Blog
Finding My Voice
Finding My Voice
October 8, 2018
From Kimberly Perez , PRC, FSS
Hello. I’m Kimberly Perez. I am a person with lived experiences in complex trauma and abuse, I am a survivor of a violent crime, and a survivor of the DHS/CPS and Justice system. I am the Peer/Family Director at Voices Set Free. I completed the Train the Trainer in the Foundations of Trauma Informed Care (TIC) in April of 2018 at Trauma Informed Oregon. Our Team at Voices implements the Road Map to TIC while providing trainings that address Childhood Domestic Violence.
I have written this blog 3 times now and rewritten it; none of them seem to capture everything I want to really say as a survivor. I think that’s hugely due to the fact that although I have suffered greatly at the hands of others throughout my life starting from childhood and ending in adulthood, I honestly am no longer haunted by the past. Yes I face challenges and with tools offered in TIC and Voices and PeerZone along with Intentional Peer Support (I am also a designated Facilitator), and many other trainings, I have been able to move past it all and find a future that I can see, one that is full of hope and inspiration.
Living a life with the thoughts of suicide day in and day out were lonely and hard, thinking I was the only one. Coming close to death from a kidnapping that almost killed me has changed my perspective on life and given me hope and a new meaning to it. God has laid a journey out before me that I have no control over, I am his lamb and I believe my survival was his glory. So all these wonderful tools and trainings that are put here for all of us are gifted to us by some great people and together we can overcome the trauma that we are carrying around.
We do not need to let it break us, together we can let it make us and shape us into a people undivided and united. I went from no faith to having complete faith and a full heart. I owe my life to God and my will to live to my children and all of you, because that is why I am here; I have worked hard and continue to do so. I have bad days and good days, I’m not always in great spirits but I realize I have a choice.
Contact me or my team for one of our trainings; we travel to provide education about the effects of domestic violence on children when they witness it and other trainings as well. Each of us is a puzzle with no two pieces alike, waiting for the beauty of the full picture to be pieced together for the final master piece, a true work of art.
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