
The Crappy Childhood Fairy Podcast with Anna Runkle
I’m Anna Runkle, also known as the Crappy Childhood Fairy, and I teach people to recognize and heal the symptoms of Childhood PTSD. Welcome to my podcast!I’m not a doctor or therapist; I know about childhood trauma because I lived it, and I discovered a radical approach to healing that focuses first on calming neurological dysregulation, which is common in people who grew up with abuse and neglect. In my podcasts, I teach about dysregulation – how to know if you have it, what it can do to your body, your thinking and your relationships, and what to do to master re-regulation. When I learned this, everything in my life got suddenly easier. I’ll also be teaching you to heal the life problems that so often develop after years of living dysregulated – feeling tired, isolated and unfocused, finding yourself always drawn to unavailable and inappropriate partners, and falling WAY short of your professional potential, for example. The thing about me is, traditional therapies never seemed to help me. When I found techniques that did work, my whole life changed. Only in the past few years has the trauma research caught up to explain why – why the techniques I use worked, why therapy didn’t, and why my healing journey was so unnecessarily long. I’ve been teaching what I learned for more than 20 years now. It started with friends who had noticed the quick and dramatic change in me, and gradually grew by word of mouth. In 2016, I had so many people seeking instruction that I made my first online video, and then an online course, and this is how Crappy Childhood Fairy was born. My techniques and principles are practical yet powerful – an approach anyone can use, whether or not you have access to professional help. In this podcast, I’ll be talking about the master of self-regulation, and teach the tough-love life-lessons that you may not have learned at home – like how to date so that stable love finds you, how to get ahead at work, and how to calm the negative hamster-wheel thoughts that block your ability to connect with other people. Today, almost half a million people follow my work and participate in my training and coaching programs. My mission is to change the paradigm of what’s possible for people like us, and to help you free yourself from the oppression of trauma wounds, and to become your full, happy and real self. I’m glad you’re here! Watch new videos on my YouTube channel every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and access my videos, courses and free tools at crappychildhoodfairy.com.
Latest episodes

Mar 5, 2025 • 16min
Childhood Trauma and Self-Deception in Relationships
In life, there are people who are going to try to treat you badly. Your gut is going to tell you that what they’re doing is NOT OK, and your gut KNOWS you need to get out of there. But if you were abused or neglected as a kid? There’s something a lot stronger than what you know to be true, and that’s the fear of leaving someone you’ve formed an attachment with. It will make you doubt what you see and hear with your own eyes, and you’ll talk yourself into putting up with something that two hours ago you KNEW was a deal breaker. In this video I respond to a letter from a woman who realizes she is hurting herself with self-deception.
Watch Out For These Dating Red Flags DOWNLOAD WORKSHEET: FREE PDF Download: https://bit.ly/3T7surQ
🟢 Order My New Book, RE-REGULATED: https://bit.ly/4dtGVze
Take my FREE Course or Quizzes: https://bit.ly/40M2YeW
Enroll in my Courses or Membership: https://bit.ly/3HP5qcf
Send your questions & comments to: hello@crappychildhoodfairy.com
NEED ONLINE THERAPY? *BetterHelp* can connect you with a licensed, online therapist: https://betterhelp.com/CCF

Mar 3, 2025 • 27min
These Conversation Mistakes Push People Away (Try This Instead)
The most powerful thing you can do to have meaningful connection with people is to make them feel like you hear them. People love this, and doing it is an art. But very few people get trained how to do this, especially those of us who grew up in dysfunctional families. In this video, I'll teach you how to overcome ten common conversation stoppers that push people away, and how to make people feel heard and appreciated instead.
How to Be a Better Friend: FREE PDF Download: https://bit.ly/3WS0475
🟢 Order My New Book, RE-REGULATED: https://bit.ly/4dtGVze
Take my FREE Course or Quizzes: https://bit.ly/40M2YeW
Enroll in my Courses or Membership: https://bit.ly/3HP5qcf
Send your questions & comments to: hello@crappychildhoodfairy.com
NEED ONLINE THERAPY? *BetterHelp* can connect you with a licensed, online therapist: https://betterhelp.com/CCF

