brave steps to starting, or continuing, the healing journey.

In this episode we discuss the Somatic Experiencing therapeutic technique with two incredible guests Dr. Abi Blakeslee and Dave Berger.

Somatic Experiencing, SE for short, is a body-oriented therapeutic technique for healing trauma and other stress disorders. It is the life’s work of Dr. Peter A. Levine, and has been clinically applied for more than four decades.

 Listen to the full podcast here.