Afraid To Be Me: Pam Boudreau

Pam Boudreau is the author of Afraid To Be Me: A Journey Through Trauma, Awareness, and Recovery.Born with a congenital heart defect, a bicuspid aortic valve, Pam underwent life-changing open-heart surgery at 57, known as the Ross procedure. The difficult recovery and the cognitive and neurological changes that followed changed the course of her life and eventually led her to begin looking at her story in a way she never had before.As she began learning about trauma, attachment, childhood development, and the nervous system, Pam started to understand how childhood and adolescent trauma, loss, fear, and survival patterns had shaped much of her life without her realizing it. Afraid To Be Me grew out of that journey. Writing from lived experience, Pam shares what she has learned about awareness, recovery, faith, and finding compassion for the person underneath all the ways she learned to survive.Pam and her husband, Mike, live in Rothesay, New Brunswick. At the heart of their life together is their family, including Ryan and Jie and their grandsons, Lucas and Mason, whom they love dearly. They continue to attend King's Church in Quispamsis and are both involved in Celebrate Recovery.Through her writing, Pam hopes others will recognize pieces of their own story and discover that healing and freedom are possible.