What breaks inside can be repaired: A trauma recovery story with Liz Blanding

What if a single moment could completely rewrite the direction of your life?

For Dr. Liz Blanding, that moment came in the form of a devastating car accident. One second, she was a thriving real estate agent, next, she was being told she might never walk again after hydroplaning into a tree. But Dr. Liz refused to accept that prognosis as her truth. Instead, she began a deep, personal healing journey that would eventually lead her to become a trauma recovery coach.

Along the way, she discovered that trauma isn’t just an emotional wound, it lives in the body, shapes the mind, and touches the spirit and soul. Her path of recovery revealed trauma that began as early as the womb and helped her make sense of how complex PTSD had long influenced her sense of reality. She likens trauma to a “kaleidoscope,” a lens that distorts how we see ourselves, others, and the world, where even the smallest trigger can feel overwhelming.

In a powerful, transparent conversation, Dr. Liz explains how our culture is evolving beyond the outdated “just get over it” mindset. She shares a crucial insight: trauma may not be your fault, but healing is your responsibility. This empowering belief shifts people from feeling powerless to stepping into their own agency.

Today, Dr. Liz supports others through online programs focused on trauma-informed leadership, military PTSD recovery, and healing for domestic violence survivors. Her peer-to-peer approach, grounded in personal experience, is both relatable and transformative. And through it all, music, passed down from her jazz musician father, has remained a core part of her healing process.

Her story is living proof that even in our most shattered seasons, wholeness is still possible.

Explore her journey and resources at oasiswellnessctrS.com.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Dr. Liz Blanding
• 1:01 From Car Accident to Life Purpose
• 4:05 Finding Motivation Through Adversity
• 6:01 Coaching Others Through Trauma Recovery
• 9:28 Breaking Trauma Cycles and Fostering Safety
• 15:47 Personal Approach to Trauma Recovery
• 19:30 Dr. Liz's Services and Closing Thoughts

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Hey everybody, this is Ryan Van Ornam and we are back with another edition of Scaling Up Success podcast, powered by Synergist. Synergist is your scalable operations company that helps you grow your business at a fraction of the cost. Check it out at synergistcom. And today I have Dr Liz Blanding. How are you today, ma'am? I am doing well.

Speaker 2: 0:28

I'm excited to be here. How are you?

Speaker 1: 0:30

Oh, I'm so, so, so excited to hear, hear your story. I know, I know about you, I've I've had conversations with you, I got your book behind me here and I'm just, I'm just eager to jump into this thing today. So shall we? Yes, we shall, all right. So, first of all, let's, let's tell the audience, like you know, a little bit about your origin story when did you come from and like you know, like, how, how did you get into being a trauma recovery coach?

Speaker 2: 1:01

Wow, Okay, so it's actually been my life story. I had no idea the effects that trauma had on me, or that it was even a thing actually, until I was going about life being busy and I was in a car accident. And in the car accident is when I actually is sort of a. I mean it's a long story, but in order to make the story a little bit shorter, I'll give you a little bit about it. So in the car accident at that time I was a busy mom in real estate, had no idea about naturopathic medicine or any of those things, and I was hit, was hydroplaned into and ended up on the top of the hill in a tree. And yeah, that was, wow, what a day. I said it was a new birthday, because at the time when something like that is happening to you, you don't realize that it's actually. Sometimes you hit a tree, but it's helping you to turn your life around into the direction and the purpose in which you were actually designed. You may not see it at that time, which I didn't see it at that time, but fast forwarding, as I went through two years of what I call dating my doctors they said okay, this is the bottom line. You've gone through all types of therapies and you know, if you don't get double knee replacement surgery, you are going to be in a wheelchair for the rest of your life. Now I'm a single divorced mom saying no way. I had a daughter in college and twins at home. There's no way, this is my destiny.

Speaker 2: 2:34

So I just I went to work, I started learning about naturopathic medicine, I learned about the different herbs and I started learning. And as I started learning, I found a new passion. But what I found is that it wasn't just the accident physically, it was psychologically. It was, I'll say, mind, body, spirit and soul. And as you start to heal, you realize that there's deeper levels of recovery. And so jumping into trauma recovery was because I was really trying to find help for myself. I was trying to find support for myself. And once I got into trauma recovery was because I was really trying to find help for myself. I was trying to find support for myself. And once I got into trauma recovery and start peeling off all these layers of onion, I said, oh my gosh, this with with the CDC stating that 70 to 80% of our population have suffered trauma. Then I jumped in to find my purpose.

