#109 – The Other Side of the Gun: Susan Snow on Murder, Survival, and Reclaiming Her Power Through Forgiveness
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I sit down with Susan Snow — author, speaker, and trauma resiliency coach — who was just 17 years old when her father, an LAPD robbery homicide detective, was assassinated in a planned drive-by shooting on Halloween night, 1985. Susan walks me through the moment she learned her father was gone, the years of undiagnosed PTSD that followed, and the emotional mask she wore for over a decade while quietly falling apart inside.
She shares how a first round of therapy left her with nothing — no tools, no diagnosis, no real answers — and how it took a second traumatic trigger, watching the Columbine shooting unfold on live TV 14 years later, to finally crack her open and force her to get real help. This time, the right therapist changed everything: sleep first, then nervous system regulation, then the slow, deliberate work of actually healing.
We also talk about her brother — who watched their father die and whose life took a very different path — her marriage falling apart and being rebuilt from the ground up, and what forgiveness actually means when you’ve survived something this brutal. Susan’s definition of forgiveness is one of the most powerful things I’ve heard on this show: taking your power back, not letting the people who hurt you walk with you anymore.
Her book is called The Other Side of the Gun: My Journey from Trauma to Resiliency, and this conversation is essential listening for anyone who has ever worn a brave face while quietly losing it inside.
Book: http://a.co/d/fFuR4iT
Chapters
[00:00] The Day Susan’s Father Was Killed
[05:30] A Teenager Alone in the Dark
[12:00] No Resources, No Diagnosis, No Tools
[19:00] The Mask She Wore for 14 Years
[25:00] Columbine Triggers Everything Again
[31:00] The Therapist Who Finally Asked the Right Questions
[36:00] Sleep, Journaling, and Rebuilding
[43:00] Her Brother’s Journey and Finding Each Other Again
[47:00] When a Marriage Falls Apart and Comes Back
[53:00] What Forgiveness Actually Means
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