The Official And Now Love Podcast: www.andnowlove.com HaGomel Website: www.hagomel.org True healing means breaking through isolation to know ourselves without the weight of our trauma — and it's rarely something we can do alone. In this deeply moving episode, Cynthia Marks welcomes Elya Braden, founder and president of HaGomel, a Los Angeles nonprofit providing expressive arts programming for women healing from sexual trauma. The name comes from Birkat HaGomel, an ancient Jewish prayer of gratitude spoken aloud after surviving a life-threatening danger — one that must be witnessed by community, so that others can answer back: we see you, we affirm you, and we are so glad you are alive. Elya shares her own remarkable journey with grace and candor — from a childhood where writing became her secret refuge, through a career in law that quieted her creative voice, to the long road of confronting her past and finding her way home to herself through art and poetry. Together, she and Cynthia explore how creativity heals, why being witnessed by a supportive community is so transformative, and how each of us, once we've healed enough, can offer that healing to others. It's a conversation about self-love, courage, and the truth Elya returns to again and again: you are not alone, you are loved, and you absolutely deserve joy. This is And Now Love. Listen to your dreams and live from your heart. Please follow, rate, and share the podcast, and pass this episode along to someone who might need it. To learn more, get involved, or support this work, visit the HaGomel community online and at Elya Braden's website, where you can also find her poetry collections Open the Fist and the forthcoming The Dragonfly Puzzle Box. This episode includes candid discussion of childhood sexual abuse, shared in the spirit of healing. If you or someone you love needs support, the RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline is available 24/7 at 1-800-656-4673. Follow our socials: Instagram / / andnowlove.podcast Facebook / / And Now Love Podcast Youtube / / @AndNowLovePodcast TikTok / / and.now.love.podc 0:30 — Welcome, Elya Braden 2:50 — A Childhood in the Arts, and a Secret Refuge 7:00 — The "If Only" Trap and Memories Resurfacing 11:00 — Leaving Law and Reclaiming Creativity 19:00 — Forgiveness and Facing the Past 33:00 — Building HaGomel and Communal Witnessing 44:00 — Art as a Path Back to the Self 52:00 — Poetry, Community, and Deserving Joy