Aware And Prepared
Hello! This is the Aware and Prepared podcast. I'm your host, Mandi Pratt, a trained domestic violence advocate. I teach women and vulnerable populations how to be street smart. I'm a mom with a gnarly backstory from almost two decades ago. The FBI showed up at my door one day to alert me that my abusive ex had become wanted for multiple bank robberies. Our story was in the news (a few times). I was tired of feeling vulnerable and learned how to keep myself and my son safer. I wish when I was a young woman I'd known about red flags to watch for in relationships, and had learned how to be street smart. This podcast is for 15-year-old me and is meant for families and community groups to listen to together. After all, women's safety is a community issue. I'll share with you stories like mine and interview detectives, psychologists and many other experts to NOT only hear their jaw-dropping stories, but also what we learn from them to prevent harm for our every youth and grown up listening. I don't want anyone else to have to go through what I did - scared, vulnerable and needing decades of counseling and healthcare to heal. I want you to feel safer with less fear and more power!
You can find more from me at my website or my Instagram:
WEB: https://womenawareandprepared.com/podcast/
IG: https://www.instagram.com/womenawareandprepared/
Aware And Prepared
Depression as a Trauma Response: How to Support Yourself & Others (Part 2)
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
In this continuation episode, forensic psychologist Ashley Wasserburger explores the depressive face of trauma, the final of four trauma responses discussed in this series.
Ashley breaks down how depression manifests as a trauma response, addressing common misconceptions like viewing depressed individuals as lazy or unreliable. She explains how overwhelming daily tasks become, why people isolate despite craving connection, and the masks they wear to avoid feeling like a burden. The conversation covers practical support strategies including breaking tasks into manageable steps, celebrating small victories, and providing tangible help without judgment.
The conversation touches on cognitive distortions, the five Cs for addressing intrusive thoughts (catch, control, challenge, change, cherish), and the importance of reframing negative self-talk with curiosity rather than forced positivity. Ashley emphasizes that trauma responses are normal adaptations, NOT character flaws, and discusses how our brains physically change to help us survive, requiring patience and self-compassion as we learn to feel safe in healthy environments.
RESOURCES
Ashley works at Working Against Violence, Inc. (WAVI), a domestic violence and advocacy organization based in Rapid City, South Dakota.
Take Action Short Film - "Faces of Trauma" (10-minute youth-led film showing four siblings processing their parents' divorce through different trauma responses)
988 - National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (call or text 24/7 for mental health crises)
211 - National community resource helpline (food assist, mental health support, housing…)
National Domestic Violence Hotline - 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) Support for those experiencing domestic violence and their support persons
Connect with Mandi:
- Website: WomenAwareAndPrepared.com
- Take the Free Intuition Quiz WomenAwareAndPrepared.com/Quiz
- Instagram: @WomenAwareAndPrepared
- LinkedIn: Mandi Pratt
The primary purpose of the Women Aware and Prepared Podcast is to educate and inform. This podcast series does not constitute advice or services. Please use common sense for your own situation.
Hey, brave one. Welcome to the Aware and Prepared Podcast. I'm your host, Mandy Pratt, trauma-informed, resilient speaker, domestic violence victim advocate, and narcissistic abuse survivor. Here we keep it real with true crime stories and real. Strategies to prevent emotional and physical harm. My guests and I share a mix of insight and survivor grit, all to help you feel safer, trust yourself more deeply, and live with greater peace and power.
Let's trade fear for freedom and step into the peace that you deserve.
Hey, welcome back to the show. If you're just joining us, this is the continuation. This is part two of my conversation with Ashley Wasser Berger, a forensic psychologist who's been walking us through the different faces of trauma. So a couple episodes back, we covered the first few trauma responses, perfectionism, people pleasing.
Anger and today we're diving into the last face of trauma. Arguably one of the most misunderstood, and that is depression. So she's gonna help us understand why depression shows up as a trauma response. Debunk some harmful misconceptions about people experiencing it and share practical ways we can support both ourselves and our loved ones.
We'll also talk about how these connect to the fight, flight, freeze, and fawn responses. Plus, she's going to share some incredibly helpful resources and coping strategies that I think you're really gonna appreciate. So let's jump back into our conversation.
And then our last face of trauma is our depressive face of trauma.
So we know clinical depression. Also a separate diagnosis that might look different than just our social survival mechanisms. So we know that those may coincide or may be different for each person. Um, so that one I wanna caution a little bit looking at it as, is this something mental health that needs additional support?
