In Healing Childhood Trauma author Robin Marvel offers tools to heal

Author Robin Marvel of Hersey, MI is that girl who has survived mental, domestic, and drug abuse; homelessness, and kidnappings throughout her childhood. Being addicted to alcohol and partying at age 15 resulted in a sexual assault, and later she became a teen mother at age 16.

Since May is mental health awareness month, Marvel opened up to talk about her story captured in her book “Healing Childhood Trauma” from a PTSD standpoint of view.

“I didn’t want to repeat the cycle, and I started working on myself,” she said. “I realized I was in control of what happened to me.”

As a motivational speaker, Marvel talks about self-respect and determination. She strives to be a role model for her five daughters. She chose to grow through the trauma she had endured as a child.

“I didn’t have any role models,” she said witnessing how her mother was abused by her father with subsequent kidnappings of her.

“It was always the same,” she said. “He took me to his mother to get supplies and we slept in a car. I grabbed my blanket.”

But facing all these hardships, Marvel found the strength to overcome being a victim of circumstance.

"It doesn't happen at the flip of a switch," she said. "I had to work on myself."

Listen in for a chance to win a signed copy of Marvel's life-changing book.