Talking about trauma helped me realize how harmful my silence had been, for years and years. After awhile, I truly felt (didn't just "know") that the scariest thing was experiencing the trauma when I was a child, and talking about it as an adult was overcoming it, taking the power out of that experience and helping me move forward without being trapped in my past. Being able to talk about it from my adult place, with compassion for the child I was, was what has healed me more than anything else. With the recognition that I am still a work in progress.

From where I sit, you are doing one of the most courageous acts that a person can, and the reward will be a kind of sweet freedom. It takes awhile to get there, though.