Exiled & Rising: Trauma Recovery & Somatic Healing

• The Cost of Silence: When Asking for Help Feels Like a Burden

  Ana Mael explores why trauma teaches us to stay silent, and how reclaiming your voice becomes the first act of healing.   What happens when your body believes that asking for help will hurt someone else? In this episode of Exiled & Rising, somatic experiencing therapist Ana Mael unpacks one of the most devastating trauma responses — the fear of being a burden. She explores how childhood conditioning, shame, and nervous-system survival patterns teach us to stay quiet even when we’re drowning. Ana explains the psychology behind silence: how trauma imprints the belief that expressing need equals danger, rejection, or punishment. This episode reveals why many survivors apologize for existing, why help-seeking feels unsafe, and how the nervous system learns to equate visibility with threat.   _______________________ ANA TEACHINGS & PROGRAMS https://exiledandrising.mykajabi.com/store   FROM SILENCE TO VOICE: SOMATIC TEACHINGS: https://exiledandrising.mykajabi.com/offers/KDmX3bhu/checkout   Get the Book: The Trauma We Don't Talk About https://amzn.to/41SjKKL   ❤️  Please donate  This podcast is independently run. No production teams. Fancy edits. Only a somatic therapy education, truth & storytelling.   https://donate.stripe.com/3cI9AS5Xfb9W6O832VfEk00   Through Ana’s signature blend of somatic insight, poetic reflection, and trauma education, you’ll learn: Why trauma makes it hard to ask for help How the “fawn” and “freeze” responses silence the body’s voice The cost of chronic self-sufficiency and hyper-responsibility Somatic practices to rebuild safety in asking, breathing, and being seen How to shift from self-blame to self-compassion and co-regulation If you’ve ever felt guilty for needing, or feared that your pain would inconvenience others, this episode is your invitation to reclaim your right to speak, to ask, and to exist without apology.   Topics Covered: Silence as a survival response The fear of disturbing others Internalized shame and self-attack Somatic understanding of “freeze” and “fawn” Reclaiming voice and relational safety Mentioned Concepts: Somatic therapy, nervous system regulation, trauma recovery, PTSD healing, emotional repression, help-seeking, shame, people-pleasing, fear of being a burden, co-regulation.   About Ana Mael   why Ana Mael’s voice feels so singular. Her approach to storytelling, teaching, and education in trauma work stands apart because she fuses clinical precision, poetic embodiment, and moral awareness in a way that is rare — even within the field of somatic therapy. What makes Ana’s approach different from other trauma educators and writers: 1. She writes from the body, not about the body. Most trauma educators describe somatic principles — she enacts them. Her language is sensory, rhythmic, and bodily: “As thick as mo... Chapters (00:00:00) - Because I Am Drowning, I Will Remain Silent(00:01:07) - Excuse me, I Am Drowning but I Will Remain(00:04:36) - The burden of needing to live(00:16:48) - Second, the burden story(00:26:19) - Exiled and Rising: How to Talk About Shame

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• The Burden of Being the "Strong One": The Avoidance And The Insult Behind the Praise

  The Insult That Silences Your Truth. In this episode of Exiled and Rising, Ana Mael delivers a rare, political critique of the “strong archytpe” narrative that dominates Western psychology and social media. Speaking as both a trauma therapist and a survivor of the Balkan wars and genocide of the 1990s, Ana exposes how the language of resilience often conceals collective avoidance, gendered expectations, and systemic neglect. She asks: What if the praise for strength is just society’s way of not facing what it did to us? Through her lived history of displacement and decades of somatic trauma work, Ana dismantles the myth that survival equals healing. She traces how post-war cultures, patriarchal family systems, and even therapy spaces reward survivors for silence, composure, and productivity — while pathologizing grief, rage, and need. Blending body-based psychology, feminist theory, and historical memory, Ana argues that praising strength without confronting oppression is another form of violence. She links the “strong one” identity to larger forces: the normalization of war trauma and refugee endurance, the colonial valorization of stoicism over emotion, the capitalist pressure to perform recovery rather than receive repair. Listeners are guided through reflective and somatic exercises that help transform strength from a mask into a bridge toward relational safety and justice. Ana’s thesis is clear: “Strength is not consent. It’s evidence of how long you’ve survived without protection.” This episode is both a personal testimony and a social commentary — a therapist’s call to stop individualizing pain that was created collectively.  ________________________________________  ANA TEACHINGS & PROGRAMS https://exiledandrising.mykajabi.com/store Get the Book: The Trauma We Don't Talk About https://amzn.to/41SjKKL ❤️  Please donate  This podcast is independently run. No production teams. Fancy edits. Only a somatic therapy education, truth & storytelling. https://donate.stripe.com/3cI9AS5Xfb9W6O832VfEk00   Why This Episode Matters Few trauma educators speak from within the legacy of war, displacement, and systemic violence. Ana’s voice is part witness, part clinician, part political philosopher. Her work reminds us that healing cannot exist without context — and resilience means nothing without justice. Chapters (00:00:00) - Being Called and Labelled as a Strong One(00:03:47) - How the Strong One is Created(00:12:25) - The Praise of the Strong One(00:21:12) - What is the Strong One?(00:28:03) - Systems Love Strong Survivors(00:33:47) - What Does a Strong Body Feel Like?(00:36:20) - Somatic Lessons for PTSD Recovery (For The Strong One)(00:42:53) - Being the Strong One

