Healing from Childhood Trauma - w/ Past Tense Author Sacha Mardou

Therapy in a Nutshell

Therapy in a Nutshell -Emma McAdam

Mental Health, Education, Health & Fitness:mental Health, Self-improvement, Health & Fitness

4.8 • 658 Ratings

🗓️ 26 September 2025

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sacha Mardou wrote/drew an amazing book about healing from childhood trauma and her work in therapy, specifically IFS or Internal Family Systems Therapy. Sacha's website: https://ifscomics.com/ Learn the skills to Regulate your Emotions, join the membership: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com/membership Sacha Mardou has a history of a dysfunctional family, childhood trauma and some painful experiences. And she wrote an incredible graphic novel- Past Tense- where she shared her experience going through therapy and healing childhood trauma with two therapists using various models, including Internal Family Systems, parts work, EMDR, and other trauma therapies. Looking for affordable online counseling? My sponsor, BetterHelp, connects you to a licensed professional from the comfort of your own home. Try it now for 10% off your first month: https://betterhelp.com/therapyinanutshell Learn more in one of my in-depth mental health courses: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com Support my mission on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/therapyinanutshell Sign up for my newsletter: https://www.therapyinanutshell.com Check out my favorite self-help books: https://kit.co/TherapyinaNutshell/best-self-help-books Therapy in a Nutshell and the information provided by Emma McAdam are solely intended for informational and entertainment purposes and are not a substitute for advice, diagnosis, or treatment regarding medical or mental health conditions. Although Emma McAdam is a licensed marriage and family therapist, the views expressed on this site or any related content should not be taken for medical or psychiatric advice. Always consult your physician before making any decisions related to your physical or mental health. In therapy I use a combination of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Systems Theory, positive psychology, and a bio-psycho-social approach to treating mental illness and other challenges we all face in life. The ideas from my videos are frequently adapted from multiple sources. Many of them come from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, especially the work of Steven Hayes, Jason Luoma, and Russ Harris. The sections on stress and the mind-body connection derive from the work of Stephen Porges (the Polyvagal theory), Peter Levine (Somatic Experiencing) Francine Shapiro (EMDR), and Bessel Van Der Kolk. I also rely heavily on the work of the Arbinger Institute for my overall understanding of our ability to choose our life's direction. And deeper than all of that, the Gospel of Jesus Christ orients my personal worldview and sense of security, peace, hope, and love https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/comeuntochrist/believe If you are in crisis, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org or 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or your local emergency services. Copyright Therapy in a Nutshell, LLC

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to another episode of the Therapy in a Nutshell podcast. I'm Emma McAdam and I'm a licensed marriage and family therapist.
0:07.0	And this podcast is all about taking the life-changing, but usually kind of complicated topics of therapy and boiling them down into simple, easy to understand concepts that you can use in your daily life.
0:19.0	If you find today's episode as helpful to you,
0:20.9	please pass it on to someone else who could benefit from it as well. Each podcast episode
0:24.8	comes from a corresponding video you can find on the Therapy in a Nutshell YouTube channel.
0:29.2	Also, these podcasts are educational and don't replace the advice or direction you may be
0:33.7	receiving from a therapist or other health professionals. Now please enjoy the episode.
0:38.8	I had a father who's a felon and my therapist was quite clear like obviously you don't want
0:43.8	contact with him and I did not. But he helped me work with my dad's stuff as well by having me
0:49.7	kind of engaged in imagination like well if my dad was here what would I say to him? And that was like
0:53.7	a very revealing answer for me. You know know I kind of discovered that I was actually carrying really deep
0:58.9	pawns about my dad's abandonment and his behavior and it was the way my therapist put it was it's like
1:04.8	okay you're not opening a door to your dad like he's not going to be in your life again but you can open
1:09.7	a door to your feelings about him and that again that was a really big moment when it's like, oh, all these
1:14.7	things I'm feeling about my dad, I can actually feel them and process them.
1:25.3	Today we have a really special guest on our show. Her name is Sasha Mardot, and she is the author of this book, Past Tense.
1:31.5	And you can see, I've got all these post-it notes in it because I read this book in about two hours.
1:35.3	Because, well, one, it's awesome.
1:36.9	And two, it's a graphic novel, so it's not as dense as it looks.
1:40.0	But she drew pictures and journaled through her entire process of going to therapy for some
1:46.7	pretty painful stuff from her past, including child abuse, domestic violence, and other forms
1:52.8	of trauma. And so she works through her relationships and her therapy and everything in this
	...

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