Is this just part of that trauma? Mm-hmm. I think both can be true. Mm-hmm. But looking at what support works best for each person.
Right.
With our depressive face of trauma. I think the biggest bias against that is thinking that people are lazy or thinking that people are flakes, they don't keep their responsibilities or they don't keep their schedule.
Mm-hmm.
But looking at depression, everything is so overwhelming. Little choices, little tasks are immense when you have depression. And your brain is just constantly telling you it's not worth it. You are not worth it. Your friends don't need you. You know, it's telling you all of these really horrible things.
And so oftentimes people will isolate because when they're around people, they don't wanna bring people down. So they put on the mask of, you know, the people pleaser, the super happy person, uh, or the perfectionist, someone who does everything right. They put on these different masks so that they don't bring people down.
Mm-hmm. So that they don't feel like a burden.
Right.
So, because it is so taxing to wear these masks, oftentimes they'll isolate. Mm-hmm. And so they'll cancel meetings. They'll cancel friendship hangouts, you know, and they'll just be on their own. Also destructive coping is the biggest thing for someone with a depressive face of trauma.
So oftentimes sort of regressing into comfortable media. So if you know someone who's watched. I don't know, all of friends for 20 times, they might not be depressed, but it might be a comfort thing.
Uhhuh,
they know how it goes.
Mm-hmm.
They know what to expect. Mm-hmm. And it is something that brings them, you know, happiness.
Or sometimes people have really sad comfort movies or comfort shows, but they know how it goes.
Right.
So that comfort or even things like. You know, if you get sick and your mom always made you chicken noodle soup when you were a kid.
Mm-hmm.
And now when you get sick, you say, well, I've gotta go make chicken noodle soup.
Mm-hmm.
That can be a form of that comfort in a piece of regression, but also just that sense of safety. And here's when I felt, took, taken care of, here's when I felt Okay.
Right.
A big thing with the, the depressive phase of trauma that we can do as support. Is breaking things down into little steps.
Mm-hmm.
So what is manageable?
Right.
And also acknowledging and celebrating those successes.
Mm-hmm.
You got outta bed today?
Mm-hmm.
You showered today, right? You talked to your friend on the phone today. Mm-hmm. You know, whatever it might be.
Right.
Really rewarding those 'cause they are huge.
Mm-hmm
So little steps, manageable steps.
If you have a ton of dishes in your sink, and that is so overwhelming, you don't need to rinse those. If you have a dishwasher, just throw them in there, run it a couple times. Mm-hmm. You know, that's not ideal. Right. But it is something that is a little bit easier. Right. Or I'm so exhausted I can't shower today.
Mm-hmm.
Can you sit in the shower? You know, what's more possible for you today?
Right.
And then tangible support.
Mm-hmm.
So if I notice that my friend hasn't been eating, hasn't been hanging out, I'm gonna just go over there, check on them and say, Hey, I brought dinner. You know, I noticed you haven't been eating lately.
I thought, Hey, I wanna hang out with you. I just wanna see. Here's some food.
Right.
You know, being present with tangible supports. So making dinner, helping them clean their house.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. You know, whatever it might be without that. Judgment
and without making them feel guilty. Of course, like,
yeah.
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Of course, we don't want it to seem like, oh, well I noticed that you're a slob, so I'm gonna go, you know, we don't, we obviously don't wanna approach it with that. Right. And so making sure that, yeah, we're providing tangible support, we're checking in on people.
Mm-hmm.
Even when, because they will be isolating.
Yeah.
So constantly checking in.
Mm-hmm.
Another thing with support systems. With friends or family members of depression.
Mm-hmm.
Knowing that with 9, 8, 8, which is the national resource, the national hotline, you can call or text twenty four seven.
Right.
As a support person. Mm-hmm. You can call that too.
Mm-hmm. And you can say, I'm struggling with this, or I just don't know what resource to point them to.
Mm-hmm.
I don't know the right thing to say.
Yeah.
They can help both sides. Yeah, and it doesn't have to be suicidal ideation. It can be any life transition. It can be anything that you view as a crisis.
Mm-hmm. It can be anything that you're struggling with.
Awesome. I love that. I love that you brought that up. I also share that too, about the National National Domestic Violence Hotline. Like a lot of people might have like a sister who just is. In the middle of domestic violence and won't do anything, or, you know, nothing's changing.
