In this solo YouTube video, trauma survivor, vocalist, and film composer Brooke Richey shares her personal journey with complex post‑traumatic stress disorder (C‑PTSD) and introduces the concept of “emotional domination” that keeps survivors stuck in a fog of hyper‑vigilance, isolation, and black‑and‑white thinking. She explains how early caregiver trauma and a later suppressed memory shaped her life, and how a three‑year practice of voice journaling helped her retrieve the hidden memory and begin healing. Richey describes the core symptoms of C‑PTSD—hyper‑awareness, emotional suppression, constant habit‑shifting, and the danger of isolation—using vivid metaphors of clouds and fog. She argues that breaking out of this fog requires attaching to a life‑giving mission (for her, music) rather than forming trauma bonds, and she outlines practical steps: notice bodily tension, name the feeling, and take a concrete next action. She warns that ongoing abuse must be left, and she promotes her coaching programs (Amplify Your Voice, Own Your Voice) and her guide “Goodbye Trauma” as structured ways to uncover subconscious roadblocks, expand self‑dialogue, and build connection. The video ends with a preview of a next episode on physiological symptoms and a call to like, subscribe, and reach out for support.
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Hey folks, welcome to my channel. I'm Brooke Richey. I'm a 20-year vocalist, a film composer, indie rock artist, and an extensive trauma survivor. My first experience of trauma was at 9 years old by a primary caregiver, and 6 years later I had another experience that resulted in a suppressed traumatic memory that I lived with for 15 years. I took 3 years of time to practice a process of voice journaling, which is self-dialogue, and And I was able to uncover the memory just by using my voice and listening to myself and looking at myself in the mirror. So it is possible to heal. I want— if you're here and you're watching this and you're tracking with me, it is possible. Please read my story. I have been through too much to now doubt any of you. I don't doubt you and your abilities to improve your life, to heal, to get past your trauma. You can break up with your trauma, I promise you. You can get to a point where your CPTSD— and that's what this series is on, it's on CPTSD and the ins and outs of how do you even begin, because when you're in CPTSD, it's just a fog, right? You got to get out of the fog. Okay. And so this video, this first one is on emotional domination. So getting out of the fog means if we look at it from that, from that concept, you're in this cloud, right? Here's you and you're just in this cloud and it's just, it's It's fog, it's cloud. You can't see anything. I know this because I've lived through it. You can't see anything because you're stuck in this cloud. All you can see is associations and trauma triggers everywhere you go because you have hypervigilance going on. You're hyper-aware about everything. Everywhere you go, you are thinking you're not safe, or it's not— you're not welcome there, you don't belong. Like, it could be, you know, whatever it is that you feel when you go out into the world. Right? Which is why you develop all these habits of instability, constantly changing things, and no consistency in your life. I've been there. I spent years of, I'm gonna switch this job, I'm gonna switch that job, I'm gonna work these multiple part-time jobs, um, because it's easier for me to not show all of myself because of the pain from my trauma when I did. Show all of myself, or when all of myself was just robbed from me, right? That's going back to nine years old, and I want you to get out of the fog. Okay, I want you to get out of it. So where do you start? This movie, this this movie. I'm not making movies. I make film scores, but this video is on. The emotional domination that happens with complex post-traumatic stress disorder. So let's dial this back a few. You had some incident in your life. This is why you have complex trauma. You had something, some incident. You had some incident in your life that was so traumatizing to you that you actually shut down. And you didn't speak, you didn't share it with anyone. And because you didn't share it with anyone, you couldn't get help. Okay? This is why isolation is the kill— is, is, is so dangerous for you. You can't be isolated. Isolation enables your trauma. To keep dictating your life. You have to connect with others. You have to attach yourself to a mission of sorts. That is what's going to get you out of the fog, out of the cloud. It's attaching yourself to a mission, um, not attaching yourself to the— it's black and white, this is how the world is because of your experience, right? It's not the truth. It's true what happened to you, absolutely true. I believe you. Whatever happened to you, I believe you. But it's black and white when you keep yourself there. It's black and white. It's a black and white world you live in when you keep yourself there, because where are you? You're in the fog. All you can see is gray. So to get out of it, you got to attach yourself to something else outside of you. And by attach, that's— you don't want a trauma bond. You want something life-giving, something that is spurring creativity, curiosity, and life. For me, that was music for 22 years, and the significance around music, which is what I build into my work as a coach, is it's a second language on your brain and a second language on the human brain when it is traumatized. It boosts cognitive functioning and increases your ability to process complexity. Think about what— think about your trauma. You have Your CPTSD because it was such a complex thing that happened to you that your mind, your system could not fathom that it was happening to you. You went into fight, flight, or freeze. For me, freeze. I usually go into freeze when I get triggered, and so, and that goes leads into shutdowns. But that's That's for another thing. The point is, it was such a complex thing that for your current state of, of knowledge, of, of your IQ at the time, of development as a human being, whenever this happened to you, it was too complex for you to process. And this is especially for you if You, if you think you have a suppressed memory, that's why it got tucked away in your subconscious somewhere. So to get out of the fog, then you have to look at the symptoms of what's going on. And one of the number one symptoms that come up is emotional domination. You are con— because you're on this hyper-awareness, right? You don't know when something's going to attack you again. Here's the thing: most likely, nothing is going to attack you. The chances