Beauty After Bruises

Beauty After Bruises We are also passionate about educating the public, as well as clinicians, about these conditions since trauma-informed care is all too rare.
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We are dedicated to providing survivors of childhood trauma with both the access to and funding for ongoing therapy and/or inpatient care – while creating professional and public awareness for Complex PTSD and Dissociative Disorders. Beauty After Bruises’ fundraising efforts help survivors with Complex PTSD and Dissociative Disorders improve and maintain their quality of life by providing funding

for regular ongoing therapy sessions and, when available, hospitalization expenses as they arise. Our page provides encouragement for everyone, not just survivors!

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✨Note: Because this is where your donations go most, we'll be going beyond a cursory summary of this crisis. You deserve...
06/17/2026

✨Note: Because this is where your donations go most, we'll be going beyond a cursory summary of this crisis. You deserve to know the "why" behind it, what it looks like for survivors in practice, and how your help directly saves lives.✨
To anyone living in the United States, it's no secret: Mental health care is extremely expensive. That cost only climbs higher and higher the more specialized the field. Complex trauma and dissociation remain among the highest of specialties in all of psychology. What you should know about this crisis of care:
🟣🟣 The price of any therapy service (outpatient or higher level of care) will climb with every one of these factors:
- The more credentials, schooling, or specialty training courses are required to treat a client safely and responsibly
- The greater the emotional investment, especially longterm
- The more time needed for after-hours crisis care and stabilization
- The fewer slots a qualified clinician has available in their caseload to see higher-intensity clients at the same time (to ensure they maintain a balanced practice - for both therapist and client safety)
- The greater the scarcity of trauma-informed (let alone trauma-competent) clinicians/facilities there are in a given geographical area
- The more dense the population and level of overall urgency in a given area (i.e., regions with larger clusters of disenfranchised folks, organized crime, poverty, etc, can spread mutual aid and assistance options thin)
- The area's cost of living, clients' insurance quality or availability, and countless other factors
For complex childhood trauma survivors with dissociative disorders - and any client facing multiple of these considerations - the financial figures to receive basic care can become, frankly, ludicrous.
🟡🟡 The numbers cited in our graphic range from the absolute lowest rates in suburban areas to the higher figures common in major cities. At present, the average cost for the survivors we support with weekly or biweekly care ranges roughly around $130-175 a session. This is for one hour (or often, the industry standard of "45-50 minutes"). Some of these averages include the sliding scale adjustments that therapists offer a select number of low-income clients. Prices are quickly climbing in this rougher financial landscape.
🟢🟢 Care can range anywhere from 1 to 4 hours a week depending where a survivor's at in their stage of healing. Increased hours are most often due to hiccups in overall stability, new or ongoing memory processing, and fluctuations in personal safety.
🟣🟣 Inpatient care is also a common support need for many complex trauma survivors throughout their lifetime. It's also the most astronomical in cost. There are currently less than 5 inpatient units (closer to 2.5) who specialize in complex trauma and dissociation. This is a dramatic reduction from the scant 8 or 9 we had several years ago. Extreme scarcity contributed to the supremely high cost, which is only increasing.
New, trauma-focused residential facilities are beginning to open. This is quite promising! However, most residential care is even more expensive, less regulated, rarely accepts insurance, and is often unable to take on higher-risk patients. This includes anyone struggling with more significant safety concerns, unmanaged dissociation, and/or co-occurring conditions (e.g., chronic illnesses or medical disabilities, substance use disorders, eating disorders, other complex MH diagnoses, etc).
🟡🟡 State-funded inpatient units aren't often covered by insurance in full (if at all) and they are nearly never equipped to treat dissociative clients safely. Patients must fight very hard, sometimes for weeks or months, just to prove they require the type of specialized care that a trauma unit provides. Being subjected to a general psychiatric floor can be very traumatic and/or downright unsafe.
🟢🟢 Even with an insurance approval for inpatient care, if there's a co-pay, $10,000 or more may still be required up-front - before ever allowing a patient onto the floor. Rarely do survivors have this cash readily-available (if at all), and trying to secure it whilst in crisis can have devastating consequences. Many also do not have a support team to help them make these repetitive calls or fight for themselves. This further delays care and too often becomes fatal.
🟣🟣 Multiple inpatient stays may be needed across a survivor's lifetime. This may include drug/alcohol, eating disorder, and other rehabilitation programs. But, too often survivors find themselves on these units first, without realizing the role trauma is playing in that compulsive behavior. Survivors can be grossly let down by treatment programs untrained in trauma/dissociation, or who focus too one-dimensionally on healing.
This makes it hard to get much out of the stay; many understandably struggle upon discharge and must return for care multiple times. With every stay costing them (or a loved one) huge sums of money, it can become practically and emotionally too much to continue.
🟡🟡 It's important to note that NONE of these costs or obstacles include the need for psychiatric care, medications, or other critical needs. It also does not include the transportation to and from these appointments - and, for many, the first qualified clinician is HOURS away. (This is not hyperbole, but common.) It does not include any adjunctive therapies like art or occupational therapy; yoga, movement, music, or animal therapies; supplemental DBT, EMDR, DBR. somatic, or group therapies; or any of the other resources that have been proven extremely beneficial to trauma survivors. This is solely one weekly session of psychotherapy and the framework for an Acute Care stay.
In closing...
We not only need more qualified clinicians available to treat these survivors, but more inpatient facilities for them to go (globally), better education on the unique needs of trauma survivors (clinically and publicly), and greater accessibility to receive that care (financially, geographically, and socially). The recent reduction in acute care facilities has created a full-blown crisis in the US - overburdening the small pool of outpatient providers who were already unable to meet the increasing needs of survivors just discovering (or experiencing) their trauma during such a highly-activating time of global distress.
Since financial support is the main pillar of our mission at Beauty After Bruises, your donations are the lifeblood. Because these costs are so high and typically ongoing for many, many years, we can only support a small number of survivors at a time. Declining applications is truly soul-crushing, yet has to happen almost 90% of the time strictly due to funds.
Your help and support SAVES LIVES! Unequivocally. You can donate today or share our mission with others who might.
This is how we fight back.
This is why we do it. And we do it together.
This is how we change the world.
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Back in May 2019, the Canadian Centre of Child Protection (CCCP) held a conference on Missing and Exploited Children – a...
06/12/2026

