08/23/2026
Hi, Iām Cat. šš» Hereās the truest thing I can tell you before anything else: bad things have happened to me, but/and I still get to choose what the rest of my story looks like. Learning to hold both the sorrow and the rebuilding is basically my whole thing.
The bad-things list is real. I grew up with trauma I now understand as CPTSD ā sexual, physical, emotional. Married and divorced before I was 20. Found out much later that Iām autistic and have ADHD, which reframed roughly uhā¦everything about my life. I came apart after my first baby in a way āpostpartum depressionā doesnāt quite cover. I loved someone deep in addiction, and I know exactly what it is to be left holding a 9-month-old with no safety net, trying to figure out how we were going to be okay. I was the perfectionist eldest daughter (retired now, thank you very much). Iāve been poor for a long time ā some ancestral wounding type s**t ā but steadily climbing my way out of that patterning.
I put myself back together bit by bit, never in a straight line, and with a lot of help. EMDR and somatic experiencing for what my body was still carrying. IFS, because it turns out I contain a whole cast of characters and every one of them needed to be heard. Reiki, and death + grief work, for the sacred and chaotic middle. And the mystical stuff that keeps me grounded and in awe of The Mysteriesā¢ ā astrology, tarot, Human Design, and the Italian folk magic that runs in my blood. None of it fixed me overnight, because nothing ever does. It was slow and stubborn and cumulative, and then one season I noticed Iād stopped bracing for the next collapse in every moment.
The regular-life version of me: mom to Pepper (2), Maggie (8), and Freddy (11). Wife to Cori, who came out as a trans woman in 2023 and is one of the great loves and joys of my life. Tattooed, over-caffeinated, prone to swearing for emphasis and for the bit. Three cats. Big fantasy reader, sometimes gamer. Full-time customer service agent for a cat food company, which is exactly as funny as it sounds. (āHi, itās Cat. Yes, thatās really my name.ā) Mostly Iām someone still finding her way back to her own vitality and her childlike joy ā and wanting so much to bring other people along with me.
Thatās why this page exists. Iām going to share the real version of the healing ā the tips that actually helped, the stories, the mess, the wins that took 5ever to earn. If any of this sounds like your life, Iād love for you to stick around. Follow along, and know my inbox is open.
Consider me your internet big sister. Iāve been down in the hole. I know the way out. And Iāll leave the light on for you. š
