Beauty After Bruises
@beautyafterbruises.bsky.social
Bringing light back into the eyes of survivors with Complex PTSD and Dissociative Trauma Disorders
🌼 Treatment Funding
🌿 Education
🌼 Outreach
🌿 Hope
🌼 Treatment Funding
🌿 Education
🌼 Outreach
🌿 Hope
There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.
—Maya Angelou
Even if you can only tell yourself, or a journal, you deserve to know every chapter of your book. You can decide later if you'll ever want to lend it to someone else.
—Maya Angelou
Even if you can only tell yourself, or a journal, you deserve to know every chapter of your book. You can decide later if you'll ever want to lend it to someone else.
October 15, 2025 at 8:48 PM
There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.
—Maya Angelou
Even if you can only tell yourself, or a journal, you deserve to know every chapter of your book. You can decide later if you'll ever want to lend it to someone else.
—Maya Angelou
Even if you can only tell yourself, or a journal, you deserve to know every chapter of your book. You can decide later if you'll ever want to lend it to someone else.
Setting boundaries is difficult for MOST people. For complex trauma survivors who've had their own repeatedly disrespected, ignored, or entirely obliterated, setting them today can be terrifying and confusing.
May these tips and examples empower you as you reclaim safe, vibrant relationships!
(1/2)
May these tips and examples empower you as you reclaim safe, vibrant relationships!
(1/2)
September 30, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Setting boundaries is difficult for MOST people. For complex trauma survivors who've had their own repeatedly disrespected, ignored, or entirely obliterated, setting them today can be terrifying and confusing.
May these tips and examples empower you as you reclaim safe, vibrant relationships!
(1/2)
May these tips and examples empower you as you reclaim safe, vibrant relationships!
(1/2)
I lived for the moment laughter would erupt from my chest, after I'd long-believed it was laid to rest. That resurrection could shatter a sky.
It revealed to me a power—
mine.
Because I'm the one who let it happen.
Im who let go enough for that crack to splinter and burst into something so pure.
—lm
It revealed to me a power—
mine.
Because I'm the one who let it happen.
Im who let go enough for that crack to splinter and burst into something so pure.
—lm
September 19, 2025 at 1:43 PM
I lived for the moment laughter would erupt from my chest, after I'd long-believed it was laid to rest. That resurrection could shatter a sky.
It revealed to me a power—
mine.
Because I'm the one who let it happen.
Im who let go enough for that crack to splinter and burst into something so pure.
—lm
It revealed to me a power—
mine.
Because I'm the one who let it happen.
Im who let go enough for that crack to splinter and burst into something so pure.
—lm
“The mind is beautiful because of the paradox. It uses itself to understand itself.”
―Adam Elenbass
―Adam Elenbass
August 9, 2025 at 7:09 AM
“The mind is beautiful because of the paradox. It uses itself to understand itself.”
―Adam Elenbass
―Adam Elenbass
“Shame hates it when we reach out and tell our story. It hates having words wrapped around it- it can't survive being shared. Shame loves secrecy. When we bury our story, the shame metastasizes.”
―Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection
―Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection
August 6, 2025 at 1:24 PM
“Shame hates it when we reach out and tell our story. It hates having words wrapped around it- it can't survive being shared. Shame loves secrecy. When we bury our story, the shame metastasizes.”
―Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection
―Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection
What if...
What if you loved yourself the same way you love others? ...the way you wished another could love you? What if you let those buds burst and bloom inside your chest?
Put down the watering hose.
You ARE the garden.
🌼🕊️🌻
What if you loved yourself the same way you love others? ...the way you wished another could love you? What if you let those buds burst and bloom inside your chest?
Put down the watering hose.
You ARE the garden.
🌼🕊️🌻
July 29, 2025 at 4:50 PM
What if...
What if you loved yourself the same way you love others? ...the way you wished another could love you? What if you let those buds burst and bloom inside your chest?
Put down the watering hose.
You ARE the garden.
🌼🕊️🌻
What if you loved yourself the same way you love others? ...the way you wished another could love you? What if you let those buds burst and bloom inside your chest?
Put down the watering hose.
You ARE the garden.
🌼🕊️🌻
Many trauma survivors were led to believe that if we bent and twisted our bodies up, tore them apart, they'd mold like clay—into a problem we could solve.
