After suffering a breakdown at work, a nurse has had to confront her lifetime of damaging self-sacrifice | Ahona Guha

Bec

was a psychiatric nurse and worked at a public hospital in an inpatient unit.

She was proud of her work ethic and said that always being available to her team and patients was important to her.

While she had a partner, she was often too tired to see her girlfriend, or to socialise with friends or exercise.

Her pattern was typical of the archetype of the wounded healer.

Bec is a fictitious amalgam to exemplify many similar cases that I see Dr Ahona Guha is a clinical and forensic psychologist, trauma expert and author from Melbourne . She is the author of Reclaim: Understanding Complex Trauma and Those Who Abuse , and Life Skills for a Broken World .