Episode 87

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Published on:

7th Dec 2025

Psychedelics, PTSD & a Mother’s Betrayal

In this raw, unflinching episode of Survival Mode Disrupted, I’m joined by Dr. Dawnmarie Risley-Childs—a board-certified psychiatrist and survivor of 24 years of domestic violence, physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse and neglect. Dawnmarie doesn’t just bring clinical insight. She brings lived experience. We walk through her story of growing up in a house that looked “fine” on the outside but was a war zone behind closed doors: a psychopathic stepfather, a mother who collaborated and minimized, and a childhood wired around fear, confusion, and survival.

She shares how:

  • Chronic exhaustion and PTSD followed her everywhere—even into her medical career
  • Ketamine treatment helped with anxiety and rumination… but didn’t touch the buried rage and terror
  • Underground psychedelic-assisted therapy (with mushrooms and LSD) opened locked doors in her memory, body, and emotions
  • She realized her mother wasn’t just a victim, but an active collaborator in her abuse
  • Releasing anger—rather than bypassing it with “forgiveness”—became a turning point in her healing
  • She moved from protecting her abusers to protecting herself and her children

And ultimately, we talk about what it means to reclaim your story, your body, and your future after being betrayed by the very people who were supposed to keep you safe.

🎙️ What We Talk About

  • How survival mode can feel like permanent exhaustion while you still keep pushing yourself to function
  • The “performance review” relationship with her mother and why nothing was ever good enough
  • Reading The Body Keeps the Score and finally understanding why her body was screaming
  • The difference between ketamine treatment and classic psychedelics like mushrooms/LSD in trauma processing (from her experience)
  • How psychedelic medicine can surface stored memories and emotions in a way traditional talk therapy often can’t reach
  • The moment she stopped trying to satisfy her mother and chose herself instead
  • Writing her book “The Offering: A Physician’s Journey through Abuse, Psychedelics, and the Freedom of Forgiveness” and why she ripped out a whole chapter to write a success chapter instead
  • The radical act of forgiving herself—not for what happened, but for carrying shame that was never hers

🔑 Key Takeaways

“Healing is possible. So many people feel broken. But you can heal.”
“I realised I was never going to satisfy my mother—and my life changed when I stopped trying.”
“Psychedelic medicine didn’t erase my trauma. It helped me finally feel the anger and terror I’d been swallowing for decades.”
“My mother wasn’t just looking away. She was collaborating. And I needed to stop protecting her more than I protected myself.”


📖 About the Book – The Offering

Title: The Offering: A Physician’s Journey through Abuse, Psychedelics, and the Freedom of Forgiveness


Dr. Dawnmarie’s book weaves:

  • her high-achieving, “on paper successful” life
  • the brutal reality of her childhood and young adulthood
  • her journey through PTSD, psychopathy, and complex trauma
  • and her healing through psychedelic-assisted therapy and self-forgiveness

It’s part memoir, part clinical insight, and part offering to anyone who’s ever felt too broken to heal.


🌐 Connect with Dr. Dawnmarie Risley-Childs

  • Book: The Offering: A Physician’s Journey through Abuse, Psychedelics, and the Freedom of Forgiveness


🔗 Resources & Links:


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About the Podcast

Survival Mode Disrupted with Leticia R Francis
Disruptive Unapologetic Conversations about Survival Mode
Survival Mode Disrupted is not just a podcast. It's a rebellion.

A raw, unfiltered space where we finally stop pretending we're fine and start telling the truth—the truth about the trauma we've carried, the identities they had to wear to survive, and the radical decisions we made to break free.

Because here's the deal: survival mode isn’t just a season. It’s a damn identity. One that so many were forced to adopt just to get through life, to stay safe, to stay needed, to stay sane. But eventually, it starts costing you more than it protects. Your peace. Your purpose. Your power.

This podcast is for the disruptors—the people who were told to stay small, stay silent, stay grateful for crumbs… and said “hell no.”

Hosted by Leticia, The Survival Mode Disruptor herself—a trauma recovery mentor, speaker, and woman who has lived through the fires of abuse, betrayal, and breakdown and still chose to rise—this show dives deep into the unapologetic exits from survival mode that no one talks about.

You’ll hear from women (and a few brave men) who walked away from toxic relationships, soul-sucking careers, generational dysfunction, religious trauma, cultural expectations, and the lies they were taught to believe about themselves. Not because it was easy—but because staying would’ve killed something sacred inside of them.

These are the stories of bold pivots, quiet courage, and messy but miraculous rebirths.

Each episode is a conversation—a disruption—meant to wake something up in you. Whether it’s a guest sharing the moment they chose themselves for the first time, or Leticia dropping a truth bomb that makes you question everything you’ve normalized, this podcast is here to shake the foundation of your survival mode identity and replace it with something truer. Something freer.

We’re not here for surface-level self-care tips or fake empowerment slogans.

We’re here to talk about what it really takes to:

Reclaim your voice after being silenced.

Reinvent yourself after being broken down.

Rewrite your story when everyone else wants you to stay the same.

Release the guilt of choosing YOU.

This is for those who are done performing. Done pleasing. Done pretending.

It’s for the ones ready to exit survival mode—not slowly, not quietly, but disruptively and unapologetically.

You won’t leave this podcast the same.
You’ll cry. You’ll rage. You’ll laugh.
You’ll see yourself in every story.
And more importantly, you’ll remember who the hell you are.

Welcome to Survival Mode Disrupted.
It’s not just a podcast.
It’s a movement.
And your exit begins here.

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About your host

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Leticia Francis

I am not here to inspire you—I am here to activate you.

As a Survivor, Keynote Speaker, and Trauma Recovery Mentor, I know what it’s like to fight battles no one sees. I also know that breaking free is possible. My work is about disrupting survival mode, exposing trauma-driven success cycles, and giving women the blueprint to reclaim their lives.

🔹 200+ podcast features & speaking engagements
🔹 Global Women of Choice Award Winner 2022
🔹 Creator of the Survival Mode Exit Plan
🔹 Host of Survival Mode Disrupted Podcast