Beyond Survival is about rebuilding your life in the aftermath of serious trauma.
I write intimate essays about grief, sexual violence and workplace trauma. I also write about my version of recovery: about food, creativity, reading and rest.
Working on this project, I often think of the person I was ten years ago. I felt so alone, as I scrambled to come to terms with my mother’s death and the sexual abuse I’d experienced as a child. Beyond Survival is the resource that would have changed my life if it existed a decade ago. Serious trauma changes a person. The person you were before dies, and you have to remake yourself in the aftermath. Having walked that grueling path myself, I am determined to make it a little easier on the next person.
When something awful happens, most people look away. In this space, we go toward the scary thing to see what’s on the other side. I don't have many answers, but I’m eager to dwell amidst the questions. As wars rage and the climate crisis intensifies, we need new ways to process our grief, pain and trauma. Trauma survivors have a lot to teach us about how to florish in a world if deep, terrifying uncertainty.
I hope you’ll join me as we explore life’s deepest questions and reconsider what it means to thrive after serious trauma.
Free subscribers receive:
A weekly essay about life after trauma1
An invitation to join our kind-hearted comment community
Access to the archives (with 50+ posts on everything from my creative regrets to Survivors On Screen, a series about how sexual violence is portrayed in TV and film)
Paid subscribers are patrons of my work.
They invest in me, giving me the time and space to create the resources I think will make a difference in survivors' lives. Becoming a paid subscriber is less about what you get for your subscription, and more about what you give to this community. If you believe in empowering survivors to tell their own stories, please consider becoming a paid subscriber.
A little more about me:
I’m an award-winning, queer Irish writer. I’ve been widely published in my native Ireland, and am working on my first book.
I also teach writing. This year, I’m facilitating a series of workshops inspired by the Celtic Wheel.
I live in Dublin with my Italian partner and our two cats. When I’m not writing, I love to cook, travel and read.
I maintain a 10-month publication schedule, taking January and August off for creative rest and renewal.
