From Tragedy to Purpose - Melissa Armstrong

CONNECT WITH MELISSA:  https://holistichealthbymelissa.com/

What if your greatest pain was actually preparing you for your greatest purpose?

In this powerful episode of Roar of Judah, Dr. Mike sits down with registered nurse Melissa Armstrong, whose life was marked by trauma, anxiety, and heartbreaking loss—from a chaotic childhood to a devastating tragedy that changed everything.

But what happened next will leave you speechless…

After years of struggling with PTSD, depression, and searching for healing, Melissa encountered Jesus—and her life has never been the same.

🔥 In this episode, you’ll discover:

How God can redeem even the darkest moments
The connection between trauma, anxiety, and identity
A powerful, faith-based approach to healing
Why evangelism doesn’t look the same for everyone
How YOU can start sharing your faith using your unique gifts

Dr. Mike also shares eye-opening insights on evangelism—breaking the myth that you have to be bold or confrontational to make an impact. Whether you're an introvert, a thinker, or someone who shares through relationships, God can use YOU.

💥 This isn’t just a story… it’s a wake-up call.

👉 If you’ve ever struggled with anxiety, trauma, or wondered how God could use your story—this episode is for you.

🙌 CALL TO ACTION

👍 Like, Comment & Subscribe for more powerful testimonies
📩 Want to share your story? Visit: Roar of Judah website
🔥 Follow Dr. Mike for more faith + healing content

The Roar of Judah exists to share real stories of God at work today through powerful testimonies, inspiring interviews, and faith-filled conversations.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to the Roar of Judah. Our mission is to hear God's voice above the noise of this world. And now here's your host, Dr. Mike. Welcome everybody to another episode of The Roar of Judah. I'm your host, Dr. Mike, and I'm very excited for my guest today. As many of you know, uh I'm an anxiety specialist, and uh this person also has a method that they use that the Lord's given her to help people with anxiety. And as I look at my own program, and you know, scripture says in Philippians 4, 6 to be anxious about nothing. And uh, you know, there's ways God's given us to flesh that out and to be able to help people. And I'm always looking for ways that I can better help my clients as well. So I'm very excited to hear her approach and what she's doing with people, and also to hear her own story and uh how I'm guessing anxiety has impacted her own life and how she's found recovery as well. And uh, she's a registered nurse, and please welcome with me Melissa Armstrong. Hi, Melissa.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

Hey, Dr. Mike.

SPEAKER_00 1:06

Hey, so great to have you today. And uh just like all guests, anything you want to share about where you're living in the world, what you're doing in life, anything about your family, would love to hear.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

Yeah. Um, thanks for having me. I'm it's such an honor to be here and to be able to share my my story on your platform and um just speak life into your listeners. So yeah, I'm uh I'm Melissa, I'm a registered nurse by trade. I've been a nurse since 2010. Um, and I live grew up most of my life grew up in Southern California and San Diego. Um, and eight or nine years ago, my husband and I moved to Colorado. So we live in northern Colorado and farm country. Um, and we have two little boys, they're five and ten, and they're wild. And that's a lot of my work, my my life is devoted to my children and my family, and then um yeah, doing doing the the health stuff also.

SPEAKER_00 2:06

Okay, yeah, yeah. And and be excited to hear about your ministry and everything you're doing. But like most guests, everybody likes to come on here because they have a story that they want to share and that may be able to help and encourage others. And uh so we would love to hear what God's put on your heart to share with listeners today.

