From Complex PTSD to Helping Others Heal: Meet Deborah Christensen
Some people choose a career because it interests them. Others choose it because they've lived it. Deborah Christensen falls into the second category.
When you speak with Deborah, you quickly realise she isn't simply repeating techniques she learned in a classroom. She understands trauma, anxiety and healing because she's walked that path herself.
For more than three decades, Deborah has been on her own healing journey, and today she's helping others discover that change is possible.
"I've been on my own healing journey for like 30 years."
Deborah openly shares that she was diagnosed with Complex PTSD around 30 years ago.
Alongside that came major depression, anxiety and periods of suicidal thinking.
Today, she tells a very different story.
"I wouldn't meet the criteria now... I certainly am not depressed now."
For Deborah, healing wasn't about finding one magic solution. It was about discovering approaches that worked together. She credits somatic work, hypnotherapy, meditation and nervous system regulation as the turning point. "Those two things did more in the last few years than the previous 25 years on my healing." That lived experience is what fuels her passion today.
Healing Isn't About Fixing People
One of the things that stands out when talking with Deborah is how gentle her philosophy is.
She doesn't see herself as someone who "fixes" people.
Instead, she creates a safe space where healing can naturally unfold.
As Deborah explains:
"I do know that you can get to a place where your body and your mind can heal itself. I'm just the guide."
It's a refreshing perspective in a world that often promises quick fixes.
Creating Space to Simply Receive
One of Deborah's most loved offerings is her Midweek Melt, a weekly online group designed particularly for women who spend most of their lives looking after everyone else.
Rather than another class where participants are expected to perform or achieve something, the focus is remarkably simple.
Receiving.
"It's a space you can show up as you are. You don't have to participate. It's about receiving."
Through a blend of somatic awareness, meditation and conversational hypnotherapy inspired by Milton Erickson, Deborah helps participants reconnect with themselves.
Sessions have explored topics such as:
Restful sleep
Inner child healing
Body acceptance
Emotional regulation
Self compassion
For many participants, it has become a protected hour in their week.
One client even told her husband:
"Wednesday night's mine... nobody disturb me. This is my time."
Perhaps that's something many of us need permission to do.
Why Deborah Believes the Body Holds the Answers
Deborah has developed a particular interest in trauma and chronic pain.
Rather than seeing pain as something to fight against, she encourages people to become curious about what their nervous system may be communicating.
As she explains:
"The body's not the enemy. It's signalling us. It's trying to protect us."
This understanding allows her to combine hypnotherapy with somatic approaches that help clients calm the nervous system and change the brain's interpretation of ongoing pain.
It's an area of practice that continues to fascinate her because she's witnessed remarkable shifts, both personally and professionally.
A Therapist Who Understands
Perhaps the greatest gift Deborah brings isn't simply knowledge.
It's empathy.
She knows what hopelessness can feel like.
She understands what it's like to believe things may never improve.
And because she's lived through those experiences herself, she brings a level of compassion that can't be taught in textbooks.
As Trish Pellen observed during their conversation:
"You've been there. You know what those dark times feel like. And you can help people come out of that."
Deborah's response was simple. "100%."
