Healing, Hope, and Love - Trauma Drama University

Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in mental health care but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Gina Heumann, founder of Trauma Drama University, located in Littleton, CO, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

My business is Trauma Drama University, and there are two sides:
The main purpose and nonprofit side of TDU provide education, support, resources, and self-care to parents who are raising children with trauma in the first years of life. Abuse, neglect, parental divorce, medical issues, or separation from a parent in the first year of life can dramatically impact the development of the brain, forcing it to get "stuck" in fight or flight mode and preventing the growth of higher-level thinking skills. When this happens, traditional parenting techniques are often ineffective, leading to frustration and hopelessness amongst these parents.

TDU offers online courses to explain the trauma brain and offer some tips for developing a healing mindset, along with what kinds of treatments and therapies are available to help these kids heal. Our services are free, allowing more parent resources to be diverted towards treatments, often not covered by insurance.

On the second side is our gift shop, TDU Products. Here, we offer some fun TDU merch, inspirational gifts, and parenting tools featuring our trauma heart logo. The trauma heart represents healing, hope, and love, and I see it as a way to raise awareness for and break the stigma of childhood trauma. If we can get others to understand that this is a societal problem, perhaps the public can start taking this more seriously.

Kids with trauma that goes unhealed are much more likely to end up in prison, have dysfunctional relationships, suffer autoimmune disorders, and are prone to self-harm and suicide. I want to give these kids a chance to become healthy, productive members of society. Profits from the gift shop pay for the free programming.

Tell us about yourself

My husband and I adopted our boys from Guatemala. The first was super easy, giving us a false sense of confidence in our parenting. My friends used to call him "the Stepford child"... he was really well-behaved. Our youngest, however, was neglected by his foster mother before we picked him up. He came to us irritable, angry, and unable to sleep. He didn't make eye contact, couldn't play by himself, would dive across the table for food, and it seemed we could never make him happy. As he grew older, the issues became more serious, and I became afraid of him. He could turn angry, anxious, and violent at the slightest things, and his anger would go from zero to the max in a matter of seconds. He would trash his room, punch holes in the walls, throw lamps at my head, and sometimes abuse me.

It took over a decade to get to the correct diagnosis: reactive attachment disorder, a severe mental illness associated with early childhood trauma. On one particularly bad day, I prayed to God or the Universe or whoever would listen that if I EVER made it to the end of this very long tunnel, I would pay it forward. That is how the idea for TDU came about.

After over a decade of struggles, we finally stumbled upon the name of a world-renowned expert on reactive attachment disorder and childhood trauma. He was able to get us into his family intensive program, and I believe it saved our family and potentially one of our lives. In addition, we found a trauma-informed school that was more experiential, had mental-health check-ins, offered yoga and meditation, and even had a therapy dog on staff. We took a parenting class through the school, so everyone was on the same page. This holistic approach allowed my son to finally begin healing his trauma, and it allowed ALL of us to become closer and heal ourselves. We had all suffered trauma living in a house of chaos for all those years.

When we all connected as a family, and it appeared we were on the right path where my son was no longer violent, we decided to write a book about our journey. Love Never Quits published in 2019 and received a gold seal at the Mom's Choice Awards. The following year, I did a TEDx entitled "Childhood Trauma Affects Us All" to try to get my message out to the masses. That was March 7th, 2020, and the following week, the world shut down. I spent all of COVID writing online courses, as my "day jobs" are working as a design professor and eLearning developer. I wanted to utilize my strengths.

What motivates me is the idea that I can offer these struggling parents hope and be their beacon of light in this dark storm of parenting. With our private community support page, parents can freely discuss things that are happening in the home that they are too afraid to share with friends and family. Being abused by your own child leads to the judgment of the parent most of the time, so many of these parents remain silent, struggling with their own self-esteem. I'm here to give them a dose of positivity and hope. Helping others has been very healing for me as well.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

I'm still new to this, but I'd say my biggest accomplishment was being invited to partner with the Colorado Nonprofit Development Center to help make my dream a reality. The response I've gotten from parents has been fantastic, and we've had over 150 people register for our program in the first ten months, 40 of which happened in the last 2. Word is starting to spread, and I'm feeling the start of something big. But honestly, I live for the thank you notes from parents who used to feel so lonely and helpless.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

For me, it's money. As I was committed to offering this free, I came up with the idea of the gift shop to raise money to keep the program running, but advertising and publicity require money and time, so the response has been a bit slow. At one time, I was working an extra job to support the business, but that proved unsustainable as I was always exhausted. I'm thrilled to look forward to our non-profit taking off so that we can start doing some fundraising and apply for grants.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

Network, network, network! The more people you meet and talk to about your business, the better you will get at crafting your message, finding people to partner with, and getting the word out about your products and services. Don't go there just to sell... develop relationships!
Keep your eyes on the prize... stay focused on your vision. Remind yourself of your WHY every day. I have a vision board next to my bed that helps me remain focused.
(This one, I struggle with myself) Don't let others crush your dreams. I have found that the least supportive people are often close friends and family. Focus instead on the ones who lift you up.

Book: Love Never Quits
TEDx: Childhood Trauma Affects Us All

Where can people find you and your business?

Website:
https://www.traumadramauniversity.com/
https://tduproducts.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/traumadramauniversity
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/love.never.quits/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/GinaHeumann
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/trauma-drama-university

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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