Ep. 55 Childhood Trauma, Resilience, and the Five Rs of Healing with Kathleen Harnish McKune and Karen Dixon

Show Notes:

In this powerful episode of Healing Doesn’t Have to Be Heavy, host Angie Berrett sits down with sisters Kathleen Harnish McKune and Karen Dixon, trauma survivors, authors, and founders of the nonprofit Remarkably Resilient.

Kathleen and Karen share how discovering the neuroscience of trauma later in life transformed their understanding of childhood abuse, chronic health challenges, and long held survival patterns. Together, they explore how trauma responses such as fight, flight, freeze, dissociation, and people pleasing are not flaws, but adaptive coping strategies rooted in the nervous system.

The conversation highlights the difference between trauma responses and one’s authentic self, re-framing healing as a process of uncovering who we are rather than fixing what is broken. Kathleen and Karen introduce their Five Rs of Resilience: relationships, regulation, response, recovery, and reflection, and explain how these principles guide their community based healing work.

Listeners will also gain practical, accessible tools for emotional regulation that support healing without re-traumatization, along with insight into the power of community, compassion, and nervous system awareness on the healing journey.

Kathleen’s Bio:  

Kathleen Harnish McKune, MBA. Kathleen’s professional and personal work has always focused on empowering others. Professionally, she is co-founder and CEO of TeamTech, LLC, a Kansas City-based strategic facilitation and leadership training firm whose work embodies trauma-informed principles. Over the past 30 years, she has worked with two Kansas governors, most state agencies, many of the county governments in the state as well as nonprofits – all of whom serve the most vulnerable in our communities.  She is one of the authors of TeamTech’s leadership curriculum, “Everyone A Leader®,” teaching trauma-informed facilitative leadership skills at all levels of organizations. 

Karen’s Bio:

Karen is a co-author of the book,” Remarkably Resilient-Community Matters”, along with her two sisters. She is a former EMT/ER technician and is retired from her corporate IT and Engineering recruitment position. 

To connect with our guest, click on the links below:

Facebook:   https://www.facebook.com/RemarkablyResilientTogether/

LinkedIn:   https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/remarkably-resilient

Website:  Remarkably Resilient – It takes all of us to heal each of us.

Connect with me:

Website:  https://angieberrettmovement.com/

Instagram:  https://Instagram.com/angieberrettmovement 

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/angie.berrett/ 

YouTube:    https://www.youtube.com/@angieberrettmovement 

LinkedIn:    https://www.linkedin.com/in/angieberrettmovement/ 

TikTok:       https://www.tiktok.com/@angieberrettmovement?_t=8qP9poCboWA&_r=1

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