Healing from Childhood PTSD with Anna Runkle

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In a world still learning how to talk about trauma, Anna Runkle—known widely as the Crappy Childhood Fairy—is a rare voice of clarity, warmth, and radical practicality. Her story is not just one of survival but of transformation. Through her lived experience with childhood PTSD, Anna discovered not only how to heal herself, but how to teach others to do the same.

Podcast with Anna Runkle graphic

Her approach is not rooted in conventional therapy alone, nor is it mystical or abstract. It’s deeply human, grounded in daily tools, neuroscience, and a healthy dose of real talk. She turned a lifetime of emotional chaos into a movement—one that helps people around the world regulate their nervous systems, reframe their stories, and reclaim their lives.

The Breaking Point That Sparked a New Beginning

Anna’s healing began in the midst of devastation. In her twenties, she experienced a perfect storm of emotional trauma: a breakup, the death of her mother, and a violent street attack—all layered over unresolved pain from childhood abuse and neglect. Her mental and physical systems crashed. She couldn’t read, couldn’t speak on the phone, and doctors found nothing wrong.

“There was no word for it then,” she recalls. “I was going to therapy, to doctors, but nothing helped. It was totally unbearable.”

When a friend suggested she try a technique from a sobriety program—writing out fears and resentments and asking for them to be removed—Anna was desperate enough to try. Even though she didn’t believe in God, she wrote a prayer at the bottom of the page.

And to her shock, something shifted.

“I started to feel better immediately. She told me to do it twice a day. Within two weeks, not only could I read and use a phone again, but I was more focused than I had ever been in my life.”

What Anna had stumbled upon was a self-regulation method—one that calmed her nervous system and brought her out of what we now recognize as dysregulation, a key symptom of complex PTSD.

Understanding Dysregulation—and Why Healing Must Begin There

“Everybody gets dysregulated sometimes,” Anna explains, “but if you grew up with abuse or neglect, it can become a chronic state.”

Dysregulation happens when the nervous system is overwhelmed and enters a fight, flight, freeze, or collapse response. For someone with childhood PTSD, this can be frequent and debilitating. You might lose your train of thought, spiral into fear, or lash out irrationally—even when the current situation doesn’t warrant it.

Crucially, Anna teaches that healing doesn’t start by endlessly analyzing the past. “You can’t heal when you’re dysregulated,” she says. “You can’t even think clearly, let alone reflect or grow. Re-regulation has to come first.”

Her daily practice—writing and meditation—became the cornerstone of her healing and the foundation of what she now teaches thousands of others.

The Daily Practice: Clearing the Emotional Clutter

Anna’s daily practice is deceptively simple: write out fears and resentments, then follow with 20 minutes of meditation.

But this isn’t journaling. “Journals are for remembering. This writing is about release. Think of it like sweeping leaves off a windshield. You’re not inspecting them, you’re just getting them out of the way so you can see.”

She encourages people to treat these thoughts like junk—trivial, serious, or repetitive, it doesn’t matter. What matters is creating the space for clarity and emotional calm.

Meditation follows immediately. Anna teaches a simple method that doesn’t require posture, mantras, or even experience. “Just close your eyes and sit quietly for 20 minutes. If a word helps you focus, use one. That’s it.”

Over time, this practice trains the nervous system to re-regulate. Thoughts become clearer. Emotional reactions soften. The body begins to heal.

When Science Caught Up With Experience

For years, Anna used her practice as a spiritual tool. But when she read The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk in 2015, she discovered the research to back up what she’d known intuitively.

“I found out that what I’d been doing for decades had a scientific explanation,” she says. “It’s a neurological reality. Trauma from childhood changes the brain and body.”

In fact, studies like the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) research have shown direct links between early trauma and adult health issues like diabetes, autoimmune disorders, and heart disease. Anna herself has lived with several autoimmune conditions—an experience she now sees through the lens of trauma and nervous system dysregulation.

Healing Is Messy, Practical, and Possible

Anna’s path wasn’t a clean upward climb. At one point, she stopped her daily practice for two years and found herself slipping into worse behaviors and relationships than ever before. “That’s when I knew: this isn’t just a nice habit. It’s my lifeline.”

Her healing didn’t come from talk therapy alone. “Talking about the past just re-triggered me. What helped was physical practices, nervous system regulation, and connection.”

She emphasizes that different people heal in different ways. Some respond to body-based practices like yoga, dance, or bilateral movement. Others, like Anna, respond more to language and structure. Her work combines both.

The Bigger Mission: Teaching Others to Heal

What began as a personal survival strategy turned into a global movement. At first, she taught her techniques one-on-one. Then, her living room filled with people. She started a blog, then a YouTube channel, and now offers online courses and group coaching.

“Now I have a whole universe of tools, and people working with me to help others,” she says. “And I still do the practice. Because it works.”

At the heart of her teaching is not just symptom relief—it’s wholeness.

“Healing is not just about getting rid of pain,” she explains. “That pain is a doorway. And on the other side of it is the person you were meant to be—the true self that trauma tried to bury.”

You Are Not Broken—You Are Becoming

For those who have lived through childhood trauma, Anna’s story is more than inspiration—it’s instruction. She reminds us that healing doesn’t come in grand epiphanies or perfect breakthroughs, but in simple, repeated acts of self-kindness.

It’s in choosing to scoop out the water from the leaky boat every day. It’s in learning to pause before reacting. And it’s in discovering, sometimes for the first time, that wholeness isn’t something you earn—it’s something you remember.

Want to Learn More?

Anna offers a free course on her website introducing the Daily Practice, along with deeper trainings on childhood PTSD, emotional regulation, relationships, and more. Visit crappychildhoodfairy.com to start exploring.

Her YouTube channel features hundreds of videos on topics like emotional flashbacks, CPTSD in relationships, and what to do when therapy doesn’t help.