i’m Tanisha Williams, LCPC—therapist, author, and founder of the HGIC (Healed Gangsta’s in Charge) Community. But before the credentials, before the letters after my name, I was just a woman in the trenches.
I know what it feels like to confuse chaos with chemistry, to mistake pain for passion, to keep giving love away hoping someone will finally see you. I lived through the heartbreaks, the betrayals, the trauma bonds. I carried scars in silence while building my career, raising my child, and trying to hold myself together. And like so many women, I thought survival was enough.
But survival was never the endgame. Healing is.
That’s why I wrote Sh!t I Learned in the Trenches: Love and Trauma—The Survival Guide for Women Who Been Through It. This book is raw, unfiltered, and real. It’s my story, but it’s also your story. It’s the blueprint for breaking toxic cycles, reclaiming your power, and learning how to love yourself in ways you were never taught.
When you open these pages, you’re not just reading a book—you’re stepping into a movement. The HGIC Community is where survivors become healers, where scars turn into strategy, and where women stop begging for love and start choosing themselves. It’s where we remind each other that the real flex isn’t just surviving the trenches—it’s graduating from them.
If you’ve ever felt like you’re too much, not enough, or just tired of giving your all and losing yourself in the process—this book was written for you. Not as another self-help manual full of fluff, but as a survival guide from someone who’s been there and fought their way back.
Welcome to the trenches—and the way out.