Speaker 1: 3:22

Man, that is a great. I jumped in to find my purpose. Man, that is an incredible story and it shows your resolve. It shows your. You know, like your, your perseverance to overcome so many, so many obstacles. And I'm sure you know, like there's there's so many more. You know more layers to that story as well. We just thank you so much for sharing that and being so open. We appreciate you. Thank you Absolutely. So, like one of the things, how did? How did you stay motivated during those tough times to continue to build something? You know that maybe you didn't even know where it was going at that time or how you're going to get there, but you stayed motivated. You stayed pushing through. Like, where does that come from? Where does that drive come from?

Speaker 2: 4:10

You know, it was two things. It was my faith in God, because I believed that he said I can do all things to Christ. That strengthens me and that I held on to. And then I looked at these little children. Right, I had twins at home and a daughter in college and I just I kept their faces in front of me Like they were my motivating factor. You know that. You know they are my gifts, so I have to be here for my gifts. And that's what I kept telling my doctors this is not my destiny. And they kept telling me over and over again if you don't accept where you are, you're not gonna get better.

Speaker 1: 4:48

Man, that's a bad date. You said you were dating those doctors and they just kept trying to throw the haterade on you and you just kept fighting through it. Man, I love that about you and it shows that you have no quit and it shows that you're going to find a way to get where you want to be. So props to you on that. That's incredible and you are in a living example of you know overcoming every single setback and thriving in that way of moving forward. Amazing, amazing. Thank you, absolutely so. As you've been growing out your coaching side of the business, you know, like, where is this taking you? Have you seen like these unforeseen, like pretty cool opportunities that have came along along the way?

Speaker 2: 5:46

Absolutely Well, I guess one of the things too. As you know, as I started my recovery journey, other people asked what was I doing? Because they saw a glow, they saw me start to, you know, wake up and feel. You know feel good and move and all these other things.

Speaker 2: 6:00

So, as I started to, as I went into the coaching part of it being able to see other people succeed in their, in their like, understanding what trauma is all about because most of us don't even know or we're not even aware that we're living life through this kaleidoscope. You know how, when you were a kid and we looked at the kaleidoscopes and everything was kind of shattered. Well, that's what trauma looks like. Right, we're looking at it through that trauma lens.

Speaker 2: 6:23

So as I started to walk and more and more people are getting interested in weight, as I started unfolding the classes and the courses and sharing it with other people, I started to see them wake up from their trauma and it's kind of like I say you know the movie the Wiz with Diana Ross and Michael Jackson. They're in this little parlor and when the Wicked Witch goes away, which is the trauma, they all start peeling off this mask and they say, oh, can you feel a brighter day and those. That's what's happening as we're starting to push this message. More and more people are starting to become aware that not only personal trauma recovery is important, but also trauma recovery in leadership. So I'm noticing more churches are now seeking how do we help our people to understand and become better trauma-informed leaders?

Speaker 1: 7:11

I found something very interesting. What you're talking about and it goes back to a study that I heard about was that even our surroundings can take in the negativity and the trauma that we have, and what they did is they would have people, people like they had a bottles of water in two different places. Okay, one one was like said negative energy, was screamed at it was talked down to as berated like you're yelling up these, these bottles of water. And then the other one was given you know, positive energy, positive music, you know this kind of stuff. On the backside of it all, and both when they froze, they found that the negative water bottles actually froze in jagged and much more like sporadic type of patterns, and the positive energy water bottles, those ones were frozen and they were just beautiful in the way that it actually, you know, froze and you can actually see it under a microscope. It was incredible, just the power that we have with our emotional mindset as well.

Speaker 2: 8:25

Absolutely, Absolutely. I love what you just said because it's so true as far as the positive energy you know and just being able to tell yourself, like I believe, had I listened and heard that this is your destiny, I would not have been able to do all of the things that I've been able to accomplish and still so many more things to accomplish, so many more people to make aware of what's happening with trauma. And trauma does affect you negatively. It puts that fear in your, in your system, down to your cells.

Speaker 1: 8:55

Man, that and it's it's so crazy. When you get down to the cellular level, you're actually almost poisoning yourself with negativity and, um, you know, I, I just find that just a a fascinating understanding of how the human body works and how you can actually repair your own, and you're a living example because of it. So you know, um, absolutely, I love that, I love that. So, um, as a trauma coach, can you explain you know how, like, you help people because you, you're a living example of it, but how help people overcome that trauma bond that they may have with certain aspects of their own life and their own experiences?

