Meet Your Support Team

---

Welcome to the Workshop – I’m so glad you’re here!

My name is Lisa Tickel and I’m the founder and leader of this Workshop. I created the Workshop to help women who are suffering from their childhood abuse/trauma and are desperately wanting to heal. That was me for so many years and is the purpose of this workshop…to shorten your suffering.

My story began when I was four…my earliest memories. My abuse was verbal, mental, physical and emotional. Most of my early abuse came from my brother. He was much older than me and began using drugs at a very early age (12, I believe). I honestly only remember a few times that my brother was actually nice to me. The abuse from my mother amped up when I began putting on weight at around 11 years old caused by emotional eating. I also dealt with the bullying that happened in school…again, because I put on weight.

At age 14, my mother was diagnosed with cancer and passed when I was 16. During the time that she was sick, my parents were not honest with me about her cancer diagnosis so imagine my surprise when I discovered she was dying from her doctor as he walked out of her hospital room.

I struggled over the next few years with school, trying to cope with my past and losing my mother. It was during this time that I realized that my father was an emotionally absent father, and he never protected me from my brother or mother. After my mother passed, he completely shut down. I became a burden, and it was confirmed when he told me I needed to quit school (at 16) and get a job because he couldn’t afford to take care of me anymore.

My healing journey began when I was 19 years old. At that time, there wasn’t any type of trauma therapy. As a matter of fact, abuse and trauma wasn’t really discussed much. I did some talk therapy, but it didn’t help much (we need trauma therapy to truly heal from our abuse/trauma). So I spent a lot of time working with God to heal this pain I struggled with.

A message that I received around the age of 11 years old from my brother reoccurred throughout my years and into my adult life was that “nobody loved me.” I, without question, believed that message and I made poor choices in relationships as a result. 

I carried my childhood abuse/trauma into my adult life starting with a 25-year marriage that was complete chaos from the beginning. We both had our issues (I was in complete survival mode throughout the marriage), and those issues collided a lot and there was collateral damage as a result. The divorce was one of the most difficult experiences I had to go through…partly because that’s not what I wanted but mostly because of the trauma bonds I had with him. 

A quick marriage with my second husband who I discovered was a narcissist ended with his passing from cancer. I had done enough healing to recognize that his behavior was outrageous (to me and others), and I had to look within again…why was I continuing to get into unhealthy relationships? I took a deep dive into my healing, and this is when my healing escalated.

So, where did this Workshop come from?

Back in the early 2000’s, I took a similar workshop, and then later co-facilitated that workshop for eight years. We help hundreds of women begin their healing journey. It was transforming for all the women who completed the Workshop, and it was during this time I discovered helping women heal was my purpose and passion. 

Over the years, I thought about creating my own Workshop that would help women heal and give them a better understanding about their abuse. There would be a safe space for women to come together, heal together, support and encourage each other, and so the Women’s Childhood Abuse Healing Workshop was born! 

Another important element in our healing is staying connected, and so I created an exclusive Women’s Healing Community. Once you finish the Workshop, you are invited to join the Women’s Healing Community. This is a life-long safe space for women to continue their healing journey and connect with their soul sisters. 

There’s much more to my story, and I share many of them in the Workshop. The most important part of this message is to assure you that healing is there for you too. While I’m still on my healing journey, and believe I will be until my last breath, I’ve come a long way and so much of my pain is behind me. I’m nobody special…healing became so important to me that I made myself open and do the work. This workshop can be your catapult onto your healing journey…you deserve this!

Dana S. Diaz studied journalism and psychology at DePaul University. While there’s no better teacher than life experience and Dana has had life-long experiences with narcissistic abuse, her education did give her the ability to accurately verbalize and express how narcissistic abuse creates confusion and conflict within victims.

Today, Dana is a proud voice for fellow victims who are unable, afraid, or ashamed to share their experiences. She strives to create awareness and understanding to ensure victims are given the support they need to first understand their situation and then begin the healing process. Her first book, chronicling her own abusive marriage that lasted nearly three decades, started as a journal that she hid under the couch cushion in the basement.