When I was diagnosed with complex PTSD, I knew what I had to do.

Make the story human.

Receiving a diagnosis can be a demoralizing process. Survivors are often pathologized and stigmatized by experts — a phenomenon exacerbated by the fact that C-PTSD is vastly under-researched. When I found myself mired in demeaning literature and unhelpful therapies, I thought: this issue needs a real, first-person story for things to change.

For a decade, I worked as a producer at This American Life and Snap Judgment, taking big ideas like immigration, race and the military industrial complex and giving them emotional, intimate stakes through human storytelling. I took the same journalistic approach to my work there and applied it towards myself. The result was the New York Times Bestseller, What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma.It has since actually has begun to change the C-PTSD landscape. What My Bones Know has almost 50k 5-star reviews on Goodreads, with readers attesting that it has given them real hope for healing. It has been translated into 11 languages and is taught in dozens of psychiatry, psychology and social work programs.

Over the years, my career has given me a pretty wild variety of skills. I produced stories and edited for podcasts like Invisibilia, The Cut, Nancy, Reply All, and 99% Invisible and have written for The New York Times and Vox. Once, I co-produced a video series for TAL that won an Emmy. I had a brief foray into tech when I made an ahead-of-its-time app that made audio easier to share. I’ve also done some voice work and am always looking for cool things to read out loud.

I’ve taught audio storytelling and production at places like Columbia University and the Salt Documentary Institute, and now teach writing classes for survivors. I love public speaking — giving talks about how to empower survivors and avoid pathologization, how to protect abused children, and how to provide effective mental healthcare to immigrants and refugees. I also give corporate speeches to companies like Panasonic about how to prioritize mental health and resilience in the workplace.

I’m currently working on a new book about parenting with C-PTSD, to be published through Ballantine.

The photo above is by Bryan Derballa. Have him take your picture.