And like you could, you could call them yourself.
Mm-hmm.
And find out like some information. And I always say like, you, you, this is just gathering information. Right? Like, you don't have to do what they say. We're just finding out information and options.
Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. It just gives you all of those options and gives you some of that support because whether you are a support person dealing with that secondary or vicarious trauma, or you're the person who's going through this, both of those sides need support.
Both of those sides need options. Mm-hmm. And both of those sides can be really isolating.
Mm-hmm.
So, yeah, those are fantastic resources, um, that I always wanna give people. So you're local. Your local agencies as well as your national ones, so mm-hmm. 9, 8, 8. Um, your domestic violence hotlines, human trafficking hotlines?
Mm-hmm. All of those have trained professionals 24 7 that you can reach out to for help and resources.
Mm-hmm.
Another big one is 2 1 1.
Mm-hmm.
Which is another national resource.
Yeah.
Um, and it just gives you resources. Yep. So it says, Hey, I am really struggling financially. I don't know if I'm gonna be able to eat tonight.
Where is somewhere that I can get a food box? They'll give you all of those different resources in your community so it can be. Tangible things. It can be mental health support, it can be, you know, I am new to this community, I want a new church family. You know, it can be all sorts of different resources in the community.
Mm-hmm. And it is local to your community, but it is a national site. I used it to help my grandma once who lives in New Jersey and I don't know the resources in New Jersey.
Sure.
And so I called 2 1 1 and said, Hey, this is the specific thing that my grandma needs. How can we get them support?
Mm-hmm.
And then they were able to direct me to a few options.
Mm-hmm.
So it's really great. It just pings off of where you're calling from. Mm-hmm. Um, and they're really knowledgeable.
True. And I also like mentioning too, that you could use 2 1 1 and ask to be transferred to the National Domestic Violence Hotline. Yeah. Or your local resource. So then that's not gonna show up in your phone if you're with somebody who's abusive.
Right.
Absolutely. Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. There's a few different ways to kind of, also, a lot of the websites have the escape button. Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Um, so yeah, absolutely. 2 1, 1 to transfer you
mm-hmm.
Is a great option.
Mm-hmm.
That's a, that's a really good idea. And the
escape button. Can you just tell people what that is real quick?
Yeah, so just on resources for domestic violence, human trafficking, things along those lines. There's oftentimes a little button, uh, usually in the top or the bottom corner that says if you're feeling unsafe, press escape. And it's basically, if. Your abusive partner were to come into the room.
Right.
You can quick just escape all of those tabs Uhhuh so that they can't see that in your history or they can't see that on your computer screen.
So it does also clear it from the history.
It depends. So if you use it in incognito mode, I think it does. Oh,
right.
Depends on some. Okay. Some sites will have it where it deletes it from the history too.
Mm-hmm.
Um, but it gives you that. Moment.
Right.
At least that's not on your screen. And then
sure,
when you have a second, you can go in and delete it.
Right?
So not, not every site will delete it from your history, but some will.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
So I think just making sure of that. But it definitely at least will take it off of your screen.
Right. And people could always go to the library or a friend's house to use their computer. That feels better for them.
It depends on every situation. So different.
Those are also good places to maybe have a go bag.
Mm-hmm.
So if you've got a friend's house, if you've got a family member, if you've got someone who's safe
mm-hmm.
Then you know, a safety deposit box or a gym.
Mm-hmm.
A membership.
Yeah.
Keeping some of your clothing.
Mm-hmm.
Especially identifying documents. Mm-hmm. You can, you can find new clothes. Most shelters have, you know, there's lots of clothing resources out there. Mm-hmm. But making sure that you have your identifying documents. Making sure that you have your medications.
Mm-hmm.
Because there can be a big lapse time in trying to get those back.
Right.
Um, so your really basic needs
mm-hmm.
Are really good to have in the separate areas that if you do need to leave, you have those available.
Right. And I had done a, a prior episode about building a go bag, so I'll make sure to drop that link into the show notes. But I love the idea of actually.
Having it somewhere else, like I carry mine in my car and that's fine for now. I'm not like, I'm in a, in a healthy relationship, but if I wasn't, like, what if they took it out or something? So yeah, it's a good idea to keep it somewhere safe where you know you can get, get to it.
Yeah. And whatever is the lowest escalation risk for you.