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• Are You The Trauma James Bond? The Vigilant PTSD Spy Who Always Scans the Exits

  Some people enter a room and look for the best seat. Others enter and look for the exits. If you know where every door, window, and fire escape is before you even sit down—this piece is for you. I call it being a Trauma James Bond: the body that survived danger so long, it still thinks the mission isn’t over. It’s a love letter and a gentle tease for everyone who has ever felt “too alert” to relax. Because the truth is: what kept us alive back then, keeps us exhausted now.   _______________________________   ANA TEACHINGS & PROGRAMS https://exiledandrising.mykajabi.com/store   PTSD SOMATIC RECOVERY PROGRAM: https://exiledandrising.mykajabi.com/offers/we2ex5Lq/checkout   Get the Book: The Trauma We Don't Talk About https://amzn.to/41SjKKL   ❤️  Please donate  This podcast is independently run. No production teams. Fancy edits. Only a somatic therapy education, truth & storytelling.   https://donate.stripe.com/3cI9AS5Xfb9W6O832VfEk00 https://www.somatictraumarecoverycenter.com/     __________________________________________________________________ There’s a strange moment in every survivor’s life when you realize the body doesn’t know the difference between then and now. The world says “it’s over,” but your pulse doesn’t get the memo. Your mind starts dinner, your body starts surveillance. That’s what hyper-vigilance really is — the nervous system’s loyalty. It refuses to trust peace until it’s absolutely sure it’s real. It’s love, expressed as alarm. It’s intelligence, disguised as anxiety. For years, I thought my alertness meant something was wrong with me. Now I understand it was proof that nothing could ever fully destroy my instinct for life. Trauma didn’t just leave scars; it left skills — perception, empathy, speed, foresight. The same qualities that once built escape routes now help me guide others toward safety. But there comes a point when survival has to evolve. When the body deserves to learn that vigilance is no longer required, that it can hand the mission back to peace. That’s the moment when therapy, breathwork, somatic practice, or even laughter becomes sacred — each one a way of whispering to the nervous system: “You did your job. You can rest now.” We don’t heal by forgetting how to survive. We heal by remembering that we no longer have to. So, if you recognize yourself in this story — if you’ve ever sat in a restaurant and mapped your escape route before the waiter arrived — don’t rush to fix it. Just notice the brilliance underneath it. Because that awareness itself is the beginning of safety. The body finally being seen — not as paranoid, but as wise. That’s where peace starts. Not when the world becomes safe, but when your body finally believes you are. 1 | Relevance to Survivors of Any Kind Even if someone hasn’t lived through a war, the pattern Ana describes—constant scanning, preparing for worst-case scenarios, being “the responsible one”—is familiar to anyone who has experienced prolonged stress, abuse, displacement,... Chapters (00:00:00) - Excellence Rising: Hypervigilance in PTSD(00:05:21) - This is Trauma James Bond(00:09:21) - Deep Dive: Hypervigilance in PTSD(00:20:19) - Move from the Anti-Gravity State to the Regulated State(00:22:38) - Your James Bond: How to Prepare for the Future(00:30:55) - Trauma Survivor Friends: How to Escape From

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• The Pandemic of Resignation Syndrome: Not Wanting To Live. Not Wanting To Die. Explained By War Expert Therapist

