In this self‑help video, vocalist, trauma survivor, and composer Brooke Ritchie shares her personal story of a 15‑year‑old suppressed traumatic memory that resurfaced through a three‑year practice of voice journaling. She explains how the memory—being forced to walk three miles alone after being abandoned from a van at age 15—led her to adopt a state of emotional "neutrality" by stripping away vivid colors, belongings, and even people associated with the event. Using a car‑gear‑shift metaphor, she argues that staying in neutrality is unsafe because it removes agency and increases the risk of psychological crash. Ritchie outlines a two‑step approach to break out of neutrality: (1) deliberately seek out the negative, suppressed elements, which in turn uncovers the positive aspects, and (2) continue voice‑journaling to listen to the inner voice urging attention. She encourages viewers to persist despite discomfort and promotes her 6‑week "Amplify Your Voice" program, offering a limited‑time 50 % discount, to help others unlock suppressed memories, overcome limiting beliefs, and amplify their personal voice.
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Hey folks, and welcome to my channel. I'm Brooke Ritchie, a 20-year vocalist and trauma survivor. I'm also a film composer and indie rock artist, and I do a few other things. I've done a lot of other things in the music scene, but I really have this channel here to benefit those of you who have lost their voice, they feel suppressed, and they want to unlock their voice. So this series is on suppressed trauma. I suffered from a suppressed memory for 15 years that was stuck in my subconscious mind, and over the course of 3 years, I was able to uncover it through voice journaling. I think everyone can do this. I strongly believe in the power of the human voice and the use of multiple languages on the brain. Music is a second language on the brain. Your vocabulary and your ability to expand your vocabulary— your vocabulary is the number one antidote against something that is a hook on your brain. Because what's needed for that hook on the brain is to diversify, really. Um, because when it's a hyperfixation on the— in the brain, right, you— whether it's subconscious or it's conscious, it's a hyperfixation, and it's keeping your brain in, um, a space of stagnancy. And that's what I want to talk about in this video, is this space of neutrality that trauma survivors often get into. I was stuck in it for For years. I still struggle with it at times because I'm still on my own journey. But it's this place of neutrality where you say, where in your mind, when the trauma happened, you say, this was such an extreme experience. I didn't like it. You responded how you responded, and it, you know, it had the impact that it had on you. It was such an extreme experience. You Then think any extreme is going to be just as painful of an experience. Okay, so here's what I mean. I got stuck running at 2.83 miles for years. Anytime I would go past that, I would get major shin splints and just complete exhaustion. Like, I just didn't— I didn't— I wasn't able to run past 3 miles. And why is 3 miles a big deal? Because when I was 15, this is when the suppressed Traumatic memory happened. I was forced out of a van on the way home, and then I was forced to walk back home to the psychological, emotional, narcissistic abuse I was experiencing. Okay, so that's why it's a big deal because physio the physiology that was going on in the moment of trauma, I had to walk three miles by myself. I was traumatized. I was in a traumatized state walking from point A to point B. I hope this is— I hope you're following with this. I was in a traumatized state from point A, stuck on the road alone, didn't have money, didn't have a car. Um, I had a phone with me, but I didn't call anyone. Um, so I walked. I walked home. And I walk home 3 miles in this state of trauma, guilt, shame, frustration, anger, everything. Balled up in these— this 3-mile walk. Okay, I forget the memory by the next morning. I forget it all. And within the next 2 weeks— I've shared this— people at school start asking me, why are you mad all the time? I don't have an answer. I tell them it's just my face. Um, so neutrality is what, what happened for me. Um, because I think If you can resonate with my story, then you're able to unlock things for yourself. So what happened for me when I was 15, then that was such an extreme experience. It was an extreme negative. I then decide over the next several weeks to get rid of all the extreme goods in my life. I cover them all up. So I had a really brightly colored room. I painted that all white. I've shared this. I got rid of the backpack that was colorful that I also had to walk with On that walk, I changed it out for a very bland colored backpack or an old one I had from middle school kind of thing. I even went as far to dye my shoes. I had a— I had a— those Vans shoes, the slip-ons, the green ones. I had the really, really bright green ones, not neon or anything, just like a kelly green or something, and I bleached them. I bleached the color out of them. And what I was doing— this is what my 15-year-old self was doing— I was excluding the extreme negative and the extreme positive, all the things I actually really loved. I even went as far as to remove people, um, from the experience. So from, from the experience on the roadway, I removed my the people that were there, um, and I dispersed the memory. So these are just things to help you kind of— if you feel like there's something bubbling up or there's a tiny voice that's like, you got to pay attention to this, you got to pay attention to this, guiding you, you know, um, this is for you. So the extreme goods and the things I loved, also block those out. So what does that do? That brings you where Into a place of neutrality. And staying in neutral is dangerous. Here's why. Think of it like a car. If you're on the roadway and you are going 60 miles an hour, and all of a sudden your gear shift moves, you push it by accident into neutral and it gets stuck. What is going to happen? What's the likelihood? That you are going to crash? What is the likelihood that someone else is going to crash into you? And when you crash, what is the likelihood you will survive depending on how fast you were going, depending on the road? It's up in the air. There, there is no control. That's why neutrality is not safe. And I need you to do the work and get out Of the neutral space. Okay, so we can do this in 2 different ways. How I did it was I really focused on finding the negative things, and the more that I found— because this was the suppressed trauma, I was really focused on finding my suppressed trauma. When you do that, when you start to uncover those things, the good is also going to become uncovered, and that's actually what is going to help you find the suppressed trauma, you will start recognizing things like that voice that I said, that I talked about, that tiny voice that's saying you should pay attention to this. Oh, that name sounds familiar. You know, at the time in my life when I found this suppressed memory, I was actually living just a block off of a road that had the same road name. You know, instead of an avenue, it was a highway. But it had the same roadway name as when I was 15 and I was abandoned. Okay, so it's things like this, but this is if you're curious, and this is if you want to overcome that suppressed trauma. The good stuff is going to keep coming the more that you unlock the negative. So I want to encourage you. To keep doing the work, to keep doing the voice journaling so that you can unlock that negative. And if you want help, today only until midnight, you can get Amplify Your Voice, my 6-week signature program designed to help you unlock suppressed memories, overcome limiting beliefs, step into your voice, and amplify your life in just 6 weeks. You get 3 mini sessions in it. And the turnaround that I've seen with people has been pretty remarkable, and I have seen them go from this place of uncertainty and insecurity to, oh, I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna do that and I'm gonna do that. And it's the best thing to see. So you can get it 50% off. The link is in the description below, and I really hope to see you join that program and to Let your voice bloom because it is not fun being stuck here. It's not fun. You don't have to live your life that way. Just to affirm this to you, you do not have to stay stuck in the negative, and it's also not safe to stay in neutral. It's not safe to stay in neutral. So Wherever you are at on the spectrum of this, I encourage you and I plead that you keep doing the work and don't give up. Even though those pressure points that you're going to face are going to make it feel like you can't do it, you can do it. Connect with yourself when you get to those spaces. All you have to do is connect with yourself. See what's going on with your body so that you can take the next best step. I'll see you in the next video, and I hope to see you in Amplify Your Voice.
