The Gathering

©️ By Sophie Lewis | The Grooming Files | Shadowborn Series

There comes a point in your healing where you realise… it’s not just about you anymore.

Not because you’ve finished, no one ever really finishes, but because you’ve become the kind of person you needed when you were breaking.

You carry the flame now.

Not to burn it all down (unless it needs to be), but to light the way for those still crawling through the dark.

The Survivor’s Flame

You don’t survive hell without it marking you. You come back with a different kind of knowing, one you can’t get from books or therapy.

This fire doesn’t make you special. It makes you ready.

To hold. To witness. To guide.

Not as a guru. Not as a professional. As a survivor.

We Were Never Meant to Heal Alone

I used to think healing had to be done in silence. That it was some solo mission. That if I needed others, I was weak.

But trauma isolates. And healing reconnects.

The deeper I healed, the more I craved realness, the kind you don’t find in neat therapy rooms or toxic positivity circles.

I wanted to sit with people who got it. Who didn’t flinch when I told the truth. Who didn’t need me to be palatable or poetic or past it.

People like you.

Why We Need Each Other Now

This world wasn’t built for our kind.

It was built to silence us. Gaslight us. Institutionalise us.

Whether you’re a survivor of grooming, abuse, domestic warzones, state betrayal, emotional violence or all of the above, you’ve carried too much, for too long, with too little support.

And I’ve had enough.

Of survivors doing it alone. Of systems pretending. Of healing being locked behind paywalls.

So let’s do what they won’t. Let’s build it ourselves.

A New Kind of Healing Space

Not a course. Not a product. A space.

Messy. Real. Survivor-led.

Where:

Triggers aren’t taboo, they’re tools
Rage isn’t feared, it’s honoured
Grief isn’t rushed
Vulnerability isn’t punished

This isn’t group therapy. It’s soul survival.

We hold each other in the fire, not to fix, but to feel.

From Survivor to Guide

You don’t need qualifications to be a guide. You’ve lived.

You know what it means to shake and stay. To fall and crawl back. To speak when your throat’s closing.

That’s enough.

I’m writing a survivor guide. For all of us who didn’t have one. And I want to build it with you.

Not as an expert. As a mirror.

The Dream: A Healing Collective

Eventually? Retreats. Not the luxury kind. The real kind.

Grounded. Raw. Intimate. Run by survivors, for survivors.

Circles instead of hierarchies. Shared grief. Shared fire. Shared truth.

We heal in community. We rise in collective. We build what they never gave us.

You’re Not Alone — You’re Early

You weren’t broken. You were just ahead. Too awake. Too raw. Too much.

And now? You’re not alone anymore.

This is the gathering. Of the ones who made it out. Of the ones who still feel everything. Of the ones who never stopped believing there was more.

The Shadowborn don’t disappear. They gather. They guide.

And they fucking rise.

🌑 Soph x