Back in May 2019, the Canadian Centre of Child Protection (CCCP) held a conference on Missing and Exploited Children – a population of survivors often neglected in traditional trauma education. This reality is well-highlighted when looking at the critical absence of trauma-sensitive training for law enforcement and other child protective services.
In one session, Dr. Sharon Cooper - a forensic and developmental pediatrician - discussed how what we've learned about child sexual abuse material (CSAM)** has informed our understanding of child sexual abuse at large. It's particularly evident in the disclosure process for survivors, the trouble with relying on children TO disclose, as well as the need for clinicians, law enforcement, social workers, etc, to shift their approach when working with child survivors. We also need to maintain empathy for those who've gotten safe but are often haunted by what remains accessible to others online - possibly for eternity. For them, the threat has never truly left.
**Note: The term "child sexual abuse materials" (or CSAM) refers to images, video, or any other media depicting CSA. They are typically distributed amongst predators, and the public is more familiar with them as any form of 'child p—graphy'. However, we've been consciously moving away from this terminology - not only to describe the crime more accurately, but to prioritize the innocent, non-consenting children involved. Our focus should be less on the intended desires of those viewing it, or the pleasure they are hoping to glean, but instead on the abuse of children depicted in every frame that is required to create it. Hopefully, this will encourage readers to adopt this shift in language themselves while still being understood.
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Sometimes the words say it all and there's very little we need to add. While survivors' accounts of trauma, abuse, or ev...
06/10/2026

Sometimes the words say it all and there's very little we need to add. While survivors' accounts of trauma, abuse, or even torture can seem impossible or more written for a horror film - especially when they're sitting so innocently and possibly composed before you - we must NEVER doubt what is possible in the human experience. Ever. What people have seen, been put through, or experienced at the hands of another truly knows no bounds.
Yes, it will be hard to accept these realities about the world - and to stay in the room as you hear their broken-hearted terrors - but, it is our duty as trauma professionals to do this for them. Those who survived these crimes are doing something far harder: saying the words out loud. Letting themselves believe it was true. Fighting every fear and threat drilled in, and letting it escape their lips anyway. Having it echo back in their own voice, knowing another just heard it, too.
They deserve nothing less than our trusting attention. Survivors deserve more than we could ever give, really. Provide what you have the means to give because their incredible survival alone insists that we're ALL capable of more than we once imagined. Let's all be part of the healing together.
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Today, we're extending our deepest compassion to every childhood trauma survivor who's ever had to face the painful real...
06/05/2026