Speaker 2: 9:42

Right. Well, becoming aware of it is one thing, because we can keep operating in the same habit over and, over and over again, and if we're expecting a different result, you know of course that's insanity over and over again. And if we're expecting a different result, you know of course that's insanity. So I help them by helping them to go back to, like the roots of where this trauma began. And oftentimes, like I said, we're not even aware. But when you look at a healthy tree and you look at an unhealthy tree and then we go down to the to the roots of it, and then we start to peel off, you know how? How do you operate? Do you operate in fear Is everything. You're always waiting for the next shoe to drop.

Speaker 2: 10:16

And the reason I think I can be so successful, have been successful with helping my clients or my students, is because it's peer to peer. So when they understand, and by me being so transparent and it didn't happen overnight for me. It took a long time, many, many years for me to be able to be open and transparent and talk about some of the devastating traumas that I went through, starting in the womb. And when you talk about wound trauma that's deep, but then you start realizing, when you start talking about your story, how many people suffered wound trauma where their mind, body, spirit and soul didn't come together like everybody else's, so they didn't really get a fighting chance from the womb.

Speaker 2: 10:57

And then, as you go through, like for me, it was complex PTSD. So it was trauma after trauma after trauma after trauma, unresolved, because if you don't know it's there, or if your parents don't know it's there and you continue and you walk through life. You're going to keep walking through life and life is going to happen, but it's going to affect you differently. So I help people to really understand and I think that's the difference in coaching and have nothing against therapy, because sometimes we need therapy, coaching, psychiatrists, we need all of it. The coaching is a very, very integral part, especially when you are working with somebody peer to peer, when you can really say I understand. Working with somebody peer to peer, when you, when you, when you can really say I understand.

Speaker 1: 11:34

I love that. I love that. So, as, as you're growing out, this, you know, like um, like, um Do you feel like our social environment in the last like 10 years or so has really been more accepting of this? You know, like you know, when I was growing up, it was pretty much just like swallow it, push it all down, suppress it all. Do you feel like this is coming more open and prevalent as an opportunity for people to get help?

Speaker 2: 12:08

Absolutely, I do Absolutely. I think, more so now because people are starting to say enough is enough and it's just too much. And I think, as we are starting to push the message of becoming aware and then also of becoming trauma informed, because oftentimes our leaders don't understand the trauma, so they either hide from it or they don't address it. So then they inadvertently re-traumatize a person that's looking for safety, because what trauma does? It takes away our sense of safety. So if you're taking away that sense of safety but you're coming into an environment where people are not aware, then they're going to do things that are going to cause you to feel unsafe. So I think, with the need and the desire for us to feel more safe, for us to you know, just different things are becoming more acceptable for us to talk about it. And then when you hear, like myself, my voice saying look, this is what trauma looks like.

Speaker 2: 13:10

You know, and oftentimes this is a one, one huge point the optics of a person does not determine how he'll hold or how, how, how they are on the inside, right, so they can be walking around all made up and, you know, tie up to the neck and still have all this trauma on the inside and they go home lonely and silent, suffering because they haven't heard a voice that says no, there is help. You know you're you're. You're broken, but you can be repaired. Something broke inside of you. Trauma happened. Trauma is not your fault. Recovery is your responsibility.

Speaker 1: 13:47

Right, right, I mean. A lot of times it could, like you said, it was in the womb. It could have been as a child, like you know it's. It's so difficult to understand where a lot of this stuff may be coming from, but it's, you know, and you can't in the way I can. You can't say woe is me. You have to be able to, like, engage it and be able to move forward from it. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2: 14:16

Absolutely, absolutely, and you said it, and it coming out of denial, right? Because oftentimes we deny it, we swallow it. We swallow it, like you said before, and because trauma is progressive, it's like old, rotten food just sitting inside of you and then something happens, something minor, where somebody maybe cut you off in the grocery store with their basket and all of a sudden you just went into a rage and you have no idea why. Because you're acting out of character, because that trauma was so progressive it did not go away. No matter how much we deny it or swallow, it doesn't go away. But one day it erupts and there you have a situation. So I think, yes, um, once we become aware of it, then we can start taking the necessary steps to do something about it man, when you, when you, when you rage out and you're on the baking aisle, in in the safeway, that's when you need.

Speaker 1: 15:06

that's when you need, that's when you need Dr Liz's help. You're like we have a cleanup on aisle six because of a rage monster. We definitely need your help.

Speaker 1: 15:16

Absolutely For sure, for sure, I love that, I love that. So, um, as people are, you know, like how is this something that? Do you find that it takes time for people to come and open up to you? Or is it like that there do you feel like that there are some people that just come in, like are, are an open book, like how you know, is it OK to to like does it take time to build that relationship and foster when, when you're working through coaching with your clients?