So you know, if they were to find it in your house. What is that escalation risk for you? How do you get out of that situation? Mm-hmm. What are some code words that you can have with your support systems?
Right.
No. Sounds like you've already had a, a separate episode on safety planning. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So I won't get into it too much.
Mm-hmm.
But definitely safety plans are a really big part to make sure that we're processing that. Also emotional safety planning.
Mm-hmm.
So what are different things that help you get through this? What are different affirmations? If you're stuck, doom scrolling all the time on social media, all the horrible things in the world.
Mm-hmm.
What can help you get to a more positive space? How do you curate a. Healthy platform online.
Mm-hmm.
All of those mental health things that I think sometimes fall secondary to that physical safety planning. Mm-hmm.
Yeah, for sure. But
is so important to building that confidence and that safety mm-hmm.
To leave. Mm-hmm. Being like, you don't deserve this. Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
It's not your fault.
Right. Exactly. And I wanted to ask also about the different faces of trauma. We were talking about the archetypes or generalizations of how people may socially adapt to trauma. Um, can people have characteristics of a couple of these or how does that work?
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. These are, these are archetypes. They aren't perfect little boxes. So, yeah, you might see someone have a few different traits of each. People might also have different traits in different scenarios, so they're not, you know, perfect representations that, you know, fit 100%, but oftentimes you'll be able to recognize some of these and either yourself or in someone else.
Mm-hmm. And it really is just a tool to make sure that we're, again, meeting it with. Not, not having bias.
Mm-hmm.
And trying to be patient and how we can best support each of those faces of trauma.
Mm-hmm.
I also, I mentioned in my bio that I work with youth led initiatives as well.
Mm-hmm. Love it.
And one of those groups is Take Action, which writes and acts in short films and they have one on faces of trauma and it shows four different youth who are in the same family.
Their parents are getting a divorce. It shows each of them with a different face of trauma and how they go through that. And what are some ways that people negatively respond to that? What are some ways that people positively respond to that? Mm-hmm. How can we support each other? Mm-hmm. And it's a really, it's a short film.
It's, I think 10 minutes, um, made by youth. It's really amazing.
Perfect.
I'll put it
in
the show notes. Yeah.
But I'm so proud of the youth who are creating safer communities and yes. Just using their voice.
Yeah.
It's so amazing and powerful.
Love it. And I'm cheering them on a hundred percent.
Yeah. Um.
I know that we only have a couple minutes left, but I, like I said, I still have your flyer and the other half has so much good stuff. So, um, you talk about coping strategies and you talk about, um, five Cs to address intrusive thoughts.
Is there anything, um, that you feel you could address in the last 10 minutes?
Um, yeah, I think. Oh boy. Uh, intrusive thoughts. So that's a big topic too.
We can touch on it briefly.
Okay.
Um, so oftentimes the most common cognitive distortion is kind of the Murphy's Law.
Everything that can go wrong will go wrong. The catastrophizing, and I think being able to recognize when you do have that. That negative frame sometimes that can actually stop us from being active listeners and actively taking in the real, um, stimuli and real conversation that's being had. And so looking through that distorted lens, trying to remember and recognize what is true in this.
Have I been through a situation like this before? How did it go? Right? How did it go wrong? How did I live through that? Cope through that? What would I want to have happened differently? You know, just looking at what are the facts of the situation? Why am I feeling the way I'm feeling? What if worst case scenario, mm-hmm.
You know, can I get through that? Are there tools that I have already in place? Mm-hmm. So that you aren't just going into that, you know, panic attack, anxiety, attack. I don't know what I'm going to do. Right. You have the tools in place.
Mm-hmm.
Oftentimes that cognitive distortion is, you know, a natural response to when things have gone wrong, wrong in the past, or that perfectionism or depression.
Mm-hmm.
And so really, yeah, it just comes down to see when that's happening, look at the facts, and then try to reframe or try to create solutions.
Mm-hmm. True. Yeah, I see your five Cs to address intrusive thoughts. Catch it. So that's what you're talking about there.
Mm-hmm.
Uh, to recognize it and then, um, control it.
So when you find yourself thinking negatively, say, stop to yourself. To stop the downward spiral of thoughts, right?
Mm-hmm.
And then challenge it. What kind of cognitive distortion is this? What's actually the reality? Think of other outcomes, repeat positive affirmations. I love the one that says, what if it turns out better than I thought?
Yeah.
