Welcome to Our Human Kind
Our Human Kind is an informational website dedicated to providing hope and healing for families and individuals who are navigating the storms of crisis, mental health concerns, and addiction.
The Fractured Family
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Traumatic experiences ripple through our family histories, altering the DNA we pass down to our offspring.
Additionally, how we are in relationships is based on the type of parent-child emotional bonds that existed between our grandparents and our parents, as well as the bonds we (as parents) have with our own children.
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The psychologically impactful parent-child dyads that interrupt the child’s development.
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Manipulation tactics which are only used to serve the agenda of one individual, will inevitably create a path that will ultimately lead to destruction.
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The manner in which the family system perceives sexual behaviors can impact a child’s further development in relation to sexuality and intimacy.
Trans-Generational Trauma and Attachment
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A fancy phrase for the process one goes through in order to understand the self in relation to others, leading to the creation of unique worldviews.
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It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more.
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The varying roles that family members tend to adopt highlight the extensive abilities we have as human beings to adapt to a multitude of problematic circumstances.
Parent-Child Role Corruption
Exploring the impactful roles children take on in problematic parent-child dyads
Power and Control
We have a tendency to assume the best even when our experiences would indicate otherwise. Our internal relationship with power and control plays a major part in deciding how and where we allow our individual power and control to exist.
Sexual Deviance
It’s everywhere. Early exposure, religious dogma, shame, and perceived inadequacy are just a few aspects that have played a major role in establishing what we understand as sexual norms. Sexual deviance has been swept under the rug, ignored, or explained away in every generation. Doing so has led us to feel confused and disconnected from the true essence of sexuality and intimacy.
Grief & Grit
What does it look like to be a part of a fractured family? We hear people say all the time that every family has their problems, and it’s true the variations of family dysfunction are endless. Even families that appear to have all the makings of a success story, can be confronted with a level of chaos that washes away all hope and potential of what could’ve been, leaving us only with what is.
This is my story about all of that.
About
Courtney G. Donley, MSE, MHP
Courtney Donley was born and raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
In 2003, she followed in the footsteps of her mother, grandfather, great-grandfather, and great-great-grandfather, and attended the University of Tennessee Knoxville, where she received a bachelor’s of arts in psychology.
In 2010, Courtney attended the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh where she received a master’s degree in the science of education, with an emphasis in clinical mental health.
By 2013, Courtney believed she had mastered the straight and narrow with the establishment of her future career as a mental health therapist and a coinciding pregnancy with her first child. Then, the unthinkable happened.
In 2015, Courtney lost her mother to a rare type of renal cell cancer. In 2016 she lost her brother to alcohol-induced liver failure, and in 2021 she lost her father to his second heart attack. In January of 2022, Courtney returned to her silent and empty childhood home where she was forced to wrestle one last time with the demons of her past.
The events and tales that Courtney has experienced have come with challenges and hardships that reach far beyond the imagination. After diving into the history of her ancestors, she discovered that somehow, this was the life she was always meant to endure.
Grief & Grit is dedicated in loving memory to those who have inspired the power of spiritual perseverance.
