About this episode

LaRon shares his harrowing experiences of abuse in foster care and his journey towards healing through music and family.

LaRon shares his story of growing up in extreme poverty surrounded by addiction, violence, neglect, and abuse before entering the foster care system. After being placed in a foster home where he was starved, tortured, threatened with weapons, and made to eat from dog bowls, LaRon reached a point where he no longer wanted to live. In one of his darkest moments, music interrupted a suicide attempt and became something he could hold onto until he eventually returned to a foster mother who gave him the safety and unconditional love he had never known. LaRon opens up about being adopted, pursuing a career in music, and the ways his childhood trauma continued to follow him into adulthood, marriage, and fatherhood. After his marriage ended and the mother who adopted him unexpectedly died, LaRon found himself struggling again with grief, anger, and suicidal thoughts while trying to rebuild his life and remain present for his children. Today, he is confronting the patterns passed down through his family, navigating an ongoing fight to reunite with his youngest daughter, and using his music and story to turn what he survived into something that might give someone else hope. LaRon’s Links…

People in this episode

Host: Chell Bane

Guest: LaRon

Topics covered

• childhood trauma
• foster care
• music as therapy
• mental health
• adoption
• resilience

Keywords

• foster care
• abuse
• mental health
• music
• adoption
• trauma
• resilience

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Crisis Text Line, RAINN

Books & works: From My Test To My Testimony

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