SPEAKER_01 2:24

Yeah, so my story really starts for me. I have to start all the way back at the beginning. Um, when I was young, I was uh my parents were both very addicted to drugs, and um they there was you know, everything that goes along with with drug addiction, there's like periods of homelessness and you know, lack of resources, lack of food, um chaos, really, like people in and out of the house. Sometimes my dad was gone for days at a time, and um, you know, there just it was just a lot of chaos. My parents divorced when I was six, and my dad left and never came back. And um, as a result of my mom's own, you know, past um and stuff she hadn't fully processed through, she was really emotionally unavailable and verbally abusive. Um, she was raising, I'm one of four um it second in birth order, and she was overwhelmed. And I have a disabled sister, so that just you know, my sister has Down syndrome. So that just added to it. And then um being a single mom of four kids with in Southern California with not a whole lot of resources and um her own trauma that she hadn't, you know, dealt with um led her to be that way, and um, so that was much of my like young childhood. Um always I kind of learned from a really young age that I had to perform to be seen by her. Um, and I just wanted so badly to be loved by her, um, and just like you know, seen and recognized. So I would often like clean the house and and wait for for her to come downstairs so I could surprise her. And um, you know, always did really well in school so I could prove to her that I was worthy of her love. And um, and then when I was 15, I was there was a school shooting at my high school. I was friends with the shooter. He was at my house the night before it happened, so it was really I mean, it was hard on everybody, um, but like it was really close to home for me. And I did what every normal 15-year-old person does in a situation like that. I blamed myself. I it was obviously my fault because he was my friend and he was at my house the night before it happened, and I had no idea that it was gonna happen. Um, and so that led me down a really dark path for real for many years. Um, I had severe um post-traumatic stress disorder from that. I had flashbacks, insomnia, um, horrible, you know, anxiety, depression. I had multiple suicidal attempts um and was hospitalized on several occasions for that. And my mother and my relationship continued to um grow more and more distant. You know, I was I think there was kind of the normal child teenage angst kind of stuff, but then there was also this added um traumatic component, and then my mom's inability to really like be present for me because she was still dealing with her own stuff. And um, I feel like kind of when I was coming out of, you know, she I did go to counseling and and I was put on like antipsychotics and lots of different medications um that really made me kind of more like a zombie than anything, and I just really wasn't able to feel much of anything. Um and I feel like I was my life actually kind of seemed like it was looking up. I graduated high school, I met my my now husband, um, you know, I was 16, met him, um, graduated high school, got a job, things started to to seem like they were get going in the right direction. I started night school, um, doing, you know, just general education and college. So I had no idea really what where I was gonna go um with that. But um then when I turned 18, my brother, who was five years older than me, was killed in a tragic accident right in front of me. Um, so yeah, my life exploded in that moment in those few, you know, days after that. Um, he was declared brain dead and we donated his organs. Um, that wasn't a fat that's not a fast process. Like it's not something that happens really quickly. It takes some time to match the organs and you know, all the um stuff. So when we were in the hospital, the nurses who were there just took such great care of myself and my family. And I was having a particularly difficult time understanding like what does this mean? Like he's brain dead, but like he's right here. Like, how is he not alive? Like, because he seems alive, right? Um, and so they just did their best, you know, and and loved on us, and they would bring us like little Dixie cups of I never left his bedside. Um, so they would bring us like little Dixie cups of cranberry juice and um, you know, graham crackers and just like try to get me to like, honey, you should probably go sleep, like, you know. Um, so they were angels on earth during that time. And about three weeks after his, you know, after he was um we donated his organs and he was taken off life support and all of that. About three weeks later, I just kind of in a moment of I don't know, just the Holy Spirit drop, I guess, is I was like, I'm gonna be a nurse. And I just declared right in that moment that I was gonna be a nurse. And I told my mom, I'm gonna go to nursing school. And uh I was I was in college. I was I was doing general education in college, so I declared my major as nursing and I went full steam ahead. Um kind of yeah, and then you know, that process getting through nursing school, like looking back on that, I'm I don't even know how I did that really, because I was in such a bad spot mentally, emotionally, physically. I was on multiple different prescription medications to manage my symptoms, um, but I felt awful. Um, I was barely surviving. Um, I I really, the Lord's provision is the only way I was able to get through those days. I didn't even know the Lord at that time. I didn't come to know the Lord until 10 years ago. Um so yeah, I went through nursing school and then um became a nurse 16 years ago, and everything evolved from there.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

And when you say everything involved evolved from there, like what where is life taking you since you've become a nurse?