But we were lied to.
Made to do the enemy's bidding.
Wound up like a toy & pointed toward a mirror. To destroy any evidence they were ever there.
But we were lied to.
Made to do the enemy's bidding.
Wound up like a toy & pointed toward a mirror. To destroy any evidence they were ever there.
July 26, 2025 at 8:38 PM
Many trauma survivors were led to believe that if we bent and twisted our bodies up, tore them apart, they'd mold like clay—into a problem we could solve.
But we were lied to.
Made to do the enemy's bidding.
Wound up like a toy & pointed toward a mirror. To destroy any evidence they were ever there.
But we were lied to.
Made to do the enemy's bidding.
Wound up like a toy & pointed toward a mirror. To destroy any evidence they were ever there.
Neuroplasticity is a glorious, beautiful, hope-filled thing!
✨🧠🎆✨
✨🧠🎆✨
July 25, 2025 at 8:25 PM
Neuroplasticity is a glorious, beautiful, hope-filled thing!
✨🧠🎆✨
✨🧠🎆✨
where do we go to grieve
when it's our safe place
that died.
how do we tell lungs
to breathe through the pain
when they're mourning
the air itself.
—sara rian
when it's our safe place
that died.
how do we tell lungs
to breathe through the pain
when they're mourning
the air itself.
—sara rian
July 23, 2025 at 8:21 PM
where do we go to grieve
when it's our safe place
that died.
how do we tell lungs
to breathe through the pain
when they're mourning
the air itself.
—sara rian
when it's our safe place
that died.
how do we tell lungs
to breathe through the pain
when they're mourning
the air itself.
—sara rian
Dissociation is a beautiful, intelligent, and highly adaptive skill.
It makes everything from the painfully mundane to horrifically traumatic more survivable. It can dilute our physical pain, hold off overwhelming emotions, compartmentalize daily stressors/difficult memories, and so much more. But!
It makes everything from the painfully mundane to horrifically traumatic more survivable. It can dilute our physical pain, hold off overwhelming emotions, compartmentalize daily stressors/difficult memories, and so much more. But!
July 20, 2025 at 5:33 AM
Dissociation is a beautiful, intelligent, and highly adaptive skill.
It makes everything from the painfully mundane to horrifically traumatic more survivable. It can dilute our physical pain, hold off overwhelming emotions, compartmentalize daily stressors/difficult memories, and so much more. But!
It makes everything from the painfully mundane to horrifically traumatic more survivable. It can dilute our physical pain, hold off overwhelming emotions, compartmentalize daily stressors/difficult memories, and so much more. But!
Disclosing trauma for the first time can be one of the most terrifying, vulnerable, and courageous things a survivor ever does—possibly only second to surviving it the first time. When that heroic feat is met with judgment, shock, or, worse, silence, survivors may walk away feeling ...
July 9, 2025 at 9:31 PM
Disclosing trauma for the first time can be one of the most terrifying, vulnerable, and courageous things a survivor ever does—possibly only second to surviving it the first time. When that heroic feat is met with judgment, shock, or, worse, silence, survivors may walk away feeling ...
You shouldn't have to toughen up.
..or harden your heart and brace your spine just to be here at all. We'll keep working to soften this world's punches and landmines so you get to be delicate—simple and eager—with hope that runs easy and freedom in your feet.
...the way it always should have been.
..or harden your heart and brace your spine just to be here at all. We'll keep working to soften this world's punches and landmines so you get to be delicate—simple and eager—with hope that runs easy and freedom in your feet.
...the way it always should have been.
July 3, 2025 at 8:35 PM
You shouldn't have to toughen up.
..or harden your heart and brace your spine just to be here at all. We'll keep working to soften this world's punches and landmines so you get to be delicate—simple and eager—with hope that runs easy and freedom in your feet.
...the way it always should have been.
..or harden your heart and brace your spine just to be here at all. We'll keep working to soften this world's punches and landmines so you get to be delicate—simple and eager—with hope that runs easy and freedom in your feet.
...the way it always should have been.
I am allowed to cry.
I am allowed to feel.
...to be angry.
...to be seen.
...to know myself.
I am allowed to ask for help.
...to recognize my limits.
...to admit my weaknesses.
...to need.
I am allowed to be vulnerable.
I am allowed to be human.
