We were lucky to catch up with Katie Maloney recently and have shared our conversation below.

Katie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How’s you first get into your field – what was your first job in this field?

I actually started in fitness. I was writing my book while working as a personal trainer at the time. One of the things that I knew that many trauma survivors struggled with was staying embodied. I developed a mindful movement class that could help survivors exercise in a way that taught them to stay present and connect with their bodies instead of dissociating at the first sign of physical or mental stress. It’s fun to look back and think about where I started. I don’t do any fitness related work anymore so, in that way, it’s very different. However, teaching survivors how to feel safe in their bodies is still a huge part of the the work I do now — and I love it!

Katie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My mission is to bring lightheartedness to conversations about trauma healing (yes, I’m serious!) through my work as a trauma healing speaker and the author of “Cake Pops and Coffee: A New Conversation About Trauma.”

Obviously, yes, trauma is terrible. But, as survivors, our stories include far more than just trauma. Some of us draw too much attention to ourselves on the dance floor at weddings (debatable). Some of us cry during Subaru commercials. Some of us get way more aggressive with people in our cars than we ever would with someone face-to-face. We have beautiful, lighthearted, meaningful, funny, and significant moments in our lives every day, and we deserve trauma healing conversations that include those moments too. Through my book and my work as a speaker, it is my mission to start those conversations.

When I first started working through the 18 years of childhood sexual abuse I experienced by both of my parents, I looked to books for guidance. But the only books available about healing from sexual abuse were either psychology books that felt too clinical or heavily titled self-help books that felt overwhelming before I even opened them. I wanted to read something that felt like I was having a conversation with my best friend.

That is what I want my book to be for readers. In my book and work as a speaker, I get very real about the whole story of trauma – the difficult and the beautiful. I talk about how to stop making yourself small and saboting your success because of negative beliefs that cause you to be afraid of being seen. I talk about saving your past selves and learning how to find safety within yourself. I share tips on how to feel comfortable masturbating, experiencing pleasure again after trauma, and connecting with a partner during intimacy. I talk about navigating relationships and sharing your past with the people you love. Most importantly, I share tips for cutting through the bullshit that results from abuse so that you can learn how to use your experiences as fuel for your power, not an obstacle against it.

So, if any of that resonates! Check out my book on Amazon or the Barnes & Noble website!

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

One of the biggest lessons I had to unlearn was the negative believe that success was dangerous. Growing up in an abusive household, I wasn’t allowed to succeed. If I boasted about success, or spoke out too much about being proud of something, that something was taken away, or I was abused. As a result, I learned to make myself as small and invisible as possible. I didn’t speak what I wanted out loud. I didn’t try to do anything that could help me stand out. I believed it was dangerous. Obviously, as an adult, that habit doesn’t just go away. So, when I first published my book and started my business, I was absolutely terrified — the kind of terrified that made me so physically sick I couldn’t eat for a week. I felt like I had made a terrible mistake, and all I wanted to do was curl up in a ball and hide from the world forever.

Obviously, the curling up in a ball and hiding forever method isn’t a good strategy for business success. So, I had to do a lot of work around feeling safe being seen, feeling safe shining bright, feeling safe succeeding. It’s still something that I catch myself struggling with. I’ll go through periods of time when I stop posting on social media or I don’t respond to emails as quickly as I’d like to. And then I’ll realize it’s because that same old fear of success has crept back in, and I’m starting to withdraw and hide from the world — without even realizing it!

So, the new lesson is to find a balance. Give myself the time I need to disappear for a while every so often while also teaching myself that success is safe and that I’m allowed to have good things.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start?

This is actually one of my favorite stories. When I first started finalizing my book and getting ready to work towards the publishing process, I was making $900 a month. I could barely afford my monthly bills, and I didn’t have any experience in the book publishing or business world. I became close with a woman I worked with as a personal trainer. And she frequently listened to me talk about my book and share my vision for my business. Ultimately, she ended up funding the entire editing and publishing process, which was mind-blowing. At the time, I had nothing to show, no proof that I was going to or even could do what I said I planned to. But she believed in me unconditionally, and I am where I am today because of her. That phrase sounds so simple, “she believed in me unconditionally.” But as a kid who never felt believed in before in my life, knowing that someone had that much faith in my dreams was life changing for me. I’ll never forget that. And I hope to be able to do the same for someone someday.

Contact Info:

• Website: katiemaloneycoaching.com/book
• Instagram: instagram.com/katiemaloney_author/
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/katiemaloneycoaching
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/katie-maloney-bb165b219/
• Other: www.tiktok.com/@cakepopsandcoffeevibes?lang=en

Image Credits
Leeann K Photography