I’ve been through a lot in my life, and I’ve spent many years debating how much of it I should share. For a long time, I avoided talking about my past because I didn’t want to sound like I was whining or trying to get sympathy. But the truth is, my story shaped who I am today, and if I don’t tell it honestly, then I can’t show you what’s possible when you decide to take your life into your own hands.

 

I grew up in an environment filled with addiction, abuse, and instability. My father struggled deeply with drugs and alcohol, and that created a home where there was no sense of safety. There was emotional, verbal and sexual abuse, things no child should ever be exposed to, yet I was living it before I even understood what was happening. I was confused, scared, and constantly questioning what was real. I spent weekends with my father, and those weekends became some of the hardest experiences of my life.

 

By the time I was a teenager, the damage had already been done. I fell into addictions, drugs, alcohol, unhealthy relationships, because that was what I learned. I had no idea how to regulate my emotions, how to trust myself, or even how to know what love and respect were supposed to feel like. I carried deep shame and confusion, and it showed up everywhere in my life. I went through financial struggles, toxic relationships, and cycles of self-destruction. I had a constant battle to find where I belonged.

 

But here’s the thing: I didn’t stay there. My healing wasn’t instant and it wasn’t clean. I tried everything I thought would “fix” me, AA meetings, endless therapy sessions, and stacks of self-help books. I kept searching for answers, hoping that one program, one therapist, or one book would finally make the pain go away. But no matter how hard I tried, I always found myself back in the same cycles, feeling like something was missing. There were years of setbacks, relapses, and hitting rock bottom more times than I can count. But at some point, I made a choice, refused to let my past control my future. I started facing my pain, unpacking the ingrained beliefs I grew up with, and slowly rebuilding myself from the ground up.

 

And the truth is, everything changed when I stopped obsessing over my trauma and started understanding why I felt the way I did. That shift happened when I discovered Individual Psychology, a powerful approach developed by Alfred Adler, one of the most influential psychotherapists alongside Freud and Jung.

 

Unlike traditional methods that keep you stuck digging endlessly into your trauma, Adler’s work focuses on how your early experiences shape the beliefs and patterns you live by today and, more importantly, how you can rewrite those beliefs to create a different future. This changed everything for me. I realized I wasn’t broken, and I didn’t need to keep reliving my past to heal. What I needed was to understand the meaning I had given to my experiences, challenge those old narratives, and start building a new one.

 

That’s the work I’ve done in my own life, and it’s why I share what I’ve learned with others today. Not from theory, but from experience, from breaking my own cycles, rebuilding my identity, and discovering that real transformation comes when you stop living as a prisoner of your past and start creating a better future.

 

My past includes addiction, abuse, financial struggles, and relationships that broke me. But my present is about transformation, resilience, and helping others realize that no matter where you come from, change is possible. If you’re going through trauma, battling addiction, feel lost, ashamed, or stuck in patterns that never seem to change, I want you to know that I get it. I see you. And I know there’s a way forward, because I’ve lived it.