Healing From Childhood Trauma

“How Can You Still Love Me?” — a new pod­cast episode pro­duced by Lemon­a­da Media with sup­port from the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion — sheds light on young people’s need for empa­thy and heal­ing as they move from fos­ter care into per­ma­nent rela­tion­ships with sup­port­ive adults.

The episode is fea­tured in I Need To Ask You Some­thing, a pod­cast series in which young peo­ple ​“get real” with some­one sig­nif­i­cant in their lives and tack­le chal­leng­ing ques­tions with vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty and honesty.

Lis­ten to the episode

The focus of ​“How Can You Still Love Me?” is Seth, who entered fos­ter care at age 5 and lived in mul­ti­ple place­ments until age 11 when he was adopt­ed by Jean­nie and Denise. ​“I want­ed to know how you can love me after all I’ve been through,” Seth asks Jean­nie in a con­ver­sa­tion with trau­ma ther­a­pist and pod­cast host Mon­i­ca Band, Ed.D.

Togeth­er, they con­front a ques­tion that’s on the minds of many teens and young adults who are attempt­ing to build healthy new bonds after fos­ter care. Seth and Jean­nie speak frankly about how trau­ma, rejec­tion and bul­ly­ing have affect­ed his per­cep­tions of love and trust and his abil­i­ty to express those emo­tions. By explain­ing Seth’s chal­leng­ing behav­iors, Band guides the fam­i­ly toward healing.

Learn more about trauma’s impact on ado­les­cent development