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.
Episodes
25 episodes
Tennille - Pink Boxing Gloves
At 41, Tennille went from setting up surgical trays for breast cancer reconstruction to sitting on the other side of the operating table with a diagnosis of her own. After twenty-five years as a surgical technologist, she recognized the warning...
Suzette - They Need Love
Healing gets strange when the chaos finally stops and you start missing it.That’s where Valerie and Suzette go in this conversation, tracing recovery beyond “not drinking” and into the deeper work of emotional sobriety, shame, and the pa...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Melissa - A Sound Bath Sent Me Back In Time
What if healing doesn’t come the way you expected—but reaches you anyway?In this episode, Valerie sits down with Melissa —a Navy veteran, mother of three, and a fierce advocate with a servant’s heart—for a conversation that is as honest ...
Jason - Staying Human Under Pressure: What Trauma Surgery Teaches Us About Leadership, Presence, and Carrying the Weight
Defiance of Silence is a place for real stories of trauma and healing - where lived experience matters more than advice. What holds a team steady when the stakes rise and the room goes quiet?In this episode, Valerie sits down...
Ayana - When Resilience Isn’t Enough: Choosing Transilience
Defiance of Silence is a place for real stories of trauma and healing—where lived experience matters more than advice.Start with a breath. Then meet Ayana—a Navy veteran, therapist, author, caregiver, and peer support leader whose story ...
Lauren - Not at the Expense of Me
What happens when the story you’ve carried for years—I should have known, I should have stopped it—meets the truth your body has been holding all along?In this episode, Valerie sits with Lauren—a mother, veteran, and grassroots ...
Victoria - Safety First: Science, Heart, Humor & EMDR
Ready for a gentler way to face hard memories without getting stuck retelling the same story?In this episode of Defiance of Silence, we sit down with Victoria Garcia, a warm, down-to-earth therapist with over ten years in the me...
Nicole - Breaking The Vow Of Silence
Silence can protect us for a while—but eventually, it costs everything. In this powerful episode, Valerie sits down with Nicole, a decorated veteran, detective, and survivor whose 26-year career in law enforcement and the military was defined b...
Brad - Not Broken: Finding What’s Already Inside You
What if grief isn’t only about death, but about every quiet loss we were taught to outrun?We open Season Two with a grounded, powerful conversation with Brad Gallup — veteran, transformational coach, and equine-guided educator. Together,...
Valerie - What I Learned in the Silence: Season One Reflections
What if the most healing thing we can offer isn’t advice, but presence? We close our first season by honoring the stories that found a home here and the witnesses who listened with care. From sexual trauma to the quiet, everyday work of survivi...
Lauren - When Presence is the Medicine
Start with a breath, stay for the truth. Valerie sits down with Lauren, a licensed professional counselor and former child life specialist, to unpack what it really means to be a sacred witness—how to show up for survivors without losing yourse...
Becca - Radical Acceptance & Forgiveness: A Practice That Softens Shame
Some stories crack the shell and let the light in. Valerie sits with Becca—a tattoo artist, mom, and survivor—who turns the old script of silence on its head and shows how radical self-forgiveness can rebuild a life. We move through early viola...
Rachael - Loving a Survivor - A Sacred Witness at Home
What does it take to love someone through trauma without losing yourself? We sit down with Rachel—forensic nurse, educator, and secondary survivor—to unpack the messy, courageous work of building safety, voice, and trust when PTSD lives in the ...
Jeanine - The Beauty of Self Compassion
Silence can isolate — but it can also safeguard a story until it’s ready to be spoken. In this episode, we sit with Jeanine McNeill, CPS—an Army Veteran, Women Veterans Program Certified Peer Specialist, and Women’s Health Lia...
Lucy - The Invisible Weight of Silence
When the US Army stamps your discharge Chapter 8 and strips your benefits, it’s easy to believe your service didn’t count. Lucy wouldn’t accept that ending. She walks us through growing up in chaos, surviving assault in uniform, and carrying a ...
Halie - Burnout to Breath: A Trauma Nurse on Healing, Community, and Coming Back to the Body
What holds a caregiver together when the work starts to pull them apart? We sit down with Halie—trauma nurse, survivor, and seeker—to explore the quiet, practical ways she rebuilt herself after moral injury, burnout, and years of outrunning her...
Susie - I Refuse to be a Victim
A two‑piece swimsuit turned see‑through. A cabin in the woods. Years of silence that felt safer than the truth. Susan joins us to trace a line from early humiliation and assault to a life rebuilt on wise vulnerability, safe witnessing, and a st...
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Lia - Write Your Own Story
What happens when your very survival depends on disconnecting from your own body? For Paralympic champion and Army veteran Lia Coryell, this wasn't a philosophical question—it was her childhood reality.Born into extreme poverty in north...
Amber - The Sacred Art of Witnessing
"The body keeps the score." This phrase has become commonplace in trauma-informed circles, but what does it actually mean when your physical symptoms have emotional roots? How do we become truly present in bodies that have stored years of unpro...
Valerie - The Birth of A Sacred Witness
In this first episode Valerie shares her personal story of surviving sexual trauma, breaking the silence and discovering the power of being witnessed. Hear how being witnessed led to a spiritual awakening that ultimately led to the birth of Def...