SPEAKER_01 9:40

Yeah, so when I was 24, that's when I became a nurse 16 years ago. I just turned 40. So um I started my career in traditional nursing. I thought, well, I want to go like work in the ICU. That's where that's where my brother was. Like that's where that's where I want to be. I want to help people in the worst time of their life. And um, so that's what I did. I I set my sights on, I really loved kids. Um, I've always loved loved kids. So I decided to become a uh a nurse in the pediatric ICU at the trauma center in um where I was living in Southern California. And um there's two spots, two positions open. There was over 500 applicants, and I was like, I'm getting one of those spots, and I did. And so I worked there for um about six years in that role, in the in the RN role. And in hindsight, I now know that that was probably not the best job for me because I was um still very much dealing with my own trauma, um, still processing through so much that I had art gone through, and being in that environment, like you can't unsee some of that stuff. Um, and there's nothing more incredible than witnessing like a child come back from the brink of death and walk out of the ICU, which I saw many times, but there was also many stories that didn't end that way, you know? Yeah, um, so it was really a hard place for me to be emotionally and mentally. Um, and so I ended up leaving that position, and I was also kind of feeling the pull of like, is this really what nursing is? Because I feel like there's supposed to be something more, like I'm supposed to be doing more. And and I never I didn't really know how to, you know, I couldn't articulate what that meant in those moments. I just knew that it wasn't where I was supposed to be. Um, and I ended up moving um to another position that was also in it um in a hospital, like inpatient bedside nursing. Um, had my first child in 2016. And then the day that I came back from medical leave, I or from um uh maternity leave, I was injured on the job. I fell and hurt my hip. So then I was put on modified duty. And on modified duty, I met this woman, Lisa Blanchard, she's one of my best friends. She introduced me to the Lord. Um I she in a happenstance conversation, the first 20 minutes of meeting her, she said that she had Bible study that night. And I said, Oh, I would love to read the Bible sometime. Where do you even start? Like, how long have you been reading the Bible? And I had all these questions for her. And um she's like, Oh, well, I'll read the Bible with you. And so we exchanged phone numbers and she came over to my house, you know, the next week and we started reading the Bible. And a few weeks later I um accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior and um asked him to dwell inside of me, and my life has never been the same. But I started in my career, I really started to notice a bigger gap between what I thought I was gonna be doing and what I was actually doing. And so I spent the mech the next many years at that that was about the time that we moved here to Colorado, and I spent a lot of time moving around, different jobs, kind of never really feeling like I was supposed to be where I or where I where that I was where I was supposed to be. Um and then in 2019, a series of things happened in the organization that I was working with. I was working in outpatient, um, like a clinic job, like primary care, you know. I hated my job. I was literally a number. Like the organization could not have cared less about me. I often joke, it's kind of a morbid joke, but I think like I could have literally died in a in a back room somewhere and they would have like not even cared. They would have been like, okay, where's like the next person, you know? They wouldn't even have looked for me. Like they didn't, they I they could not have cared less about me as an organization. Um, and that was a really terrible feeling. And um, I feel like I just worked so hard for, you know, for the patients, for the, you know, trying to meet metrics and doing all these things. And um the gap was getting bigger and bigger, and I was like crying every day I was going to work. And um day I just said to my girlfriend who I worked with, I was like, I wish I could just be like a holistic nurse. And she was like, Okay, so like go do that. Like, what go, why don't you do that then? You know? And I was like, Well, I don't know, is that even a thing? And so I just googled holistic nurse and found out that it is a thing, and um, which is funny because nursing, like in nursing school, they actually teach you that nursing is like a holistic profession, meaning that we like address the whole person, right? But in reality, that's really not you're not able to do so much of like the lifestyle and the mindset and the you know that kind of stuff. But so I just it it it I found out that it was a thing. I 2020 expedited my leaving that um model, that traditional medical model, you know, with with COVID and everything. I was like, I can't do this anymore. I'm not I'm not doing this. And um I left the system and opened my own practice um to help people in a way that I feel like I'm actually supposed to be helping people. I think this is my calling. Everything that I went through, Romans 8.28 is my favorite verse in the Bible because it says God works all things for the good of those who love him, who are called according according to his will. And I know that God didn't cause any of those things to happen in my life, like the abuse and the shooting and my brother's death and all of that. But I know that he used it for my good, for the good of you know, everybody that I come in contact with. So now I can share my story and I can help people in the way that I feel like this is what I'm supposed to be doing on the planet. Like this is my calling, sharing my story, sharing the the idea of healing from a natural way, like a natural perspective. And um yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:44

Okay, yeah, and uh I I know now that you've kind of evolved into coaching, um, I I know this might be a hard question to answer, but I'm I'm one of the few like therapists. When somebody comes and sees me and I meet them for the first time and hear all the issues they have, like I'll give them a solid number. Like we're we're gonna meet nine times, and this is what we're gonna do all nine times, we're gonna meet 15 times, and this is what we're gonna do each time for those 15 times. Like and sometimes things come up, sometimes you know, some tragedy happens or crisis, certain you know, things adjust. But for the most part, when somebody reaches out to you for coaching, what does that look like? How many times are people typically seeing you, and what exactly are you doing with them?