🖤🤲🤍
I am allowed to feel.
...to be angry.
...to be seen.
...to know myself.
I am allowed to ask for help.
...to recognize my limits.
...to admit my weaknesses.
...to need.
I am allowed to be vulnerable.
I am allowed to be human.
🖤🤲🤍
June 27, 2025 at 1:43 PM
I am allowed to cry.
I am allowed to feel.
...to be angry.
...to be seen.
...to know myself.
I am allowed to ask for help.
...to recognize my limits.
...to admit my weaknesses.
...to need.
I am allowed to be vulnerable.
I am allowed to be human.
🖤🤲🤍
I am allowed to feel.
...to be angry.
...to be seen.
...to know myself.
I am allowed to ask for help.
...to recognize my limits.
...to admit my weaknesses.
...to need.
I am allowed to be vulnerable.
I am allowed to be human.
🖤🤲🤍
Reposted by Beauty After Bruises
Your health, healing, and positive connection with life is an act of resistance.
June 25, 2025 at 6:47 PM
Your health, healing, and positive connection with life is an act of resistance.
"Managing your emotions doesn't mean you don't express yourself; it means you stop short of hurting others and sabotaging yourself."
—Sue Fitzmaurice
—Sue Fitzmaurice
June 26, 2025 at 3:21 AM
"Managing your emotions doesn't mean you don't express yourself; it means you stop short of hurting others and sabotaging yourself."
—Sue Fitzmaurice
—Sue Fitzmaurice
"Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way here. ... For my will is as strong as yours. You have NO POWER OVER ME!"
Today, we share the art of Amber Galore knowing this Labyrinth quote speaks to so many of you. Complex trauma survivors KNOW the depths of these words.
Today, we share the art of Amber Galore knowing this Labyrinth quote speaks to so many of you. Complex trauma survivors KNOW the depths of these words.
June 24, 2025 at 7:40 PM
"Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way here. ... For my will is as strong as yours. You have NO POWER OVER ME!"
Today, we share the art of Amber Galore knowing this Labyrinth quote speaks to so many of you. Complex trauma survivors KNOW the depths of these words.
Today, we share the art of Amber Galore knowing this Labyrinth quote speaks to so many of you. Complex trauma survivors KNOW the depths of these words.
If you ask any complex trauma survivor what the one emotion they're most familiar with is, the answer is likely to be shame. Or, they may also have it buried so deeply inside themselves - a concerted effort to not see it, know it, feel it - they forgot it was hidden in there. In everything.
June 19, 2025 at 11:20 PM
If you ask any complex trauma survivor what the one emotion they're most familiar with is, the answer is likely to be shame. Or, they may also have it buried so deeply inside themselves - a concerted effort to not see it, know it, feel it - they forgot it was hidden in there. In everything.
I can’t keep quiet.
For anyone.
Anymore.
Because no one knows me; no one ever will if I don’t say something.
Take that dry blue pill.
They may see that monster, they may run away.
But I have to do this.
I can’t keep quiet.
- Connie Lim @MILCKmusic
For anyone.
Anymore.
Because no one knows me; no one ever will if I don’t say something.
Take that dry blue pill.
They may see that monster, they may run away.
But I have to do this.
I can’t keep quiet.
- Connie Lim @MILCKmusic
June 19, 2025 at 8:21 PM
I can’t keep quiet.
For anyone.
Anymore.
Because no one knows me; no one ever will if I don’t say something.
Take that dry blue pill.
They may see that monster, they may run away.
But I have to do this.
I can’t keep quiet.
- Connie Lim @MILCKmusic
For anyone.
Anymore.
Because no one knows me; no one ever will if I don’t say something.
Take that dry blue pill.
They may see that monster, they may run away.
But I have to do this.
I can’t keep quiet.
- Connie Lim @MILCKmusic
Now, it's not easy to do,
It's taken me 28 years to let anyone touch me the way I let you.
I still remember the time you looked me dead in the eyes,
and I realized that my body was mine.
M I N E.
– Orla Gartland
It's taken me 28 years to let anyone touch me the way I let you.
I still remember the time you looked me dead in the eyes,
and I realized that my body was mine.
M I N E.
– Orla Gartland
June 17, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Now, it's not easy to do,
It's taken me 28 years to let anyone touch me the way I let you.
