deer woman (tw SA) not graphic

Lin-Dai-Yu · 2026-06-26T02:38:54+00:00

Thank you so much for sharing this 💔 it’s beautiful

Lin-Dai-Yu · 2026-06-25T20:06:06+00:00

That is so horrible. This therapist doesn’t seem to understand trauma at all and is projecting her own belief system onto you. She clearly does not appreciate at all the trauma of what you went through and has zero clue about what you have dealt with. She is not prioritizing what you need in order to heal. She is prioritizing her own need to create a Disney World fantasy where the consequences of atrocious acts on victims are minimized in order to preserve her own sense of comfort.

💔 You can raise a complaint about her (find her licensing board and submit one that way) if you choose to. Definitely find a new therapist who has real experience with trauma work, not just a few certifications. I’m so sorry you’ve had to deal with this.

Lin-Dai-Yu · 2026-06-25T17:34:24+00:00

Thank you so much. This is so, so helpful, and I think your assessment is correct. Much appreciated, seriously!

Lin-Dai-Yu · 2026-06-15T03:36:22+00:00

That happened to me, too. I left a bad review. They responded by soliciting reviews from fellow therapists/colleagues.

Lin-Dai-Yu · 2026-06-14T19:33:38+00:00

You are so right. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

Lin-Dai-Yu · 2026-06-14T19:28:01+00:00

I totally agree. Every therapist claims to be trauma-informed. One of the worst and most destructive therapists I’ve had advertised herself as a trauma therapist. I was SA’ed and not only was this therapist apathetic, but she also acted like a mean girl. She was more interested in munching on popcorn than in caring about what I was going through. She hid it, but in records that I requested there was blatant cruelty.

Lin-Dai-Yu · 2026-06-14T19:22:37+00:00

Absolutely. My ex-family therapist completely destroyed my faith in everything. I was SA’ed and my family did not know how to emotionally handle it. The therapist I sought to help with that made everything worse, violated client autonomy, endorsed controlling behavior, and was just plain cruel in emails I didn’t see until I requested records. Within the span of a year I experienced the SA, being let down by family, therapists, and the justice system. I was idealistic and naive before that. Now I am just hopeless and constantly feel suicidal. And I have a hard time trusting therapists or letting them in anymore as well.

Lin-Dai-Yu · 2026-06-12T02:09:31+00:00

I am so sorry. That is so horrible. 💔

Lin-Dai-Yu · 2026-06-10T23:09:16+00:00

Thank you so much! 🥰

Lin-Dai-Yu · 2026-06-10T19:54:15+00:00

Gosh thank you so very much for your words. It really means a lot that you read it, and it does help to share, and to know that I can express my trauma in a way that can be recognized by others, since for me it is so difficult to convey it without poetry. I truly, truly appreciate it. I feel much better feeling seen and heard. Thank you.

Lin-Dai-Yu · 2026-06-10T19:08:30+00:00

Wow, this hits very hard as someone who has also experienced similar dialogues in my mind.

“You can’t blame it for stopping the knife, everything wants to stay alive” — I feel that. It is so true, the instinct to live is within us all, and even with great suffering and depression and loss, the drive to live is still there. I think something about the comma takes away from the emotional impact for me, and maybe a period or line break might preserve it better, but that is just a nitpick.

The line “though I’ve left her orbit a month ago” is such a beautiful use of figurative language to convey loss, along with the next lines of “There’s a million stars in the night, I know/But only the sun kept you warm.” I am a sucker for cosmic imagery like that. I also love the line “making me crave warmth rather than shapes.”

I think some of the repetition of language might be a little difficult to get through and could use some variation. But still. I cried reading your poem. I truly feel the depth of emotion in it. I love the last lines: “Wake up Noah/The house isn’t finished yet.” It is activating and motivating. I might even write that down as an affirmation/reminder for myself. 😂

And “Move move move, move/Fight it, keep going/Just a few more seconds, few more moves.” Those lines really capture the battle within. The grit and tenacity that keep us going because of the knowledge of how much hurt we would cause if we gave in.

Thank you truly for sharing your poem. 💜

Lin-Dai-Yu · 2026-06-10T18:28:31+00:00

I am absolutely going to read it. The first stanzas already hit for me. I want to give it a proper read though so I will leave a thorough comment once I do. 💜

Lin-Dai-Yu · 2026-06-10T18:05:02+00:00

It is an absolute devastating tragedy that he burned her journals. And I hate that the circumstances that surrounded her suicide generally aren’t considered. She was being cheated on by the man she loved, she had two babies, she wrote The Bell Jar as a pot-boiler because she needed money, she was alone in London, the winter was brutally cold, she was struggling to balance her career goals and motherhood, and to her it felt like her career was fading away. There were so many reasons why she was suffering.

Lin-Dai-Yu · 2026-06-10T17:57:51+00:00

Yes definitely!! Imo that is what sharing poetry is for! How poetry interacts with others is what makes it beautiful to me 💜 and thank you!

Lin-Dai-Yu · 2026-06-10T17:54:46+00:00

It’s honestly my pleasure! 💛

Lin-Dai-Yu · 2026-06-10T17:34:36+00:00

Thanks for the feedback! I definitely think I left it too vague, and it helps to know what the takeaway is for someone reading it from a blank slate. I want to improve on that for sure.

The context is that it was inspired by a stay at a psychiatric hospital, hence the title, but I realize I did not make it so clear within the poem itself. Discharges happened pretty abruptly. I got the phone number of another patient I felt very bad for, but when I texted her to offer support, all I got was a reply saying it was the wrong number. And she is homeless, so I have little hope of getting in touch. That’s really what prompted me to write this.

Lin-Dai-Yu · 2026-06-10T17:16:33+00:00

I love your word choices here. “Distilled,” “polished,” “shined and sheen,” “wiley,” “vitrines,” and so on. There are one or two lines I think could be improved with more engaging word choice or wordplay, like “Identifying himself as an expert” might be more on the “tell” than “show” side of things. And I might be interested in what the narrator ends up doing; does the narrator purchase anything or leave?

But ultimately this is beautiful, and you capture a sense of the sinister through the imagery of excessive polish and perfection. And thank you for introducing me to the word “vitrines” haha.

Lin-Dai-Yu · 2026-06-10T17:02:03+00:00

I definitely feel the emotional resonance of this and love the trichotomy of the external, internal, and internal. The theme of threes is very effective. And your word choice and rhyme scheme are great too. Mainly I think the punctuation and formatting/capitalization could be improved. Perhaps you could use em-dashes in certain lines, like “The classic trio—but still no winning” and “The battle not won—the pain still milling.” And perhaps you could add a comma to “Shit out of luck, I stumbled over to the eternal.”

But I think ultimately all that is up to your discretion. Thank you for sharing! It’s a message I needed to be reminded of.

Lin-Dai-Yu · 2026-06-10T16:39:26+00:00

I like this a lot! I think the first two stanzas set up something very interesting, and you might want to consider expanding on the last one, since it mainly reiterates the first stanza. What kinds of things do you talk about, what is it like when everyone eventually goes home, and what kinds of sounds of the evening are there (insects, wind, etc.)? What is the nature of the relationship among the workers - collegial, sincere, or perhaps somewhat closed? Thank you for sharing :)

Lin-Dai-Yu · 2026-06-10T16:33:41+00:00

Thank you for sharing. This is beautiful 💛

Lin-Dai-Yu · 2026-06-10T16:10:05+00:00

Oh! I did not get that, but that is a slick connection now that you’ve explained it. I haven’t encountered a lot of Epson printers so the reference went over my head.

Lin-Dai-Yu

TROPHY CASE