About Paula Walters
Understanding Trauma. Inspiring Hope. Creating Change.
I didn’t set out to become a trauma educator.
I simply wanted answers.
For years, I searched for explanations for symptoms that no one could fully explain. Despite seeing countless specialists, receiving multiple diagnoses, and trying countless treatments, I continued to struggle with neurological symptoms, cognitive challenges, chronic illness, and the invisible effects of trauma that few people recognized.
In 2006, my life changed after surviving a near-fatal strangulation that resulted in a traumatic brain injury. Looking back, I now understand that this event occurred on top of years of childhood trauma and chronic stress that had already shaped my brain and nervous system in ways I didn’t yet understand.
Like many survivors, I wasn’t asked what had happened to me.
Instead, I was asked what was wrong with me.
That question led me down a long road of searching.
The right question changed my life.
From Survivor to Educator
As I began learning about trauma, neuroscience, brain injury, and nervous system regulation, everything started to make sense.
The symptoms I had spent years trying to fix weren’t random.
They were connected.
That discovery transformed not only my own healing but also my life’s work.
Today, I help professionals, organizations, and communities understand the invisible effects of trauma and brain injury through education that combines neuroscience, professional experience, and lived experience.
My goal is simple:
To help people replace judgment with understanding, confusion with knowledge, and hopelessness with hope.
What I Teach
My work focuses on helping people understand:
• Trauma, the Brain & the Nervous System
• Brain Injury & Strangulation Awareness
• Survivor-Centered, Trauma-Informed Care
• Domestic Violence & Invisible Injuries
• Whole-Person Wellness & Resilience
• Healing After Trauma & Chronic Stress
Whether I’m speaking at a national conference, consulting with an organization, leading professional training, or recording an episode of The Courageous Journey Podcast, my mission remains the same:
Helping people understand how trauma impacts the brain, nervous system, and body—so healing, resilience, and lasting change become possible.
Experience & Leadership
Paula brings together more than two decades of frontline emergency medical experience with nationally recognized work in trauma, brain injury, and survivor education.
Highlights include:
• Paramedic with more than 20 years of emergency medical experience
• National speaker and educator on trauma, brain injury, strangulation, and survivor-centered care
• Consultant for healthcare, first responder, victim advocacy, and multidisciplinary audiences
• Presenter for national and international conferences, including the National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA), Futures Without Violence, the Ohio Supreme Court Judicial Conference, and Brain Injury Australia
• Contracted Trainer with the Ohio Child Protective Services Training Program
• Participant in the NASHIA PCORI Project advancing awareness of intimate partner violence-related brain injury
• Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) Team Member
• Advocate who provided proponent testimony supporting Ohio’s strangulation legislation
• Featured in national media, including The New York Times, for sharing the survivor perspective on trauma and recovery
Why This Matters
I don’t share my story because it is extraordinary.
I share it because it is familiar.
Every day, survivors are misunderstood.
Patients leave appointments without answers.
Professionals encounter behaviors they don’t fully understand.
Families struggle to make sense of changes they can’t explain.
When we understand how trauma affects the brain, nervous system, and body, everything changes.
We ask better questions.
We provide better care.
We build stronger systems.
And we create more opportunities for healing.
My Mission
I believe people’s behaviors make far more sense when we stop asking,
“What’s wrong with you?”
and begin asking,
“What happened to you?”
That simple shift has the power to transform how we care for one another, how we respond to trauma, and how we build healthier individuals, families, organizations, and communities.
Because healing isn’t about becoming who you were before trauma.
It’s about understanding your story, rebuilding your life, and discovering that hope is always possible.