Alexander suffered extensive trauma from a very young age. When he was sixteen Alex was adopted and moved to Tacoma. Despite the difficulties he was going through he reached out to his friends and was recommended to go to The Rainbow Center for their transgender support groups. This is where he met HopeSparks’ therapist Morgan almost a year ago.
Alexander found a place where he felt safe, respected and listed to and with Morgan he began to unpack the pain that early childhood and lifelong trauma had caused. Together they worked to strengthen Alex’s nervous system and create a safe space within Alex to create a healthy relationship with his present moment, reality and challenges.
“A big part of our focus has been on figuring out what I can do to make myself safe, or make myself stronger. No one else is going to be able to be the solution to any of it. It’s been really nice to slowly step up and become what it is I need.”
Regardless of everything that has happened, and all that lies ahead. Alex can wholeheartedly trust himself.
“I am the only one who gets to dictate what happens in this weird life. I have full claim over myself and what I chose to do with it. I am mine now.”
The impact of trauma is that one tends to orient around fear. What Morgan has watched Alex do over the last year is orient himself to a channel of love. When asked what Alex would like our LGBTQ community and the world to know about his journey he said,
“Finding your brave new ending isn’t an easy journey. It’s a very difficult thing to feel like an inbetween or present as that. My advice is to figure out how to love yourself and other people. Allow yourself to fall in love with your own life and the little things you get to do for yourself, even if that’s a boy wearing makeup.”