Trauma Interrupted with Jan Broberg
Our Purpose
Trauma Interrupted with Jan Broberg exists to change the way trauma is understood, discussed, and healed. It is the primary public-facing voice of the foundation and the main audience entry point into the JBF ecosystem. The show bridges lived experience, survivor testimony, education, systems critique, recovery tools, and cultural conversation into one platform.
Why It Matters?
Trauma narratives are often fragmented, sensationalized, or oversimplified. Survivors are either ignored or reduced to their worst moments. Trauma Interrupted reframes trauma as a human experience, not an identity, and recovery as a collective responsibility, not an individual burden.
The podcast is not just storytelling, it is movement-building media.
Trauma Interrupted with Jan Broberg
Jessica Anne Pressler's Story • Naming the Traitor Within
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[Content Warning]: Discussions of childhood emotional neglect, adoption-based abandonment wounds, inappropriate aged relationship, domestic violence, suicidal ideation
Jessica Anne Pressler grew up in a home that looked safe from the outside, two successful parents, financial security, good schools, but there wasn't much room inside for feelings. Her father's alcoholism and her mother's emotional distance taught her early to be the good girl, to stay invisible, and to look the other way. At nine years old, she learned in a matter of minutes that she was adopted and was going to have a sibling. By fifteen, she was in a relationship with a twenty-year-old that would turn abusive.
Jessica is now a Columbia-trained psychotherapist with almost four decades in the field, and in this conversation with Jan Broberg, she introduces the concept she calls the Traitor Within, the coping mechanisms we build as children to feel safe, and the ways they quietly work against us as adults. She traces her own path from that first toxic relationship through years of therapizing, her own therapy, being a grief counselor, and finally to writing Traitor Within, a novel that lets readers recognize themselves in a story rather than a clinical label.
Jan and Jessica talk about naming trauma responses instead of pathologizing them, how an abandonment wound shapes adult relationships, careers, and friendships, and what it looks like to interrupt an intergenerational cycle, even decades into doing the work.
Traitor Within is available for pre-order now and ships September 22, 2026. Learn more at jessicaannepressler.com.
Pre-Order Jessica’s Book:
Traitor Within ByJessica Anne Pressler
After You’ve Pre-Ordered, To Receive The Year of Journal Prompts Follow These Steps:
1) Find your Amazon or Barnes & Noble order number
2) Go to JessicaAnnePressler.com/the-books
3) Fill out the form and await your email
Where to Find Jessica:
JessicaAnnePressler.com
Insta: @JessicaAnnePressler
If you or someone you know is experiencing emotional distress or suicidal ideation, please access the resources below:
National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: Call/Text 988
National Sexual Assault Hotline (RAINN) : 1-800-656-HOPE (4673)
National Alliance for Mental Illness: 1-800-950-6264
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