SPEAKER_01 17:27

Yeah, so I work with women to heal the physical and emotional symptoms of trauma. So one of the things that trauma does to us is it makes us feel really alone, like we're the only person going through this, you know, there's nobody else that can understand. It also changes who we think we are. So it really distorts our identity and and makes us believe lies. Um, and I think that what I see over and over again in women is that they believe the lie that like I'm not enough, I'm not worthy. Um, even though they're believers and they know that like the Holy Spirit, you know, like God created them, they still have this deep-rooted belief that I am not worthy. Um and then because and then the other thing is the the trauma makes people um, we haven't talked about the nervous system at all in this conversation yet, but the nervous system um is a is a big pillar of my um uh of my programs um because trauma makes the nervous system act as if you are living inside of trauma still, like the trauma is still existing, even though it's done, even though it's over. But we get stuck in like fight or flight or freeze, and we can't get out of that. So we start repeating patterns. Our nervous system responds in day-to-day life, like when you're driving on the freeway or face-to-face with your boss, or you know, in a situation or somebody says something rude at Costco, like you're, you know, you're all of a sudden put right back in and you're responding as if you're in the trauma in real time. Um, so teaching, so that's really what I focus on with women is teaching them to regulate their nervous system, root their identity in Christ and the truth of who Christ says they are. So return back to their true identity, because their identity is so muddled down with all of these lies that they've believed about themselves, um for you know, from trauma, past experiences, like things that they've keep telling themselves over and over, oh well, I'm just you know, I'm just an emotional person. Like, do you really want to be an emotional person? Because like you don't have to carry that identity anymore if you don't want. Um so that's the bulk of how I um help women. There's a whole other side of it that is um like the physical stuff, right? So like trauma being being in that fight or flight state for so many for for so long, decades usually, creates a lot of physical symptoms. So women have a lot of the most common symptoms that I see are pain uh of any origin. So like migraines, back pain, joint pain, fibromyalgia, um, stuff like that, gut symptoms. So like bloating, constipation, diarrhea, IBS, um, those things. Um, and then there's other things like skin problems and um, you know, various different like um autoimmune conditions. We know that like trauma stored in the body in women manifests a lot of times as autoimmune. So the emotional piece of it, the identity, the nervous system is is the first step always, I believe. And then this, and then we have this whole other piece that's like your lifestyle, your your nutrition, your um uh, you know, de how is your body detoxing? How are we supporting your liver? How are you sleeping? All of the foundational health stuff. So I go through all of that with like my private one-to-one clients. Um, I I also have a group program and we do the whole the same thing. The difference is just the access to me. Um, so all of my programs are six months because I have never seen like I just don't think that women can get through all of that. Cause I'm not doing supplements, I'm not doing pills, I'm not doing you know, protocols, I'm doing like personalized, like, what do you need to help get you to move the needle? Um yeah, so six to twelve months is typical for women to work with me, although I have clients who have worked with. Me for two years. Um, and I do have women who who come in and and are done within you know four or five months.

unknown 22:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 22:08

And and hopefully, you know, for our listeners, if they made it this far in, they're really relating to your story and what you're sharing. Um I'm hoping that you offer some kind of virtual option for people. And how would people be able to reach out to you and find you and connect with you?

SPEAKER_01 22:23

Yeah, so my website is the best, uh, holistichealth by Melissa.com. Um, I'm also on social media at Holistic Health by Melissa is my Instagram and my um uh Facebook accounts. I also have TikTok, but I don't really do that very much. I'm a little bit too old for that. I haven't quite got into the TikTok. Um yeah, that's the best way to get a hold of me, my website or social media.

SPEAKER_00 22:49

Perfect. And uh, whatever platform people are listening on, that'll be highlighted in the description. And uh thank you, Melissa, for coming on today, sharing your heart, sharing your ministry. And uh, you know, thank you for following God's calling to help women who have gone through trauma as you have yourself, and you know, as you found freedom and you know, prayers that you continue to help women around the world find freedom as well. Yeah, thank you. Thanks so much for watching this episode of the Roar of Judas Show with Dr. Mike. I hope you are inspired and encouraged to grow in your own faith. Please follow us online. We're on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, your favorite podcast platform, all under Roar of Judas Show. Also, we'd love to hear from our viewers. Leave a comment. Uh if you want to email us, we're Roarofjudashow at gmail.com. You can also visit us online. The website is www.roarofjudashow.com. On there, there's a link to our online store. I'm a licensed professional counselor. I specialize in anxiety treatment. You can find my Freedom from Anxiety video program that's already helped thousands of people. Also, I have a 90-day Freedom from Anxiety devotional book. We also have all kinds of merchandise to help you share your faith, and I hope you'll check that out. We also believe that we all have a story that declares God's glory. If you'd like to be a guest on the show, we'd love to have you. On the website, towards the bottom, there's a little form that you can fill out, and we would love to hear your story. So may the Lord bless you, may the Lord keep you, may his face shine upon you as you let your light shine so others would see your good deeds and worship your Father in heaven. This is Dr. Mike signing off. Until next time.