#78 S3 EP 40 Teri Wellbrook's Odyssey: From the Shadows of Trauma to the Light of Resilience and Recovery

Hello and hello, welcome back to God's Diamonds in the Rough. Y'all know who we are. I am your host, katherine, and and I am Michael. Alright, we are so glad to be with you one more time. Hallelujah. Today we have a special guest with us, amen, and her name is Miss Terry Wellbrook. Amen, am I pronouncing it right? Wellbrook, wellbrook, wellbrook, alright, I'm sorry. That's alright, say hello to everybody.

Hello, hello, hi everyone. I'm so happy to be here.

Alright. So today we're going to be talking about, on the subject of trauma, and this young lady. I mean she has a story that will. I mean it's really just going to be like Some might be in tears but some might be having an overwhelming sense of joy as she goes from all of the trauma into triumph and see Amen, so but so, but y'all excuse me, I'm starting. Lord, her mercy, we get ready to pray. We'll pray before we get started. Let us pray.

Damn Nephi, lord, not saving Jesus Christ. We just come to you right now just to ask you to have your way. We ask, the name of Jesus, that you just continue to manifest your word in us and do us as we continue to be the diamonds that you are called us to be. We pray in the name of your rebuking. Any tactics for the enemy that will be sent back into the picture hell where it came from. Any assignment that he has tried to put on us, it will be sent back into the picture hell where it came from before. It has no power over us. We pray in the name of Jesus for the ones who have no desire to learn who you are. We ask you right now just to touch them from the crown of their heads to the head, so the soul of the feet, that transformation will begin to start. We pray in the name of Jesus. Have your way. In Jesus Christ's holy name, we do pray, we say thank you and we say amen, amen and amen.

Amen, amen. All right, I did not want to interrupt your prayer, but I didn't hear you, michael, at all. I don't know what to say. Oh no, until the very end, when you said amen, and then I heard you.

So oh wow, you know, that tells me.

Oh, now I have you back. Now you're there.

That tells me. You know, the enemy is always on on the move because he does not want the prayer to reach God. But the devil is alive.

Yeah, okay, well, I had my eyes closed. So I know my, my spirit, my soul heard the prayer, so I say amen to it Amen.

Okay, all right. Can you hear him now? Can you hear me now?

Yeah.

All right, I got you now.

Yes, okay. So trauma, trauma is definitely a topic that a whole lot of folks really don't want to admit to. You know, because we live in a society that says I'm supposed to have it all together. You know what I mean. I'm supposed to have it all together all the time. So but as we go into this conversation, can you, before you, tell your story from your perspective? Or you know, through all everything that you've been through, can you just kind of explain just that word trauma?

Of course, absolutely. I, I personally have experienced there's there's two types of trauma I want to talk about, and I will talk about one being chronic trauma, and that's trauma that continues to happen throughout. And I'm going to talk about something called adverse childhood experiences or ACEs, and that's ACE. Science is really really starting to come to the surface and being talked about a lot and the impact of those ACEs on our future adult lives. And so chronic trauma are things like. I grew up in an alcoholic household and so never knowing which mom was going to be walking through the door. Was it going to be sober mom, who would pick up her guitar and play it and sing songs with us and was kind and loving, or was it going to be drunk mom who was vicious and cruel and judgmental and would scream for our dad to come silence the children if we were making noise. And then and then my dad would he grab the belt and beat us, or would it be nice dad that would take us to our soccer games? And so it was just that constant state of never knowing who we were going to be experiencing each day in our household and it just was a just created constant, chronic trauma in our lives. And then the other side of that is acute trauma, and that is a one time event that is causes intense emotional pain and really creates what we look at now in the world of trauma science is a brain injury, just like if you break a bone. It's impacting the brain in a lot of different ways with chemicals and just the firing of the neurons, and so acute trauma would be. I was involved in two bank robberies and so those were very, very traumatic events where the coworker was murdered, and so again, a very acute one time event but also impacted me on such a profound level.

So you would say definitely that you have experienced both right.

Oh for sure. And as a result, years and years and years later, when I finally ended up stepping onto the healing path and I remember a therapist saying the words complex post traumatic stress disorder, and I know for me, I was like PTSD, isn't that what soldiers have that come up for more? But no trauma can have, and especially the complex post traumatic. So CPTSD, the complex part, really comes from having that chronic and acute trauma history.

