Defiance of Silence - A Sacred Witness

Defiance of Silence — A Sacred Witness is a space for human stories.

Hosted by Valerie — a U.S. Army veteran, nurse, survivor, and trauma-informed witness — this podcast explores the quiet things people carry and what happens when they finally have a place to tell the truth about them.

Through honest conversations with survivors, veterans, caregivers, healthcare workers, healers, advocates, and everyday people, we explore trauma, grief, moral injury, recovery, identity, caregiving, resilience, and the many ways human beings learn to keep going after life changes them.

Some stories center on trauma. Others explore healing, service, loss, faith, purpose, or the unseen weight carried by those who witness suffering every day.

Here, we don’t rush stories.
We don’t fix people.
We witness them.

This is not therapy.
This is not performance.
This is a space where truth can land without spectacle.

A field of human stories.
A place to feel less alone.

Take what steadies you. Leave what doesn’t.

New episodes every other week.

Podcasting since 2025 • 23 episodes

Defiance of Silence - A Sacred Witness

Latest Episodes

Breanna - Moral Injury

The hardest part of trauma is not always what happened. Sometimes it's what it taught you to believe about yourself.In this episode, Valerie sits down with Breanna —a Navy veteran, suicide prevention specialist, and moral injury speciali...

June 16, 2026 • Season 3 • Episode 1 • 1:22:26

Valerie - What Stayed: Season Two Reflections

In this solo reflection, Valerie looks back on the conversations that shaped Season 2 and the themes that kept surfacing beneath the stories: grief, survival, caregiving, moral injury, nervous system healing, and the quiet weight so many people...

June 03, 2026 • Season 2 • 30:18

Kim - When Healers Need Healing

People trained to save everyone else rarely get asked a simple question:Where do you put your own pain?In this season finale, Valerie sits down with Kim —known to many as Captain Kim—a U.S. Army Veteran, former combat medic and emerg...

May 20, 2026 • Season 2 • Episode 10 • 1:12:22

Lisa - Not in Crisis Enough

Four months for an appointment can feel like a door slamming the moment you finally admit you need help.In this episode, we sit down with Lisa—a licensed clinical social worker, Army veteran, and trauma survivor—to talk about what breaks...

May 06, 2026 • Season 2 • Episode 9 • 55:21

Traci - The Call No Parent Wants

The phone rings at 6:30am.You don’t recognize the number.Minutes later, everything changes.In this episode Traci takes us inside the day her 19-year-old son Trent suffered sudden cardiac arrest during a Navy fitness assessment...

April 21, 2026 • Season 2 • Episode 8 • 1:10:31