ABOUT ME & THIS WEBSITE
My name is Susan Mintz and I am the CEO and President for Inner Dimensions Corporation, an educational consultancy. I am an expert on the topic of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). My expertise is based on learning through organic knowledge of my own history of a series of sexual assaults beginning in my early teens, decades ago. It has continued through various forms of therapies, a personal study of human behavior through observation, sexual assault group participation and study, sexual assault crisis training, and formal education. My formal education consists of a BA in Psychology with a concentration in Industrial / Organizational psychology; an MS in Educational Psychology; and a PhD in Educational Psychology.
There is some information available on the impact of PTSD. You can find books on it. You can find some websites on it. It was not so readily available at the time that I needed it, decades ago, but it can be a starting point.
My experience was that there was very little support or knowledge pertaining to PTSD and sexual assault. My experience is, to this day, that help and support remains very difficult to come by.
I have decided to share my journey and expertise in the hope that others may learn and benefit from my experiences. The primary audience for this information is 1) those that also have PTSD due to sexual assault, 2) those that have PTSD due to other trauma, and 3) those that have others in their lives that have PTSD.
I will be sharing my experiences relative to three areas:
This describes what it has been like for me to live with PTSD as a result of sexual assault.
My perception of how society interacts with the topics of sexual assault and PTSD.
How I have fought my way back and refused to be put in a pre-defined box of societal and family expectations as a result of sexual assault.
It is likely that when you read my stories that you may hear my voice from where I stand in my life today. It is just as likely that the voice in my writings may be straight from the 14, 16, or 17 year-old me that resonated with that time and place in my life. That can be the nature of severe trauma. When I recall certain incidents, they are vividly held in that time-and-place, and I return with absolute perfect recall to that point in time.
More About Me
I currently live in Southern California with my loving and nurturing husband and our 2 cats, Scarlett and Rory. I have a fulfilling career as an Educational Psychologist and an MS and PhD in the same concentration. If you are interested in knowing more about my personal story, sexual assaults, and road to a life post-trauma, you can purchase my book, I'm Not Good at Holding Hands.
In my free time, and before the COVID-19 pandemic, I loved traveling with my husband and often my entire family including my three beautiful daughters and their families. My favorite places are the Big Island in Hawaii, almost anywhere in the UK (Scotland and London are at the top of the list), and Italy. I'm happy to say that we have once again begun to travel, albeit, carefully.