Today, we're extending our deepest compassion to every childhood trauma survivor who's ever had to face the painful reality that people in their lives knew what was happening - or at the very least suspected something was very wrong - and did nothing. This far-too-common experience takes what was already traumatic - crumbling any illusion that the world could be Safe or Good - and piles layer after suffocating layer of rubble on top.
Righteous anger.
Grief.
Betrayal.
Abandonment.
Isolation.
Helplessness.
It is so cruel and punishing. And, it can feel impossible to reconcile this level of negligence toward your suffering with who you knew them to be.
We hope that, in some small way, knowing that WE see you, WE are fighting for you, and we will NOT BE QUIET - no matter how inconvenient or unlikeable that makes us to those in power - can slowly restore some of the trust in the world's capacity for good.. Alongside all the others doing this work with us, may you slowly believe you are worth that care. And always were.
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We also want to send a more global message to ALL of us reading, hearing, observing, witnessing: we must SPEAK UP. No doubt, it can be incredibly hard, and there are many valid reasons to want to stay quiet or keep things to ourselves. But if you see something, or your gut knows something is wrong, take action. Ask questions. Look deeper. Make calls. Find support. Seek local resources. Orchestrate an action plan and set up protections for yourself and anyone else vulnerable. We're all they have.
If you don't know *what* to do or how to do it safely, please ask questions. Seek education. Reach out to those with expertise. Folks who do know what to do are waiting to offer you their guidance. To save them and you from this heavy burden of responsibility. There is help for you, too.
Please know we are sending love and care to all those who are hurting - now, in the recent past, or years long ago. No one deserves to be abandoned in their terror and pain. May you only know safety and healing from here on.
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Setting boundaries may be one of the hardest tasks survivors of chronic childhood trauma may ever learn. It's also one o...
06/03/2026

Setting boundaries may be one of the hardest tasks survivors of chronic childhood trauma may ever learn. It's also one of the most important. Heck, understanding and implementing healthy relationship dynamics is difficult for MOST people - even those without trauma...but, when all you've ever known are those who take advantage; who don't respect your body, space, or feelings; who demand self-sacrifice, overzealous love, or total devotion from you; or who want to control, walk all over, or hurt you for their own gain, it can be impossible to tell where they stop and you begin.
For many of you, your safety was dependent on whether or not you did what was asked of you - rather, expected of you. You may've even convinced yourself you were acting of your own free will just to reduce the misery. In truth, they were pulling all the strings of this tangled, enmeshed web holding you still.
Bred from these abuses, some of you may hold a deep, overwhelming need to make sure NO ONE ever has to feel the pain you have. ...going so far out of your way to care for others that your own needs become an afterthought.
This quality can become part of many survivors' identities, possibly even a point of pride. But, now you're expected day and night; an impossible standard has been set. A guilt-trip, shaming, or punishment awaits if you decline, or even just consider a No. This is a dreadful, exhausting way to live. Yet, may still seem like is just simple kindness, selflessness, compassion.... love. You're just being a good person!
But.
You are worth SO much more than self-sacrifice, people-pleasing, and caretaking. You are your own glorious person. You have needs, wants, and desires, too. Your health, your body, emotions, spirit - they are sacred and deserve the care you show others. Do you even put your own name on your list?
You have the freedom to make your own decisions and draw your own lines today. This is your beautiful life, not theirs.
Just know:
You can say No. You can set boundaries. You can lovingly, and even jovially, turn someone down with a "Maybe next time!", or a "Hey, this weekend's for me, I'll check in later!". Anyone who doesn't respect that doesn't respect YOU.
You have permission to treat yourself with the love you give everyone else.
Take that deep, exhilarating, cleansing breath - free of the smoke from fires keeping others warm.
You are the only person who will ever get to live YOUR life. Others have lived yours for you long enough. Time to keep warm from your own glow.
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This can be an incredibly difficult subject, but one we want to speak on and support you through. Childhood trauma - par...
06/01/2026

