AUTHOR • SPEAKER • FOUNDER
Mom • Wife • Friend
Still walking it out, one honest step at a time.
What happened to you does not get to decide how your story ends. My life is the evidence.
I'm Debbie Barentine. I write and speak about the “life after,” which is the long road of healing from relationship trauma, the faith that carried me through it, and the joy that came back when I stopped bracing for the next blow.
Free book
Grief comes in waves. Some you see coming. Some knock you flat.
I wrote this short book for the days you're not sure you'll get back up. Seven chapters. Honest words from my own life. Journal questions to help you find yours.
It's free. It's yours.
I'll also send you a note now and then. You can leave anytime.
If you don't see it in a few minutes, check your spam or promotions folder.
I'll write now and then with what I'm learning, and I'll let you know when I'm speaking near you.
Planning an event? Invite me to speak →What I believe
I know because I've lived it. I tell the truth about what I've lived, what healing has looked like, and what I'm still learning. I haven't arrived. I'm still walking.
“Even if I am the only one healed, let that be enough.”Debbie Barentine
I wrote this in a season of uncertainty. It became surrender and peace.
More than one story
My story has trauma in it. It also has healing, and everything that grew after.
Survival was a chapter. It was never the whole book.
Tap a word to read a line from me.
— Debbie
Seasons
I have spent this season crying in my chair that faces the long driveway. Then I dried my tears, after I allowed them, and walked out to water my garden full of zinnias and poppies.
A garden is seasons. Grief is a season, sometimes a long one. Trauma recovery comes in seasons too.
The zinnias are joyful in the sadness.
Meet Debbie
I'm a survivor of relationship trauma, including emotional, verbal, and physical abuse, and a woman of faith. For ten years I've poured my prayers into my journal, and through faith, things I thought were gone for good came back: rest, laughter, and curiosity.
Faith also gave me the courage to build. I've run businesses and I build websites, and today every one of those skills serves one focus: helping women heal.
Along the way I founded Graceful Confidence, a nonprofit providing long-term aftercare for women recovering from relationship trauma.
Debbie Barentine
How I show up
Honest notes in your inbox, and the memoir I'm writing now. It starts with a free book on grief.
Get the free book →Speaking wherever people need to hear that their story isn't over. Honest, hopeful, and personal.
Hear when I'm speaking near you → Book Debbie to speak →Speaking
Debbie writes, speaks, and teaches from lived experience about the “life after”: honest, hopeful, and personal.
The memoir
A memoir, in progress.
The hard parts, and the life that came after. Title coming soon.
Join my list to be first in line when it releases →You are enough, and you are worthy of healing.
You don't have to have it all figured out. I don't either. Start with the book.
Get Let the Wave Go