Childhood Trauma, Chronic Illness & the Long Work of Healing with Antoinette Thompson

Childhood trauma and chronic illness can shape a life in ways that are rarely visible. In this episode, Antoinette Thompson shares how early sexual abuse, years of silence, and a diagnosis of ankylosing spondylitis led her into survival mode — and eventually toward a slow, honest process of healing.

Antoinette reflects on growing up in a strict Catholic Maltese household in Australia, excelling in a corporate finance career before a workplace injury and chronic pain changed everything. Alongside physical illness, she carried unspoken trauma, family expectations, and the pressure to keep appearances intact.

After the deaths of both her parents, a profound inner shift began.  What followed was not an escape from pain, but a gradual reclaiming of truth, self-trust, and inner authority through meditation, metaphysical study, and deep emotional healing.

Key Takeaways

• Childhood trauma and the long-term cost of silence
• Chronic illness and identity loss
• Living in survival mode and victim consciousness
• The emotional impact of incurable conditions
• Healing without spiritual bypass
• Reclaiming inner authority after loss
• Turning lived adversity into grounded wisdom

A grounded, deeply human conversation about what healing can actually look like when life doesn’t reset — but slowly re-forms.

About Antoinette Thompson: Growing up in Australia and with a Maltese, Catholic upbringing, Antoinette experienced trauma in her early life and decades of chronic illness. Eventually, Antoinette found her way back to her soul and purpose after discovering a new way of being through her own healing journey and recognising the gift in her adversity. As an Intuitive and certified Andean Shamanic Energy Medicine and Reiki Practitioner, Antoinette utilises her various skills and modalities to support and guide others to activate the healer within to become one with their highest versions of themselves and live a soul-aligned purposeful life. Her life and Holistic practice are deeply rooted in her own experience of transforming pain into purpose. She also offers this wisdom through her own Oracle Deck “Pain to Purpose Healing Oracle.” 

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