This can be an incredibly difficult subject, but one we want to speak on and support you through. Childhood trauma - particularly abuse - can be so very tricky when the manipulation runs deep and bartered affections have left your heart completely confused and tangled. Despite the pain they cause, it can still feel like they're all you have, all you deserve, and all that will ever feel familiar or safe to you. It can even feel downright alien to step outside that corrosive disrepair and into healthier, more functional relationships. ...so much so, many turn right around and head straight for the wreckage.
You deserve so. much. better.
You ALWAYS did.
Today, we want you to consider - or remind you if you already knew - those who hurt you to the point of breaking cannot make you whole. Old wounds will reopen, new ones will surface, and you will be left aching, sore, and dejected. Again. No matter how much they seem different now or may even mean well, they do not have the tools or capacity to mend those old scars. Not with the delicate touch needed in this moment.
Stand your ground.
Maintain your boundaries.
Trust that there are people in this world who know how to love you without wielding it as power. Who give without keeping score and empower you without also trying to keep you small. You may've even met some already.

Stay with those who value your autonomy, protect your heart, and celebrate in your joy,. Who make being alive feel casually ordinary AND like the most vibrant splash of color across a brilliant sky. You deserve loved ones who make coming home feel like an exhale, not a tightened chest that steals your voice and exhausts your spirit.

In the shelter of this standard - not down in the trenches that raised you - healing finally has room to grow.
May you all flourish in that soil.
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Did you know the main branch of our outreach isn't just education and awareness for complex trauma, but offering survivo...
05/30/2026

Did you know the main branch of our outreach isn't just education and awareness for complex trauma, but offering survivors the funds necessary to receive therapy services and life-saving acute care? Because it absolutely is! And, it's why we all need you - to do it together.
Therapy for trauma survivors - particularly those with dissociative disorders - is such a specialized field that individual sessions can average $130-160+ each. That number has been steeply increasing in recent months and some practitioners already ask well over double that. From the rigorous training and educational hours they must put in, to the measly amount insurances offer per session and the sheer headache of dealing with insurance at all, it keeps more affordable options for patients unavailable or unsustainable. If a provider does accept insurance, they frequently draw the line at anyone on medical assistance. The hours spent fighting for their care, to receive a fourth their rate, becomes not worth it over time. But, naturally, this excludes a large majority of childhood trauma survivors.
Like most, complex trauma survivors very rarely have an extra $7-15K lying around to spend on therapy and/or psychiatry every year, but they also can't live without it. When it comes to inpatient treatment? The figures are jaw-dropping and insurance agreements are very hard to come by. There are also now less than 4 inpatient units in the US specifically trained in trauma and dissociation. While residential programs are emerging, they come with much higher price tags and nearly always require some portion to come out-of-pocket. Stays for dissociative disorders are often lengthy and can easily reach totals of $50-100K+. Given most cannot pay that, the vast majority of trauma survivors go without.
We are trying to change that.
It's why we exist. But, it means that WE must raise those kinds of numbers for our survivors – to save their lives. Presently, we've had to turn down upwards of 90% of our wonderful, deserving applicants because the funds to sustain their treatment just aren't there. This has always been true, but the last few years' global devastation has made finding loose change nearly impossible - and scary - for everyone. We've neared a funding crisis of our own, right as it was time to make the leap to full independence. Sigh.
So what can we do? What can YOU do?
BAB welcomes donations year-round for survivors' therapeutic care and our exciting Therapy Box Project. The latter also accepts material items to provide support to survivors who've no access to therapy at all. We also just opened our Nonprofit Registration Fund so we can accept donations from every state, while ensuring every *other* dollar donated to survivors goes right to their needs directly! After finalizing our independence, our international events will revive, too, and you can participate in them! With the need being so grave right now, we're calling upon you like never before.
You can visit our website at beautyafterbruises.org/donate to learn all the ways you can get involved! You can also learn about and follow our Therapy Box Project separately on our website and dedicated FB and IG pages. As we continue growing, we are also hungry for volunteers with a wide range of skills and passions to bring to the table. Don't hesitate to reach out with yours!
These are the moments we truly save LIVES. The ways we show the small children they once were that they've always mattered. That we see them. That safety isn't just a word. That they really could finally relax those rigid shoulders and be cared for. Thank you for helping us make that possible!
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When a childhood trauma survivor is able to gather up their courage and tell another what's happened to them, too often,...
05/28/2026

