Alice Perle's Blog

I Wondered If He Was Speaking to Me! I’ve been busy creating lately and needed to stop for a few days. I found myself flicking through one of the books I bought at the Australian Childhood Foundation’s International Childhood Trauma Conference in August down in Melbourne. It’s titled Living Like Crazy by Professor Paul Gilbert. The title looks healthy, crazily enough! I had put my notes from his talk inside the book, my way of making me connect what I’d heard in the seminar. The seminar had hit ...

Alice Perle (pen name) shares reflections on context, family dynamics, and the resolve to keep going and to keep growing. Survivors and others affected by SSA, often carry a unique kind of silence, not just from the harm or abuse itself, but from trying to safely navigate the dynamics within the family that surrounded it. Beyond disclosure, the issues that compound trauma begin, especially when families are unsupported, and disclosures come in adult life, not in childhood. In the sub-title of Re...

Coming back to the moment(s) after grief. That is, the grief we must inevitably walk through in our recovery from sibling sexual trauma and abuse (SSTA). So it’s been a little longer than I expected between blog posts. I just saw the Intentional Pause was pressed back in March… I had imagined the next entry would be sharing finished pieces of artwork — but they’re still sitting quietly in my peripheral vision, to the right of my desk, not forgotten, they did progress, however they are unfinished...

Alice Perle reflects on the power of survivor conversations and shares why she's pressing pause on her weekly blog—to make space for listening, learning, and returning with renewed clarity.

The post Pressing Pause, With Intention appeared first on ALICE PERLE.

I’m thinking about names today. I’ve had conversations these past few months at the Blue Borage Conversation Café events with some of you. Beyond my connections here, it has been incredible to be present with so many compassionate and brave, lived experience people, advocates, educators, and professionals, choosing to come together in that safe space to talk and learn. We lived with this in silence for so long, and that no longer has to be how it is. Thank you for showing up; however, you show u...

I never imagined I’d find myself deeply immersed in personal development, let alone speaking about it. In the early days, I was a survivor who hadn’t wanted therapy, someone riding the relentless waves of change in a company I had built from the ground up. I was focused on day-to-day operations, not self-reflection. And like so many, I didn’t yet have words for what was happening beneath the surface, the cPTSD, trauma responses, patterns shaped long before I understood them. Growth doesn’t alway...

5Waves and the Global SSA Movement I first learned of the Sibling Sexual Trauma website via LinkedIn. Then, I found 5Waves.org. Initially, I was curious about why they had two separate websites. I didn’t ask at first, but I’ll share what I’ve discovered about that at the end of this blog. What I do know is that all their content is empowering and beneficial for anyone interested in learning about, or affected by, sibling sexual trauma or abuse. Discovering the SSA Advocacy Community Most of what...

How Trauma Responses Shape Roles in Dysfunctional Families In families marked by sibling sexual abuse (SSA), complex dynamics often emerge, with individuals adopting roles that perpetuate cycles of harm. Understanding these roles and the underlying trauma responses is crucial for healing and breaking free from destructive patterns. Family Dynamics Beyond the Time of Abuse At 25, I disclosed, and I won’t spoil it here if you’ve not read Resolve yet. Within a week, I was being told to not say anot...

Understanding the Power and Limits of Telling Our Stories Survivors of trauma are often encouraged to write a memoir as a way to heal, raise awareness, and create change. Some survivors always felt they were supposed to write a book, and others were told, ‘you should write a book.’ “If we think we ‘should’ do something, it probably means we have the ghost of a parent, authority figure, or third-grade teacher whispering in our ear.” – Notaras, K., The Book You Were Born to Write, 2018. I wasn’t e...

The post emphasizes the importance of breaking generational silence around conversations, particularly relating to trauma and sibling sexual abuse. It discusses how unhealthy communication patterns are often inherited and stresses the need for open dialogue as a means of healing. Through initiatives like the Blue Borage Conversation Café, it encourages individuals to engage in courageous conversations to foster connection and understanding.

The post Breaking Generational Silence: Let’s Start Tal...