of getting attacked are are very very very very very very low. Unless you are in an environment, of course, that you know is continual abuse, and you know that attacks are going to happen through some form of abuse by someone else. Unless you know that. Right? Get out. Get out. I don't, I don't care. I don't care the connection. If you are being abused, you need to leave. You're not safe. So the emotions, though, in the context of complex post-traumatic stress disorder, especially Like CPTSD comes up because it's unresolved trauma in your past somewhere along your line or repeated abuse, right? So with the repeated abuse, you build a resiliency. We'll talk about that first. You build a resiliency of pain and you continue to push your limit of, I can endure it. It's okay. It's okay. It will be better next time. It will be better in a few months. It will be better in a year. I'm going to keep extending an olive branch to this person or to this place that really does has not proven anything to me that they care for me because of why? You have to answer that why, and this isn't to guilt you. This is to get you to see. Your situation and to bring you out of the fog, out of the black and white, right? And so, but this is what happens though, whether it's abuse, you build that resiliency and you neglect the emotions that come up during the abuse, right? You might try and share them, but every time you share them, you get abused further or You get the silent treatment. You get some form of punishment, right? That's not fair. So you decide to just shut down further and further and further. That is suppressing the emotions. Okay? Maybe instead of repeated long-term abuse, it was a single event, like for me when I was 9, and I didn't talk about it. And so the next— over 6 years of my life, I start developing this kind of, kind of just unnerviness. Like, I didn't— I remember going to school and I'm like, I'm kind of like, I don't really feel like I'm free to be completely myself all the time. Um, because there's— there was something I didn't, you know, I had never acknowledged. And so— What was that? The emotions though that came from that experience at 9 or the experience I had at 15, especially at 15 because it was suppressed and I go to school and then people start asking me, why are you mad all the time? I didn't know what to tell them. Um, it's my face. Um, it's suppressed though, and so it's— and it's unresolved and it's undealt with. So the emotional domination is happening to you because you haven't, you haven't looked at those emotions. You haven't sat with them. You haven't given them the time of day. And that's why you might be looking at yourself in the mirror right now. And you're like, why am I still dealing with the same thing I was dealing with 18 months ago? And This is what you'll do next. You'll think it must be this external factor. It must be this environment. It must be this community. Sometimes it is. Don't discredit it. I'm not discrediting, you know, sometimes there are toxic communities and people and things that you do need to leave. But when you are failing, you got to embrace failure. When you are failing to look at the internal, you will automatically look at the external and try and put the blame there. So this is my challenge for you: if you are feeling like you are getting Emotionally triggered nearly everywhere you go. Or I have religious— I had religious trauma. I would go to church and I'd just be so emotionally wrecked week in and week out. I started to think it was church that was doing it to me, that it was emotional manipulation. Really what it was was my trauma speaking up and saying, There's something unresolved here because I'm 23 and this event that happened when I was 9 was tied in complex— in complexity to growing up in a religious household. And the film I was forced to watch was a religious, religious film, um, a Hollywood take on a religious story. So This is my challenge to you. Next time that you are feeling completely overwhelmed emotionally, because these emotions, they're making you tired, fam. I know it. They are wearing you down the longer you hold on to them. You're storing them. Just ask yourself, where am I feeling this tension in my body right now, and what is that saying? What's this feeling in my body saying right now? And then let it speak. Let it speak freely. Listen to it. And then take action. Do your next best step of what's going to pivot you away from this habit. Because now you have a habit of being. This is a behavior you have now. That is tying you down. So this is just one aspect. The next video, I'll talk more about physiological symptoms to help you along with this. Um, but if you want to get right into work, if you are like, right now I need things to change in my life, work with me in Amplify Your Voice. It's my 6-week signature program. It is designed to uncover subconscious roadblocks, the blind spots going on in your mind that could be suppressed traumatic memories, self-limiting beliefs, negative core beliefs, anything that's just, you know, a hook on your brain that's keeping you, tying you down and holding you back. We identify those in the program and then launch you forward by expanding dialogue with yourself, communication with yourself, connection with others so that you are on track. In my last video, I talk about— and then I'm going to wrap this up— in my last video, I talk about the trajectory of people that have— if you're just drawing on a piece of paper with a pen, people that have no trauma, they're just like, I'm here, I'm living life, and it's a straight line, easy straight line. But people with trauma, you're like straight line, but A bunch of little squigglies and squirrelies, right? You can stop this. It is possible to stop this. You know, like the Tasmanian devil in your pen while you're while you're drawing it. It is possible. You have to believe that is it that it is possible, and that is where you start. And then with everything I shared in this video on the emotional domination, putting an end to that. It is by asking yourself, what am I feeling? What's it saying? Now, what am I going to do about it? Links below to work with me, to sign up for Amplify Your Voice, to buy my guide, Goodbye Trauma, and/or work with me one-on-one in Own Your Voice, my 3-month coaching package. I would love to connect with you. Please reach out. You are not alone. Thank you. There is so much space. There's so much room for you in this world and in this life. You are not alone. I know, I know this. It just feels like it because you're in that fog, and I want to get you out. So thank you, and please like, subscribe, comment. I'll see you in the next video.
