I believe that moving from trauma to total trust is the first step in healing ourselves, our children and our world. In fact, I don't just believe this to be true, I know it because it's been my personal experience and it's also been the crux of my professional work for over thirty years. 

I’ve worked with thousands of spiritual seekers who feel stuck and lack trust in navigating the challenges of life despite many years of study and practice as well as transformational leaders and visionaries who realize that the happiness they seek in serving the world with their gifts hasn’t resulted in true fulfillment.

Love Isn't Safe & There's No One To Trust

When I was 12 years old I became a parent to my infant sister and 3 siblings. I felt lost and overwhelmed. As a very religious child, I sought help from my parish priest. He ordered “spiritual counseling” which lasted for the better part of a year. As strange as it sounds, I didn’t realize at the time that I was experiencing sexual abuse.

Like many secrets in my strict Irish Catholic family, being molested by our priest was something many people knew about, but no one talked about and no one intervened. 

I Couldn't Trust Myself

The free-floating shame and anxiety I felt led to years of stress-related illnesses that worsened over the years as grew up.

My soul ‘myth’ became, Loving and receiving love aren’t safe, there is something terribly and unalterably wrong with me, I am not worthy of peace and happiness, dreams don’t come true, and I will never have the resources to fulfill my destiny.

But that all changed after my Near Death Experience in 2003…

It’s 3 o’clock in the morning - one of 21 mornings I had spent languishing in a hospital bed racked with pain from post-surgery complications. No one had responded to my call button for over three hours. Why isn’t anyone coming to help me? 

Every breath is a stabbing, monumental effort and every muscle in my body feels wrung out.  My 5’4” body weighed just 89 pounds. 

I suddenly became aware that I’m not breathing. What a relief, I thought — I’m finally pain-free and peaceful. I felt myself floating above my body in the presence of something Divine and I heard these words:

Everything in life is a choice, including taking the next breath…

I decided to take the next breath. Hours later, I heard that same booming voice in my head again say:

 If ever there was a time to receive, now would be it!

From Trauma to Total Trust

Through a series of miracles, I began to heal. With my second chance at life, I began exploring my newfound power to choose. 

In particular, I set an intention to follow my heart wherever it led me. Through this intention, I came to know that my first step was gaining deeper trust in myself. 

This was a game-changer for me!

Learning to trust myself enough to safely love myself and receive love led me to deeper ways of trusting others, the Divine and my life circumstances.

Since then, I’ve dedicated my life to healing my own traumas and guiding others who want to move from trauma to total trust so they can experience their divinity, step into their destiny and have a greater impact in healing our world. 

In addition to working with individuals in my private practice, I’ve work with in traumatized communities in Rwanda, post-school shooting communities in Newtown, CT and Parkland FL, and Australian Aboriginal and Refugee communities. 

After all this time, here’s one thing I know to be true – the time for spiritual practice is over! That’s why my work focuses on truly embodying our spirituality through the healing power of our Heart-Brain-Body connection, the 5 Stages of Embodied Grace© and The Grace Process®.

What Does This Mean For You?

Possibly you feel like you’ve achieved a great deal of healing in your life but you’re frustrated about what your next steps should be…

Possibly you feel like you’re not embodying your spiritual practices (you talk a good game but are still battling with ego/control issues)…

Or possibly, you’re a transformational leader, visionary, mental health professional, coach, changemaker and/or humanitarian who is feeling that the happiness you’re seeking in serving the world isn’t providing you the true fulfillment you are yearning for… 

CLICK HERE to learn more about how I work with individuals. 

CLICK HERE to learn about my humanitarian programs.

Lori Leyden, PhD, MBA is an internationally known trauma healing expert and spiritual guide. Dr. Leyden works with successful leaders and influencers committed to becoming heart-centered leaders in service to global healing. She also works in traumatized communities that have experienced genocide, war, and school shootings. 

She is the developer of The 5 Stages of Embodied Grace ©, The Grace Process®, Founder of the non-profit Create Global Healing, and Producer of the award-winning documentary, When I Was Young I Said I Would Be Happy. 

Dr. Leyden is a member of the Global Evolutionary Leaders Council and Association of Transformational Leaders as well as an Evidence-Based EFT Master Trainer.