So which one would you say has prevailed more in your life? Before we get into the story, oh my gosh.

I mean I was the chronic trauma. I had more instances of chronic trauma. There were just the repeated trauma happening, like I had a choir director that was sexually abusing me and that was over a period of time. And so, yeah, I've had both and can I say one has impacted me more than the other? Absolutely not, they've both. Chronic and acute trauma have had profound, profound impacts on my life and what resulted in me experiencing severe panic attacks over a 25 year period? Because my brain, my body, didn't know what to do with all of this negative energy, all of the stuff that had happened to me, and as a child, I didn't know how to process it or talk about it. So I just kept it all in and then it tried to get out and it came out through panic attacks.

So let's just say, for let's just do it like this. So how about you share with us the chronic side of some of the chronic things that I would say led to to the triumphancy for this show and then let's do a second show. They're talking about the acute side of trauma that led to your triumphancy and we just kind of just leading, being led by the spirit and, you know, just seeing where the Lord takes us. You know, I mean, and that's how we frequently do so, diamonds, y'all know, y'all already know how we do. We just kind of you know how the spirit leads and we just dig deeper and we go deeper and deeper, and we can only hope that we answer any questions that you have. And just remember, if you have any questions, whether it be for her or Miss Will Brach, you can go to her website. And what's your website?

Harry Wellbrockcom. So it's T E R I Just one R W E L L B.

R O C K. Ok, so you could definitely go there. I wanted to make sure that we mentioned that, because I'm looking at your website in this moment it's just like wow, I'm just like wow, oh man, you know, just kind of, just like I said before in the conversation, before, they just really blow my mind, the things that I was seeing and you know, the things that you're doing on the other side of the triumphancy, you know, and it's just amazing to me how, how the good Bible talks about in Romans eight and twenty eight, how he'll take, you know, the good out of it for your good. You know what I mean All of us working together for our good. And just imagine if you didn't go through any of the things that you've been through, you know, would your life be what it is? We know?

it wouldn't be.

you know, absolutely so.

So my, my trauma story, my, my first traumas were, were acute, and my mom tried to drown me in a bathtub when I was four, along with my one year old sister, my. I was sexually accosted by a 16 year old neighbor when I was five, next to my, alongside my best friend who was also in my kindergarten class, sexually, sexually molested by a 19 year old neighbor when my mom sent me for a can of soup when I was nine. And then the first chronic trauma well, besides living in an alcoholic home and a dad who was physically abusive was my choir director during fifth grade. When I was 10, repeatedly molesting me, and then 14 was an acute trauma, sexually accosted by a religious education director. I grew up Catholic and so I worked in the rectory where the priests lived. My dad was a Jesuit brother for eight years, meaning that he was in the seminary and studied theology before he left and married my mom. So faith was a very, very important part of my upbringing and my childhood. My mom wanted to be a nun, but they wouldn't let her in which always makes me laugh because they said she partied too much. It came forth in our upbringing so yeah, and then, when I was 16, lost my virginity to date. Rape acute, that's acute 17. I was involved in a gang attack and sexually accosted, and another acute trauma. And then the bank robberies when I was 21 and 22. So those were all acute. So really my chronic trauma was just living in this household, never knowing where I stood. So I took on the role which many trauma survivors and children who are experiencing ACEs do. I took on the role of being the good girl. I had good grades and I never talked back and I was always trying to be the perfect child, because and I also was always trying to be the peacekeeper, so I was the one trying to tell my little sister, who was a little fireball and always fighting back shh, you know, dad's gonna come in swinging with that belt or we didn't want, I didn't want us to get in trouble, and so and that was a role that then carried with me into adulthood being very perfectionistic. Everything had to be almost on the border of OCD and everything had to be look perfect, and my house had to be perfect and my children had to be perfect, and meanwhile there was just chaos happening inside of me and I was so lost in that chaos, trying to just survive day to day and praying that I didn't have another heart or panic attack. Yeah, so that's how chronic trauma existed in my life.

Wow, so I don't know. This thing says we only have 10 minutes, but if you have the time once it stops, let me keep going yeah, we'll pop back on. Great, great. So, Michael, you gonna try your question again.

Yeah, can you hear me now? I can't. All right, can you hear me now?

Still not.

