Episode 278: Looking Back at Our Trauma to Move Forward (w/ Byron Kehler)
The Forgotten Podcast
The Forgotten Initiative
4.9 • 532 Ratings
🗓️ 15 September 2025
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
“When trauma is our teacher, we are ill-equipped to live healthy lives in healthy environments. What we learn, we live.”
We know that trauma often accompanies children when they enter the child welfare system. Usually, we talk about the effects of trauma and how caregivers can respond with support. Today, we’re looking at trauma through the lens of personal history to understand how individuals can discover, address, and heal the trauma in their own stories.
Joining us to offer insights on “Story-Informed Trauma Therapy” (SITT), the method he created, is Byron Kehler. Byron is a Trauma Therapist with a private practice in Portland, Oregon. He’s here to help us understand the stories that lie behind hard behaviors and explore how we can respond with compassion, wisdom, and hope.
In this episode, you’ll hear how best to help children while keeping their stories in mind, the power of helping children who have endured trauma maintain a sense of control, why our pasts can have such a big influence on our patterns today, and much more.
Find resources mentioned and more in the show notes for this episode: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/byron-kehler-278/
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | We're actually teaching children what they should have been learning in their earlier experience, |
| 0:13.6 | but we're bringing that graduate level skill set to helping kids develop those skills |
| 0:19.8 | that they're going to need later on as adults. |
| 0:22.0 | It makes foster homes, classrooms for future relational successes. |
| 0:29.9 | Hey, it's Jamie Cabe. |
| 0:32.1 | Welcome to the Forgotten Podcast, where we are highlighting the stories of the people of foster care. We want to bring you |
| 0:39.3 | hope and encouragement in your journey and help you support the foster care community where you live. |
| 0:45.5 | This podcast is a resource of the Forgotten Initiative. Learn more about our work across America |
| 0:51.5 | and how you can get involved by visiting the forgotteninitiative.org. |
| 0:56.9 | And please consider joining with us on mission with a gift of any amount. |
| 1:02.1 | You can do this by texting the word forgotten to 44321. |
| 1:07.9 | Okay, it's time. Let's do this. |
| 1:11.2 | Byron Kailer is a trauma therapist based in Portland, Oregon, with over 45 years of experience |
| 1:29.1 | working with survivors of abuse and early childhood trauma. He is the developer of story-informed |
| 1:35.8 | trauma therapy, a model that's been used across the country that's proven effective in reducing |
| 1:41.3 | PTSD symptoms and improving the lives of trauma survivors. |
| 1:46.8 | Byron has trained therapists, churches, and ministry leaders around the world, and he is here |
| 1:51.9 | today to help us better understand the stories behind hard behaviors and how we can respond |
| 1:57.7 | with compassion, wisdom, and hope. |
| 2:00.5 | Byron, it's a privilege to have you on. Thank you. |
| 2:03.7 | Thank you very much. And I'm happy to be here. I am so curious about how you got into this work. |
| 2:09.3 | I mean, you've been doing at this for over 45 years and trauma wasn't even, I mean, it's become |
... |
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