I still remember the time you looked me dead in the eyes,
and I realized that my body was mine.
M I N E.
– Orla Gartland
It's taken me 28 years to let anyone touch me the way I let you.
I still remember the time you looked me dead in the eyes,
and I realized that my body was mine.
M I N E.
– Orla Gartland
You are not required to forgive anyone.
Forgiveness is not a requisite to healing.
...nor to being "a good person".
...a "good survivor".
...or just "good".
Forgiveness is something you give for yourself. And if you don't need it, there's nothing to give.
Forgiveness is not a requisite to healing.
...nor to being "a good person".
...a "good survivor".
...or just "good".
Forgiveness is something you give for yourself. And if you don't need it, there's nothing to give.
June 14, 2025 at 7:41 PM
You are not required to forgive anyone.
Forgiveness is not a requisite to healing.
...nor to being "a good person".
...a "good survivor".
...or just "good".
Forgiveness is something you give for yourself. And if you don't need it, there's nothing to give.
Forgiveness is not a requisite to healing.
...nor to being "a good person".
...a "good survivor".
...or just "good".
Forgiveness is something you give for yourself. And if you don't need it, there's nothing to give.
Nothing unsettles those who hurt you more than a voice - a life - lived out loud. Unapologetic, unashamed, uninhibited,
unquiet.
Sing until that voice runs hoarse.
unquiet.
Sing until that voice runs hoarse.
June 13, 2025 at 11:38 PM
Nothing unsettles those who hurt you more than a voice - a life - lived out loud. Unapologetic, unashamed, uninhibited,
unquiet.
Sing until that voice runs hoarse.
unquiet.
Sing until that voice runs hoarse.
Rarely, if ever, are any of us healed in isolation.
—bell hooks
—bell hooks
June 12, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Rarely, if ever, are any of us healed in isolation.
—bell hooks
—bell hooks
SURVIVOR TOOLKIT 🌻
We're coming in at a new time today, but survivors of complex trauma can find themselves struggling at any time of day. Whatever time those unmanaged symptoms may strike, just being able to remember who and where you ARE can be difficult.
...🧵
We're coming in at a new time today, but survivors of complex trauma can find themselves struggling at any time of day. Whatever time those unmanaged symptoms may strike, just being able to remember who and where you ARE can be difficult.
...🧵
June 8, 2025 at 11:56 PM
SURVIVOR TOOLKIT 🌻
We're coming in at a new time today, but survivors of complex trauma can find themselves struggling at any time of day. Whatever time those unmanaged symptoms may strike, just being able to remember who and where you ARE can be difficult.
...🧵
We're coming in at a new time today, but survivors of complex trauma can find themselves struggling at any time of day. Whatever time those unmanaged symptoms may strike, just being able to remember who and where you ARE can be difficult.
...🧵
When darkness comes upon you,
And colors you with fear and shame,
Be still, and know that I'm with you.
And I will say your name.
If terror falls upon your bed,
And sleep no longer comes
Remember all the words I said:
Be still.
Be still and know.
—The Fray 🌻
And colors you with fear and shame,
Be still, and know that I'm with you.
And I will say your name.
If terror falls upon your bed,
And sleep no longer comes
Remember all the words I said:
Be still.
Be still and know.
—The Fray 🌻
June 5, 2025 at 9:37 PM
When darkness comes upon you,
And colors you with fear and shame,
Be still, and know that I'm with you.
And I will say your name.
If terror falls upon your bed,
And sleep no longer comes
Remember all the words I said:
Be still.
Be still and know.
—The Fray 🌻
And colors you with fear and shame,
Be still, and know that I'm with you.
And I will say your name.
If terror falls upon your bed,
And sleep no longer comes
Remember all the words I said:
Be still.
Be still and know.
—The Fray 🌻
You never deserved to see the things you've seen,
to feel the emotions you were forced to feel,
to endure the pain packed on your shoulders.
No child did. No child COULD.
to feel the emotions you were forced to feel,
to endure the pain packed on your shoulders.
No child did. No child COULD.
May 31, 2025 at 7:26 PM
You never deserved to see the things you've seen,
to feel the emotions you were forced to feel,
to endure the pain packed on your shoulders.
No child did. No child COULD.
to feel the emotions you were forced to feel,
to endure the pain packed on your shoulders.
No child did. No child COULD.