Twyla Martin held a book launch for “The Power of a Transformed Woman: Turning My Trauma into Triumph” on Nov. 1. The event included a panel discussion on trauma and recovery.
The book details her life in foster care, being homeless, and dealing with addiction, a traumatic journey that began in childhood. Writing was part of her healing process, alongside therapy, spirituality, and the help of the recovery community.
“It was phenomenal,” says Martin of the book launch. “I really feel like the panelists felt very much empowered. I feel like my story…gave the panelists [and] even the audience permission to tell their story and stand in their power.”
Martin says she didn’t set out to write a book. It began as journaling as part of her healing. “When I talk about something, I can easily detract from the emotion,” she says. “When I’m alone with my notebook, my feelings come to the surface.
“A lot of those feelings, I didn’t want to feel,” she confesses. “I’ve already been through the stuff. Who wants to feel those yucky feelings?”
There were few people during her childhood who made her feel like someone was looking out for her. She writes, “I don’t have stories of trips to the park, birthday parties, or family vacations. What I remember most are the battles — the constant fights, the harsh words, the sting of disappointment, and the unshakable feeling that I didn’t belong anywhere.”
The only positive experience of support she recalls is when her mother took her to a battered women’s shelter. “During that time, I was sexually abused, and it was by a family member,” she says.
“I just remember them just sitting down with me — me being the victim — and saying, ‘You have an opportunity to make sure that this doesn’t happen to any other little girl ever again.’
“Throughout my life, I jumped around to many different schools due to my mother’s instability,” she continues. “The systems that were in play, like child protection, I don’t feel like they did a service to our family, honestly,”
Getting help for her mental health wasn’t easy. Her life experiences taught her not to trust. In the chapter “A Black Woman’s Triumph over Mental Illness,” she writes, “I’ve come to believe that so much of our mental health struggles as Black women are not just personal battles, but collective ones.
“We carry the trauma of our ancestors in our bodies, passed down like an invisible chain from mother to daughter.”
As a child, she says therapy was forced on her in response to abuse, but she resisted it. As an adult, her best friend became a therapist and convinced her to try seeing someone.
“Therapists are like trying on pairs of shoes,” she says. “Some are going to fit, and some are not. You have to find the one that you resonate with.”
When she was young, her spirituality was one of the few experiences of refuge. She regularly attended her Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Hall and prayed to God.
“I did not know what to do with family, because it was so chaotic, crazy and traumatic,” she says. “My spirituality was my safe place.” She now has a spiritual advisor who holds her accountable for admitting hard truths about herself.
She credits the recovery community for the greater part of her healing process: “I found a lot of freedom,” she says. “I found God there, where church just wasn’t — I wasn’t connecting.” She also found an AA sponsor with whom she maintains contact.
What’s next for this author after the completion of her first book and sharing her story of recovery? “One of my mentors was like, ‘There is another book here,’” she says. “I have a disabled son with autism. He’s very low-functioning. That could be a book all on its own. So there definitely will be another book on the horizon.”
Find out more about Twyla Martin at www.powerofatransformedwoman.com.
“The Power of a Transformed Woman: Turning My Trauma into Triumph” is available at www.amazon.com.