Right. How often do we think that one, and then the last two Cs are, change it. Change the negative message you were saying to yourself to a more realistic or positive one. Um, and I think I mentioned this in the keynote when I was meeting you, that the, to me like yes, I can have all kinds of.
Affirmations for myself, but for the ones that don't feel true yet my brain, as soon as I say it, like if I said I am safe and I don't feel safe, my brain would be like, what? No. And so I fight it and that actually makes me feel worse. So for me, approaching it in a curious way and adding some curiosity to it, like, mm-hmm I am starting to feel safer, or it's possible for me to begin to feel safer or whatever.
I just know that that helped me.
Or even things like, I deserve safety.
Yeah.
Right. Or if you're not feeling that right now or you're not feeling like you're the greatest human, alive, you know, whatever it might be. Some of those cognitive distortions.
Mm-hmm.
Thing. I deserve safety. I deserve to have a good day.
Mm-hmm.
I deserve, you know, whatever it might be that away. 'cause I'm alive.
Because a lot of people might not feel that way. But if you just bring it down to the basics of, I'm alive, so I deserve to live in peace and safety.
Yeah. Bringing it down to that lowest common denominator, right? The I am a person, so this is true up me.
Mm-hmm.
And then building up to the, Hey, I have this self-confidence. I can conquer, you know, hard things. Mm-hmm. I can do this.
Right.
Whatever it can be.
Mm-hmm.
Or I'm in control of this part of my life.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Yeah, those affirmations are really important. I think also seeing, you know, are we depriving ourselves of opportunities?
Are we depriving ourselves of true joy because we're self-sabotaging?
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Self-sabotage is another normal defense mechanism.
Oh yeah.
It is a behavior. Yep. And it's because our body and our mind are not used to safety. Yep.
Exactly.
It's not used to health relationships. Yeah. And so if we're seeing that we feel uncomfortable,
right.
Existing in that space because we've adapted to an unsafe one.
Yep. Yeah.
So self-sabotage, pushing away that. Really supportive, kind person or destroying the new job opportunity, you know, whatever it might be.
Mm-hmm.
That is to return to a safety zone.
Mm-hmm.
It's to return to that comfort.
Mm-hmm.
But how do we acknowledge when we're doing that and how do we say, you know, what if it did go really well?
Yeah.
How do we retrain our bodies to feel safe in safe environments?
Mm-hmm.
Instead of the adaptation to an unhealthy environment.
Mm-hmm.
That's just, again, patience. It's understanding that that is normal, but seeing where that comes from.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And I, I know, um, for myself, you know, I realized that receiving was a problem for me because I.
Like in the words of my son when he was a toddler, I, I'd do it myself, you know? Yeah. Like, this is how I functioned before, and it, it worked, you know? And over time you start to realize, okay, I can't live like that.
Yeah.
And then, so like you were saying, the more you start to feel safe.
More safe and more safe. I feel like that aligns with receiving and becoming more and more okay with receiving.
Mm-hmm. Definitely. Yeah. It's just acknowledging that that vulnerability isn't a weapon someone's going to use.
Mm-hmm. If
that vulnerability doesn't make you less than, it doesn't make you unsafe.
Mm-hmm.
That vulnerability can be a good thing and it can be safe.
Mm-hmm.
That's just retraining 'cause again. These are all normal adaptations.
Yep.
Right. Your brain can physically change. We didn't talk about this. I wanna be respectful of time too, but the physical brain changes.
Mm-hmm.
Within, you know, the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus.
Yeah.
These areas literally shrink weak and change so that we can adapt to those unhealthy and sometimes. Unsafe environments.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
So we just need to teach our bodies it's okay to exist in a safe environment.
Mm-hmm.
How do we adapt to that?
Right. And giving ourselves patience. 'cause like you said, like it's my brain.
, You know, don't shame myself because. My brain like can't do that right now. So it's, you know, baby steps I need to take so yeah.
This automatically happens. It is our body deciding how to best keep us safe.
Mm-hmm.
And so oftentimes people will shame and blame themselves for that. They'll say, well, I can't. Remember anything anymore, or I'm just scared all the time, or you know, I froze. I didn't do anything when I could have thought something. You know, these are all normal and these are all things that are outside of our control.
Mm-hmm. They're
automatic within our body, and so really looking at those and saying, I'm thankful that I'm here. Yeah. I'm thankful that you are here.
