The Still I Heal Project
Healing childhood trauma, one survivor at a time
My Story. My Why.
I learned what fear felt like long before I understood what it meant, but my childhood did not get to write the ending of my story.
I'm Dr. Angela Solic, an educator, author, speaker, advocate, and survivor of childhood emotional abuse and complex PTSD. I founded the Still I Heal Project because I know what it means to grow up believing the things other people tell you about yourself, and I know what it takes to begin questioning those beliefs.
For nearly three decades, I've dedicated my professional life to education. But some of the most important lessons I've learned came from my own journey of understanding childhood trauma, recognizing the survival patterns it created, and discovering that I could choose a different way to live.
Today, I help others recognize how their past may be shaping their present, and understand that their future can be different.
Once you know, you can choose differently.
Where My Story Began
My earliest memory is of fear.
I was about three years old, sitting on a motel bed, holding my little brother, and around me was chaos, a drunk father banging on the door to get in, a young mother screaming and throwing things. I remember the violence, the uncertainty, and the feeling of being powerless in a world that was supposed to keep me safe.
I learned fear before I had the language to explain it.
My childhood was shaped by addiction, alcoholism, emotional, sexual and physical abuse, and instability. I grew up learning to anticipate other people's moods, to question my own worth, and to survive circumstances no child should have to navigate.
But here's something I've come to understand: children don't get to choose the environments in which they're raised. They are forced to adapt to them.
We learn to become quiet, to be perfect, to please others, anticipate danger, and make ourselves smaller. We develop ways of surviving that can follow us well into adulthood.
And sometimes, we don't recognize those patterns for what they are until decades later. For a long time, I didn't fully understand how much of my adult life had been influenced by what I experienced as a child. Understanding those connections became an important part of my own healing journey.
As children, we become who we need to be. As adults, we can decide who we want to be.
More of My Story
I became a mother at 21.
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I didn't have a healthy model of parenting to follow. I didn't have a roadmap for creating the kind of home I wished I'd grown up in, but I knew one thing: I wanted something different for my children.
I wanted them to grow up knowing they were loved, valued, respected, and safe to be themselves. I wanted them to understand that mistakes didn't make them unworthy of love and that their voices mattered. I wanted them to know that THEY mattered.
I couldn't change my childhood, but I could make different choices about the childhood I gave my children. That decision became part of a much larger journey.
I went on to build a career in higher education, eventually earning my Ph.D. in Education and spending nearly three decades helping others learn, grow, and recognize their potential, but professional accomplishments don't automatically erase childhood wounds.
Even as I built a meaningful career and raised my family, I continued discovering ways my early experiences had influenced my relationships, beliefs, and responses to the world around me. I came to understand that surviving adversity and healing from it are not the same thing.
Healing required me to recognize patterns I hadn't chosen, question beliefs I'd carried for years, and begin making intentional decisions about who I wanted to become and who was allowed to participate in my life. That realization eventually became the foundation of the Still I Heal Project.
Our past may explain some of our patterns, but it doesn't have to determine our future.
Why I Founded
The Still I Heal Project
For years, I wondered how many people were living their adult lives without realizing that the behaviors, fears, and beliefs holding them back had roots in their childhood experiences. How many successful, capable adults still believed they weren't good enough? How many people struggled to set boundaries because they'd been taught that having needs was selfish? How many stayed in unhealthy relationships because chaos, criticism, or emotional neglect felt familiar? And how many blamed themselves for survival patterns they developed when they were too young to have any other choice?
I founded the Still I Heal Project to help people begin answering those questions. My mission is to bring awareness to childhood emotional abuse, help survivors recognize its lasting effects, and provide education and practical strategies for building healthier, more intentional lives. Through videos, books, educational resources, speaking engagements, and programs, I work to make conversations about emotional abuse accessible to people who may never have had the language to describe what they experienced.
I also believe that prevention matters. Parents, educators, and communities have an important role in recognizing emotional harm, protecting children, and breaking cycles that have continued for generations. I'm not a licensed therapist, and the Still I Heal Project is not a substitute for professional mental health care. I bring together my lived experience, my background in education, and trauma-informed advocacy and research to help people better understand themselves and explore their options for healing.
Above all, I want people to understand something I wish I'd known much earlier: You are not required to believe everything you were taught about yourself. You are not obligated to repeat the patterns you inherited. And you are not too old or too damaged to choose a different future.
Once you know, you can choose differently.
Your Story Isn't
Over Yet
If you've found your way here because you're beginning to question things about your childhood, your relationships, or the way you see yourself, I want you to know that understanding your past can be the beginning of something extraordinary.
You don't have to have all the answers today and you don't have to heal on anyone else's timeline. You definitely don't have to become the person someone else convinced you that you were.
You have the opportunity to discover who you are beyond the expectations, labels, and survival patterns you've carried for so long. That's why I created the Still I Heal Project.
Whether you're here to learn, find encouragement, explore resources, or begin making changes in your life, I hope you find something that helps you move forward. You deserve a life that reflects who you choose to become, not simply what you've survived.