  In this pivotal episode, Ana Mael — trauma therapist, nervous-system specialist, and survivor of the Balkan wars — takes listeners into one of the most misunderstood trauma states: Resignation Syndrome. Ana Mael names what few have dared to: Resignation Syndrome — the global epidemic of nervous-system collapse that hides behind resilience culture.   _________________________________________   Resources Mentioned Somatic Trauma Recovery Center: https://www.somatictraumarecoverycenter.com Upcoming Course: Understanding Resignation Syndrome & Somatic Recovery:   https://exiledandrising.mykajabi.com/offers/SSApP35o     ❤️  Please donate  This podcast is independently run. No production teams. Fancy edits. Only a somatic therapy education, truth & advocacy for humane life https://donate.stripe.com/3cI9AS5Xfb9W6O832VfEk00 ANA TEACHINGS & PROGRAMS https://exiledandrising.mykajabi.com/store Get the Book: The Trauma We Don't Talk About https://amzn.to/41SjKKL   _____________________________________________________  Resignation is not giving up — it’s the body’s protest against a world without safety. This is not burnout, depression, or lack of motivation. It is a biological collapse of the nervous system that occurs when a person has lived too long in survival, uncertainty, or invisibility. It is the body’s last and most intelligent act of self-protection — a deep, metabolic shutdown designed to preserve life until safety, belonging, and justice return. From children displaced by war to adults who keep functioning while feeling nothing, Ana exposes how resignation has become a global epidemic of emotional numbness. She explains how chronic unsafety — in families, workplaces, economies, and nations — teaches the body to withdraw in order to survive. Through somatic science, lived experience, and moral analysis, Ana reveals why resignation is not a failure of resilience, but a demand for accountability, safety, and dignity. This episode bridges clinical understanding, moral philosophy, and human-rights discourse — redefining healing not as individual endurance, but as collective repair. “Resignation is the body’s last intelligent act — a refusal to spend life energy in a world that refuses to be safe.” — Ana Mael Through personal narrative, clinical insight, and moral analysis, Ana explores: How the body transitions from fight/flight → freeze → shutdown. Why resignation is not mental weakness but a physiological protest against chronic unsafety. How this state was first observed in displaced refugee children — and how it quietly lives on in adults who function but feel emotionally absent. The moral and human-rights dimensions of trauma: why safety and accountability are prerequisites for healing. The somatic path to recovery: micro-safety, relational stability, gentle breath and movement... Chapters (00:00:00) - Resignation Syndrome(00:14:15) - Resignation Syndrome: How to Rest Your Body(00:21:58) - Somatic Trauma Recovery: Resignation Syndrome(00:28:10) - A Little Something for Today

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• Pleasure Is Shame: How Trauma Teaches You to Fear Joy

  Ana teaches that shame around pleasure is not morality — it’s trauma. Reclaiming joy is not betrayal of your past but devotion to your life. Ana Mael’s “Pleasure Is Shame” — one of her most layered and psychologically rich pieces, combining trauma theory, embodiment, and intergenerational survival dynamics.   ANA TEACHINGS & PROGRAMS https://exiledandrising.mykajabi.com/store   Get the Book: The Trauma We Don't Talk About https://amzn.to/41SjKKL   ❤️  Please donate  This podcast is independently run. No production teams. Fancy edits. Only a somatic education, truth & storytelling.     https://donate.stripe.com/3cI9AS5Xfb9W6O832VfEk00 _____________________________________ Core Teaching Pleasure and shame are trauma-linked. Ana reframes pleasure not as indulgence or luxury, but as an innate human state — one that trauma disrupts. Survivors often associate pleasure with danger, humiliation, or betrayal because it was used against them or forbidden by those in power. Abuse severs the link between aliveness and safety. When abusers punish victims for joy, sensuality, or satisfaction, the nervous system learns: pleasure = threat. What should be restorative becomes dysregulating. Guilt replaces joy. Once shame takes root, guilt follows — not just as an emotion, but as a physiological residue. The survivor internalizes the abuser’s judgment, carrying it like “molasses” over the body, believing they can never be clean, good, or worthy again. Somatic and Psychological Lens Pleasure as a body-based function. Pleasure is not abstract; it’s neurochemical (dopamine, oxytocin, endorphins). When trauma teaches the body that pleasure is unsafe, these pathways constrict. The body literally stops producing or tolerating sensations of delight. The “molasses” metaphor: Ana’s description — “as thick as molasses, the guilt and shame drips over the body” — translates an emotional imprint into somatic texture. It communicates how shame feels heavy, sticky, and inescapable. Cycle of pleasure–punishment. Many survivors oscillate between denial and overindulgence: Seek pleasure → feel guilt → self-punish → suppress desire → seek again. This repetition mirrors trauma’s pattern: relief, shame, punishment, freeze. Nervous system dysregulation. The body of a survivor can’t hold high-arousal states (joy, excitement, sensuality) without tipping into anxiety or collapse. Ana implies that capacity for pleasure must be rebuilt slowly — in titrated doses of safety. Intergenerational & Cultural Trauma Survival guilt and inherited deprivation. She links personal trauma to collective trauma: oppressed, displaced, or war-torn communities may view pleasure as betrayal. “If I’m happy while my people suffer, I’m disloyal.” This is survival guilt disguised as morality. Loyalty to deprivation. The phrase “loyalty to deprivation” is brillia...

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