Mm-hmm.
Right. You survived. And whatever that looked like for you was the right thing in that moment.
Mm-hmm.
And so again, just building that patience, understanding that, again, these are all normal, these are all part of that trauma adaptation.
Totally. I wish we had like five hours to talk about this.
I know. Yeah. Um. And I just wanted to wrap up the five Cs. The last one was cherish it. So enjoy your moment and remember to do self-care. So just in review the five Cs word, catch it, control it, challenge it, change it, and cherish it. So I love those.
And I had a question for you before we close about the four faces of trauma.
Yeah.
So looking at those. Be associated with fight, flight, freeze, and Fawn.
Yes.
So fight, flight and freeze are within our body. Those are things that we don't choose, um, versus appease. And then the face of trauma are more socially driven.
Mm-hmm.
But we might not construct these consciously mm-hmm. For how we adapt to social situations.
Right.
But they are. More in our control and they are more based on behaviors.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. Our people pleaser. Is that appease? Um, our perfectionist is more of that flight. So if you were look at the social of that, kind of the.
Escaping this situation working, distracting.
Mm-hmm.
And then our anger, face of trauma, that fight response.
Right.
Attack them before they can attack you.
Mm-hmm.
Um, and then that depressive face of trauma is also gonna be that freeze response.
Yeah, that makes sense.
And we see that when your body gets stuck in those, so that, um, fight and flight is that hyper arousal.
Mm-hmm. So your body's constantly looking for that danger and is amping up that adrenaline in your body. And so when you get stuck in that, that can result in things like heart issues, chronic pain. It can result in, you know, these different physical sides of being stuck in that hyper arousal that,
yeah,
too high out of your resilient zone.
Mm-hmm.
And then that depressive. Is gonna be more when you're stuck in that freeze response. Mm-hmm. For too long.
Yeah.
So that's gonna be that apathy, depression. Mm-hmm. This also relates to dissociation.
Mm-hmm.
Feeling outside of your body or feeling like not happening to you, or not knowing at the right time that something happened.
Mm-hmm.
So it does relate to those InBody fight flight and freeze as well.
Mm-hmm. Yeah, for sure. Okay. Well thank you for. Explaining that to us. And, um, let's end on something fun since this is such a heavy topic. Yeah. So you did some of your schooling in New York City? I
did.
Did you, did you live in New York City or were you in New New Jersey and you would go across?
I, I lived in New York City. I lived in Hell's Kitchen, um, a few blocks away from Times Square. Part of everything.
Wow. That's crazy.
Yeah, I, I absolutely loved it. It was busy all the time. There was so much to do. I really like theater and concerts, so kind of the hub of entertainment, of course. Mm-hmm. Um, so yeah, I loved living in New York City.
It was very fun.
Yeah,
I find a lot of my self care is kind of through concerts or through going to things,
uhhuh,
so I had a lot of access there.
That's so cool. Yay. Well, awesome. Well, thank you so much for your time with us. We appreciate you and, um, you serve people in the South Dakota or Nebraska, or which area?
So our shelter is in Rapid City, South Dakota. Um. So that's, we also have a satellite office in Pine Ridge, South Dakota.
Mm-hmm. People can come from other areas. Mm-hmm. So if South Dakota is a safe place for them
mm-hmm.
They can come to us.
Mm-hmm.
Uh, so we serve everywhere in that respect.
Mm-hmm.
As far as our shelter space, that is in Rapid State, South Dakota.
Got it.
So the top of Nebraska and the south part of South Dakota.
Yeah.
Cool.
And then we do prevention, education like this. So there are different webinars and different options that we can do as well.
Awesome. And you can do that for like somebody in California even.
Yeah, we've got, um, so I've done some for a team in Ohio, so different places.
Um, we can also do conference presentations, so just pending on, you know, financial availability to travel or to do webinars, things like that we can do. Mm-hmm.
Cool. All right. Well thank you so much for your time. We appreciate you and all your hard work.
Yeah. Thank you so much for having me.
Well, that's a wrap on our conversation with Ashley. I hope you found this as valuable as I did. We've been talking a lot about trauma lately, and while these conversations are so important, we are shifting gears next week. So who's ready to talk about dating drama next week? We're diving into those, are we dating the same guy Facebook pages?
You know, the ones where women help each other avoid the schmucks out there? Yeah, it's definitely gonna be a juicy one, so you don't wanna miss it.
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