Speaker 2: 15:47

relationship and foster when you're working through coaching with your clients. It does. It takes time for that. But also, I say, everybody's journey to recovery is just as different and unique as their fingerprint. So somebody might be at a point of I'm just exhausted, I need help, and then they'll start to open up and they'll right away. And then some people they have to build that because there's no sense of safety, so there's no safe people.

Speaker 2: 16:11

So, and because I've been hurt time and time again, then talking to you about it, why would I tell you this? You know what I'm saying, especially for families that have been taught you keep your stuff at home. You keep your stuff at home. You deal with it. You know what have you, and that's where I came from. You don't talk about your stuff.

Speaker 2: 16:26

So imagine what my family was like when I got out here and started talking about my stuff. They're like what are you doing? Frantically, like, stop it. You know you can't do this. But I say, if you keep it in, you get sick, you get sicker because it's still there, it doesn't go away. So, yeah, and both sides have people that are they'll come and they'll come in the class and they'll talk right away, and then you have some that'll come in the class and it'll be nine weeks. We have a 12-week program, so nine weeks, then you'll see the light start coming on. But then they'll say, wow, I didn't know that was a trauma. I suffered trauma from the wound too, or some situation where they can identify. And that's why I love doing the group sessions, because we provide a safe space. And so my voice they may not hear my voice, but they'll hear your voice or they'll hear somebody else's voice, and then they'll connect.

Speaker 1: 17:14

Talk about your services. Are they online? Are they in person? You know, how do you, how do you, how does how does one get help with you?

Speaker 2: 17:22

OK, so there are several programs and the programs are online. There are several programs and the programs are online and I will do an in-person session for a group that may want to do a group session or what have you on an individual basis, but the majority of my classes are online. They're from nine to 12 weeks. We have special classes for trauma informed leadership where the leadership comes in, and oftentimes the leaders find that they have unresolved trauma that they didn't even know it was there, and oftentimes the leaders find that they have unresolved trauma that they didn't even know it was there.

Speaker 2: 17:51

So we also have a 12-week program for individuals that are facing trauma and want to recover, and then also for folks that are in the military, that want to work through PTSD or some type of situation. We have a 12-week program for them and then a 12-week program for those that have gone through domestic violence. So we do everything that I can for the different segments when people come and they say well, I have this challenge. Okay, we don't have a class for you, but let's create it. I'm a creator.

Speaker 1: 18:19

You know, last thing, that I love talking to you. I love hearing about this subject because so many people deal with trauma in different ways and I feel like you're a beacon of light to be able to help people in that regard. But let's shift gears a little bit. So I've always commented on this when I talk to you but where do you get your hat style from? Because your hat game is on point, my friend.

Speaker 2: 18:49

Well, that came from my dad. My dad was a jazz blues man and uh, yeah, he, he, and so it just, it's just me paying, paying my homage and respect to him. Plus, I love, he taught me music, so music, and you know, and so I was. I I was gonna laugh and say no, I was my dad's girl son, because I would sit there with him and do his crossword puzzles and everything. So, yeah, yeah he was my hero.

Speaker 1: 19:09

I love that. I love that and it's kind of, like you said, paying homage to your dad as you go along as well. Does music play a large role in trauma recovery?

Speaker 2: 19:21

Absolutely, absolutely, without a doubt, and I promise you, if you saw me in my car rolling on, I mean I'm listening to some gospel, I'm listening to some jazz, but I'm dancing, I'm having a dance party at the lights because you have to be able to get it up and out, you know, and even like soothing music to go to sleep, by just creating those safe spaces for ourselves, because trauma also, it divides you from being, from taking care of yourself, because you become a people pleaser seeking out that safety. So music and water and anything calming to calm, you all play a part in your recovery.

Speaker 1: 19:58

Oh, that's fantastic. So I think that's a wonderful place to kind of put a nice little bow on this. Dr Liz, if people are interested in your services, how can they get ahold of you? You?

Speaker 2: 20:10

can get ahold of me at info at oasiswellnessctrscom is the email and the website is oasiswellnessctrscom.

Speaker 1: 20:24

Awesome, Dr Liz. It's been an outstanding conversation. You're a phenomenal person and I just appreciate your time so very much. Thank you so much for coming on our podcast today. Appreciate you.

Speaker 2: 20:38

Thank you so much, ryan. I appreciate you for the opportunity.

Speaker 1: 20:41

Thank, you Awesome. Well, once again, this is Ryan Van Oram signing off for the Scaling Up Success podcast, powered by Synergist. Thank you so much for tuning in today and having a wonderful conversation to listen to with Dr Liz Blanding. Thank you so much and have a wonderful time.