Can you hear me now? Oh, I got you now, yes, Okay. So my question is this oh, would you say there are certain triggers that make you think back on things that you went through. Certain, triggers?

Oh, oh for sure. And I've learned again, now that I've done so much incredible healing work, to be very, very cognizant of things it used to be. Suddenly I had developed like a fear of being on the beach and I live on Hilton Head Island and the beach was my favorite place to just be with nature and listen to the waves. And well then, I couldn't go out there because I was so horrified, just absolutely terrified, to be in these open spaces. So then we really started to look at where is this coming from and why is this all of a sudden surfacing? And so it can be. Things such as very loud noises like fireworks or car backfiring and I would have that startle effect would take me back to that bank robbery when the gunshots were going off and I was running for my life, trying to hide, and then I ended up between two armed assailants and trying to choose between death and death. Like which direction do I run? And so, yes, once I started to understand that Even people's behavior, even people's tones of voice, an angry man talking, would trigger me, because I would go back to my dad and feeling very like, oh very like, wanting to close in on myself and hermit crab myself and I could feel my shoulders go up. I could feel my body start to wanna curl in. So yes, an answer to your question. I hope that answered your question. Triggers absolutely happen, but when we become aware of them and we can pause and say, hold up, why am I physically reacting or emotionally reacting? Why am I having this reaction? And we can step back and we can say, okay, what is this really about? We can journal about it, we can pray about it, we can meditate on it. Whatever it is that we can do to say what's really happening here. This isn't that I'm that terrified of fireworks. There's something more going on here and try to figure out where that's stemming from.

Yeah, that answered my question because I know for me some of the things I went through in life just to hear a firework go off like on 4th July firework going off. It triggered things I guess you would say traumatic things I have because if you listen to the podcast you know that I was shot three times or four times, three in my side and once in the back of my head at the age of 16. Again, it's getting a little bit about that being in a gang living the lifestyle of that traumatic event. So I can definitely say agreed to the certain triggers. It can maybe make you cringe up and Make you worry about things going on around you.

Yes, absolutely Well, thank you for sharing that. I'm so sorry that you experienced that, but kudos to you for having the courage to talk about it and, yes, just move forward in healing. So yes, that's just a gift. It's just, it's such a gift for you to be sharing your truth. So I certainly thank you from my heart for that, amen.

Hey man. So you can definitely see to everybody that is listening that the enemy wants to try to break you. You know when you have purpose and you have when you understand your purpose and when you, when, when, when you know Things seems like things is always happening to you, miss well Broncos, definitely an example. So is Michael an example of you know, when the ain't it, when the enemy has peeped into your future, mm-hmm, you know there is greatness on the other side of the pain. You gotta, by faith, know that God is for you and not against you, amen. So, as we said, we are going to have to come back with miss well block, and so y'all make sure that you tune into the next episode, because this is really like an introduction God gave us for her. Who knows why God allows things to happen the way that they happen? But I just feel like this was just an introductory of what is to come, and you know just one of these ways that God just says come back. Come back because I want to give you more. But it's up to you. I gave you something. I gave you a little back, gave you like an appetizer, but it's a little teaser. It's up to you to get to, to get the entree. Hey man, come on somebody. So, before we go, we want to ask you, miss well, miss well Brock, to please give us a word. Whatever the spirit is prompting you to give here in this moment, that will draw somebody back, or you know, just again, whatever he gives you, and then we're again. Y'all, make sure y'all come back to the next episode so that you can hear the rest of the story and maybe even our third one. I don't know. We're gonna follow the spirit. Hey man, hey man. So what's your word? Oh, I say hashtag. Never give up. It is never, never too late.

My mom gave up drinking in her 80s and started her healing work in her 80s, and she died on my birthday this year, march 14th. But we had two and a half beautiful years to heal and blossom and grow our friendships. So there you go, hey, man All right y'all.

So Y'all make sure I promise y'all you want to come back to hear a little bit more and how you can become Triumphant and move past the pain. A man from trauma, hey man. So. Father, we thank you again for your grace and your mercy. Thank you again for just allowing us to come together one more time. Lord, we pray that your will be done. We bless every diamond here, every heart. God, that they might see themselves the way you see them and I speak that for myself as well have your way. We bless your name and we say thank you again. Jesus Christ name, we do pray, amen, amen, all right.

And until next time remember you are a diamond in the rough. Amen, amen.