Embracing your triggers
Embracing your triggers

J Hirtle The Last Storyteller

Host Jim Hirtle talks with author Tina Geretic about her abusive childhood, toxic relationships and spiritual awakening, and how these experiences led to her memoir and self‑help workbook on triggers and healing. The conversation blends personal storytelling with practical tools and clear caution around both deep trauma work and indie publishing.

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53:31•29 May 2026

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Embracing Triggers, Finding Sovereignty: Tina Geretic on Healing From Trauma

Episode Overview

Triggers can be used as signals pointing to unhealed parts of yourself, rather than treated only as problems to avoid.
Healing deep trauma often happens in layers over time, with memories surfacing only when someone is ready to face them.
Journalling, meditation, muscle testing and energy work can support emotional release and help connect body and memory.
Forgiveness of parents or abusers is primarily for the survivor’s benefit and does not require ongoing contact or reconciliation.
Indie authors should be cautious with costly publishing and marketing services and seek clear value before spending money.

“"At first, you are not embracing them. They're painful... but now when I'm triggered, I go, I know what this means. Let's work through it."”

Curious about how others navigate their sobriety journey? This conversation between host Jim Hirtle and indie author Tina Geretic takes a raw, honest look at trauma, triggers and healing, with a strong spiritual thread running through it. Tina talks about her memoir *Finding My Sovereignty* and her follow‑up self‑help workbook *Lost in the Overwhelm: Embrace Your Triggers and Use Them to Heal*.

She traces how a lifetime of narcissistic, toxic relationships finally forced her to confront a buried childhood marked by severe abuse, spiritual fear and patterns of self‑sacrifice. As she writes, memories return in waves, often through intense triggers and spiritual practices, and she uses journalling, meditation, muscle testing and chakra work to piece herself back together. The episode leans into the messy side of recovery.

Tina admits her first draft read like "an angry teenager" and describes rewriting as she slowly moved from blame to forgiveness – including forgiving a father who had already died and a mother she now holds at a firm distance. Her idea of sovereignty is simple but powerful: not letting trauma or other people drive the car anymore.

Jim and Tina also swap hard‑won lessons about self‑publishing: thousand‑page first drafts, expensive dead‑end "services", the emotional roller coaster of pressing publish, and the reality that healing workbooks can be powerful tools but sometimes need to be paired with professional support, especially when PTSD is severe. If you're feeling overloaded by old wounds, stuck in unhealthy patterns or wary of your own triggers, this episode offers a candid look at how one person turned those triggers into signposts for healing.

Could your toughest reactions be pointing you towards the next layer of your own recovery?

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