526: "Did That Really Happen?" - Trauma + Memory with Susan Pease Banitt

526: "Did That Really Happen?" - Trauma + Memory with Susan Pease Banitt

From Therapy Chat by Laura Reagan, LCSW-C

May 4, 2026 · 53 min

About this episode

The episode discusses trauma, memory, and dissociation with guest Susan Pease Banitt, focusing on her contributions to healing from trauma.

This week, we are talking about a topic which is coming up a lot lately as people are considering the pervasiveness of sexual violence in patriarchal cultures. My guest, highly respected colleague and friend Susan Pease Banitt, author of several books including "The Trauma Toolkit," and "Wisdom, Attachment + Love in Trauma Therapy: Beyond evidence based practice." Recently Susan contributed an essay to, and edited the new book, "Women Therapists on Healing: 11 personal essays about overcoming trauma." This book covers many topics related to healing from trauma and this week we're focusing on Susan's contribution, entitled "Did That Really Happen to Me?" In our conversation we'll talk about trauma, memory and how dissociation both protects us during traumatic experiences while also confusing ourselves and those we disclose our traumatic experiences to later. Susan shares how this book can be used to help trauma survivors understand what the healing process can look like and feel like after trauma. We also talked about the importance of women's and other marginalized people's voices being heard in the context of sharing our wisdom about healing, and what she's seen over her career…

People in this episode

Host: Laura Reagan

Guest: Susan Pease Banitt

Topics covered

  • trauma
  • memory
  • dissociation
  • sexual violence
  • healing
  • women's voices

Keywords

  • trauma
  • memory
  • dissociation
  • sexual violence
  • healing process
  • marginalized voices
  • trauma survivors

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: The Trauma Toolkit, Wisdom, Attachment + Love in Trauma Therapy: Beyond evidence based practice, Women Therapists on Healing: 11 personal essays about overcoming trauma, Did That Really Happen to Me?

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