Ep 22 - When Childhood Trauma Follows You Into Adulthood: From Fear to Freedom

Out on the Skinny Branches with Jim Pehkonen and Ingrid Rivas
What happens when a child grows up surrounded by fear, anger, addiction, and uncertainty, then carries those experiences into adulthood without understanding their impact? In this deeply personal episode of Out on the Skinny Branches, Jim Pehkonen sits down with Ingrid Rivas, whose extraordinary journey began in El Salvador, where she witnessed her grandfather's death at just four years old. After immigrating to America, what should have been a fresh beginning became years of instability, domestic violence, and responsibilities no child should have to carry. Ingrid shares how growing up in survival mode created overwhelming anger, anxiety, and eventually a crippling fear of death. Her story raises a powerful question: How much of what we struggle with today was shaped by experiences we never had the opportunity to process as children?
But this isn't simply a story about childhood trauma. It's a conversation about courage, spiritual discovery, and the unexpected paths that can lead us toward healing. Ingrid describes how listening to hundreds of near-death experiences helped transform her relationship with mortality, while Jim reveals his own remarkable near-death experience, including an encounter with his late father that forever changed his understanding of life and death. Together, they explore the invisible weight of childhood wounds, the importance of addressing anxiety, and the possibility of finding peace after years of emotional turmoil. If you've ever struggled with unexplained fear, carried anger you couldn't understand, or wondered whether the wounds of your past still influence your present, this is a conversation worth hearing. Sometimes the greatest freedom begins when we finally understand what we've been carrying and realize we no longer have to carry it alone.