Beyond Borders: Global Mental Health Conference

How does the human mind maintain resilience and exercise autonomy when entirely stripped of physical freedom? This presentation explores the extraordinary lived experience of surviving a violent kidnapping, utilizing creative psychological framing to negotiate release, and navigating the long-term, non-linear realities of post-traumatic stress.


Far from a passive narrative of endurance, this session focuses on the innovative cognitive strategies required to build and sustain resilience during and after an acute life crisis. In speaking I will deconstruct how to discover "creative agency" within a powerless environment, leveraging adaptive communication, tactical empathy, and psychological framing as active tools to de-escalate captors and secure freedom.


Moving beyond the incident itself, the presentation examines the lifelong journey of trauma recovery. In speaking, I will share how conventional clinical interventions were augmented by practice-based, creative resilience strategies—such as narrative reclamation and somatic grounding—to manage severe PTSD and transition from a state of perpetual hypervigilance to one of genuine thriving. By blending profound personal narrative with psychological insight, this session offers mental health practitioners, researchers, and advocates a rare, first-hand perspective on the mechanics of survival, the reality of living with trauma across the lifespan, and actionable frameworks for fostering post-traumatic growth.