When a childhood trauma survivor is able to gather up their courage and tell another what's happened to them, too often, the responses are nothing shy of devastating. They can range anywhere from being flat-out denied to blamed, badgered for more details, shamed, shown repulsion, or even one-upped by the listener. They may have their integrity questioned, feelings invalidated, or experiences unacknowledged entirely.
Poor responses to disclosure can not only endanger a survivor further, but influence the way they view themselves, the world, and their trauma indefinitely. When this tectonic scar is placed on the growing mind of a child, it can leave them fundamentally at war with themselves - fragmented and separated from who they would have become - from that day on.
Writing offers a unique outlet for survivors to state their truth without hesitation, omission, or masking. To be clear about what they KNOW happened. To give reality a voice and share their story - no one else's. To speak about details so raw and delicate in a voice of strength. To scribble down everything they know is important, scary, sad, or worthy of someone's attention without fear of getting lost in another's thoughts.
Why not write as if you were sitting with a friend opening up to you? You'd be so kind to them. Understanding. You can do the same for YOU. You have the freedom to be angry, bitter, or envious. It is SAFE to be honest about the unfairness of it all on paper. ...to admit you feel robbed. ...to speak against those who betrayed, ignored, or invalidated you. ...to cry or say you feel lonely out here.
Above all? You get the chance to be clear about what happened without anyone questioning, manipulating, or blaming you. Writing offers objectivity. You get to see in high-def that these things could never be your fault.
You were a child; they were the adult.
Even if a child were to beg or plead to be hurt - it is ALWAYS the adult's responsibility to say NO.
Period.
Somewhere in you knows this to be true. You know who's to blame.
It's okay, you're allowed to say it...to write it:

You were - and remain - innocent.
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Disclosure of child sexual abuse is an overwhelmingly painful process in the best of circumstances. But, the countless a...
05/26/2026

Disclosure of child sexual abuse is an overwhelmingly painful process in the best of circumstances. But, the countless added barriers that stand in survivors' way not only capitalize on that internal anguish but turn it into engineered silence. CSA so often relies on, and manufactures, the exact emotional and environmental conditions that make speaking up feel dangerous, impossible, or not even warranted. ...erasing the option before it even arrives.
Through a clever combination of manipulation, threats, forced secrecy, and flaunted power, children quickly learn that speaking up could cost them more of their safety as well as their family, friends, housing, wider community, and anything they love or hold dear. So, disclosure is rarely the clear, immediate, or linear process many wish it would be. ...or believe it should be. But, if we're to have any hope of helping more survivors get the justice they deserve and a life freed from the shackles of silence, we must create a more open, supportive, affirming, and SAFE world for them to disclose inTO.
No one should have to carry another's crimes on their chest or deep in their bones for decades. We MUST make it not only safer for survivors to speak, but ensure there are fewer kiddos that ever have to.
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BUILDING AN INTERNAL WORLD ✨The "internal world" is a term used to describe the mental landscape where alters of a disso...
05/22/2026

BUILDING AN INTERNAL WORLD ✨
The "internal world" is a term used to describe the mental landscape where alters of a dissociative system live, communicate, or simply exist. While some survivors' internal spaces came to be organically as children - and remain fixed until today - others only discovered their utilitarian or emotionally rich value as adults trying to heal. This impressively beautiful achievement of the human mind isn't given nearly enough recognition or support, though. So, whether you’re brand new to this work, are looking to do some ‘remodeling,’ or realize you missed some vital steps along the way, there are countless ways to cultivate an internal world that's ideal for you! ALL of you!
While no system requires an internal world, and conditions like aphantasia may pose added barriers, there can be real advantages to having a space inside the mind to interact and collaborate with one another. It can also be one of the most exciting, creative, and FUN aspects of having a dissociative system! Hopefully, this guide will tackle some of your questions, provide some visual inspiration, and stir any internal chatter you've been lacking.
Feel free to bookmark or share this resource with others who may benefit, including mental health professionals. Internal spaces are given shockingly little attention or discussion clinically, even amongst trauma specialists. Given they can be integral to the daily function, emotional bonding, and overall safety of a dissociative system, survivors deserve everything we have to offer.
Happy building!
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What is something you wish you'd known or implemented sooner when it comes to internal worlds?
(Note: If this style of learning is inaccessible or inconvenient for you, we'll also be turning it into a full text article you can reference any time!)

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275 Cumberland Parkway Plaza #255
Mechanicsburg, PA
17055

Telephone

(717) 461-9916

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