Living Unbreakably Alive: How a Former Runaway Transformed Chronic Trauma into Trauma-Responsive Emotional Intelligence

Elizabeth Power unveils trauma-responsive tools to accelerate personal and organizational recovery while reducing trauma, time, and costs.

LOS ANGELES, CA, UNITED STATES, October 12, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- NASHVILLE, TN — In 1979, Elizabeth Power arrived in Nashville, Tennessee. She was broke, terrified, and getting away from a background of severe, chronic disruption. Losing her father before the age of three, surviving overwhelming medical crises in early childhood, and leaving home at age 14, Power spent two decades navigating survival.

To make ends meet, she worked as a cobbler and patcher at a Nashville shoe shop known for servicing the city’s glitterati and music royalty. Behind the counter, Power mended and tailored shoes for iconic figures, including Oprah Winfrey, Dolly Parton, Al Gore, and Minnie Pearl.

"As a patcher, my job was to take shoes the puppy chewed or boots that needed custom tailoring and make them look whole again," Power recalls. "At the time, I was hiding behind that leather counter, carrying the invisible weight of profound trauma."

When a social worker formally diagnosed her with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in 1980—and a decade later, what was then called Multiple Personality Disorder—the prevailing medical community offered little hope. In the mid-1970s, a psychiatrist over the phone told her words that would stay with her for decades: "I’m sorry, you’re too sick for me to work with."

Refusing to accept a lifetime of chronic crisis or endless therapy loops that re-traumatized without teaching actionable skills, Power embarked on a quest to understand how the human brain and spirit adapt, learn, and heal.

In Healer: Reducing Crises, Power addresses a critical flaw in conventional trauma recovery: the endless repetition of painful narrative stories without acquiring the missing developmental skills required for daily stability.

"I failed therapy more times than people can imagine," says Power. "I got angry at the need to tell the same painful story over and over again without mastering the core emotional skills I missed as a child because I was too busy trying to survive. I discovered that those missing skills are the same skills Emotional Intelligence calls on. When you master them through a trauma-responsive lens, they become extraordinarily potent agents of healing."

Healer: Reducing Crises introduces readers to Power’s Trauma-Responsive Emotional Intelligence (TR-EQ) framework. Rather than viewing post-traumatic responses as mental illnesses, TR-EQ reframes them as skill deficits that can be learned and integrated. When therapy is also needed, it is easier for both the clinician and the client.

Elizabeth Power’s work, used on every continent except Antarctica, reaches global audiences through two complementary organizations:

EPower and Associates (For-Profit Micro-Corporation)
Established in 1982, EPower and Associates has evolved from a sole proprietorship into a globally recognized micro-corporation.

Clientele ranges from Fortune 500 companies and solopreneurs to government agencies, medical research facilities, and major non-profit organizations. Elizabeth Power specializes in organizational change, innovation, trauma-responsive workplace systems, and AI Enablement. In AI Enablement, Power and her corporate partners combine linguistics, adult learning theory, neurobiology, and influence to optimize how human workforce dynamics intersect with emerging artificial intelligence platforms.

The Trauma Informed Academy^® (Not-For-Profit)

As a dedicated non-profit entity, The Trauma Informed Academy^® focuses on democratizing TR-EQ by helping people develop coping skills and resilience education, equipping communities, educators, healthcare workers, and underserved populations with accessible tools. Elizabeth Power speaks and delivers keynotes and workshops at an average of 23 major conferences annually, addressing topics such as Trauma and Poverty, TR-EQ as a protective factor, and The Arc from Quietly Cracking to Unbreakably Alive.

ABOUT ELIZABETH POWER, M.ED.

Elizabeth Power, M.Ed., is an internationally acclaimed author, motivational speaker, instructional designer, and authority on trauma-responsive systems and resilience. A former Adjunct Instructor in Psychiatry at Georgetown University Medical Center and Vanderbilt University graduate, Power has delivered transformative training worldwide. She is the founder of The Trauma Informed Academy^® and CEO of EPower and Associates. She lives in Tennessee, where she writes, gardens, cooks, and teaches people worldwide how to live "unbreakably alive."

Elizabeth Power, M.Ed., an award-winning educator, motivational speaker, founder of The Trauma Informed Academy^®, and CEO of EPower and Associates, officially announces the release of her landmark new book, Healer: Reducing Crises.

To learn more, please visit: www.elizabethpower.com and the-tia.org

Amanda Kent
Boundless Media USA
+1 313-403-5636