Mar 2, 2025 • 2h 5min
How to Be a Strong and Powerful Person (4-Video Compilation)
This discussion unveils the effects of childhood trauma on personal power and self-worth. It provides practical tools and community support to aid in healing. Emphasis is placed on reclaiming personal strength, setting boundaries, and overcoming negative behaviors. Financial independence and self-care are highlighted as crucial for breaking free from toxic relationships. Additionally, the journey of recognizing personal value in the workplace is explored. The natural healing process is likened to grass growth, reinforcing resilience and the capability to recover.

Feb 28, 2025 • 27min
Is He the One Who Can’t Do Intimacy? Or Are YOU?
Being avoidant in relationships isn’t just the obvious stuff – they won’t commit, they blow hot and cold, they ghost you when you try to talk about commitment. You might not realize this, but if you have a PATTERN of falling for people like this, YOU are avoiding intimacy just as much, but in your own way. In this video I respond to a letter from a woman who is navigating a relationship where two people who can't get close fall madly in love!
Do You Struggle to Connect with People?: FREE PDF Download: https://bit.ly/3LcjDD8
🟢 Order My New Book, RE-REGULATED: https://bit.ly/4dtGVze
Take my FREE Course or Quizzes: https://bit.ly/40M2YeW
Enroll in my Courses or Membership: https://bit.ly/3HP5qcf
Send your questions & comments to: hello@crappychildhoodfairy.com
NEED ONLINE THERAPY? *BetterHelp* can connect you with a licensed, online therapist: https://betterhelp.com/CCF

Feb 26, 2025 • 21min
What to Do When Compulsive Lying is Destroying Your Life
Nothing good can come from relationships built on lies. You can tell yourself that you lie because you don’t want to hurt the other person. You can tell yourself you lie because something bad happened to you when you were a kid. And you can put all kinds of psychological jargon on it. But if you keep doing it, it will wreck everything in your life, and seriously harm others around you. So the question is, how far are you willing to go to STOP the lies? My letter today is from a man I’ll call Artie, and he writes.
16 CPTSD Behaviors That Sabotage Your Success: FREE PDF Download: https://bit.ly/3mmvYdA
🟢 Order My New Book, RE-REGULATED: https://bit.ly/4dtGVze
Take my FREE Course or Quizzes: https://bit.ly/40M2YeW
Enroll in my Courses or Membership: https://bit.ly/3HP5qcf
Send your questions & comments to: hello@crappychildhoodfairy.com
NEED ONLINE THERAPY? *BetterHelp* can connect you with a licensed, online therapist: https://betterhelp.com/CCF

Feb 24, 2025 • 21min
Here's How to Tell If Your Nervous System is Dysregulated
The core symptom of early trauma is neurological dysregulation, and it drives almost every other CPTSD symptom (or makes it worse). In this video, I explain what dysregulation is, what it feels like, and how you can support trauma healing powerfully by learning to re-regulate quickly, and stay regulated more of the time. Doing this can help you feel calmer and more focused, and increase your success in healing.
Learn Quick Measures to Get Re-Regulated: FREE PDF Download: https://bit.ly/3YBrIVg
🟢 Order My New Book, RE-REGULATED: https://bit.ly/4dtGVze
Take my FREE Course or Quizzes: https://bit.ly/40M2YeW
Enroll in my Courses or Membership: https://bit.ly/3HP5qcf
Send your questions & comments to: hello@crappychildhoodfairy.com
NEED ONLINE THERAPY? *BetterHelp* can connect you with a licensed, online therapist: https://betterhelp.com/CCF

Feb 23, 2025 • 1h 40min
Strategies for People With Trauma to Succeed
Work and career are important to success and happiness. But trauma from your childhood can trigger behaviors that block your advancement and ruin opportunities. In this 4-video compilation, I teach how common trauma-driven behaviors can hurt your work life, and how you can stop the self-sabotage, manage your symptoms and thrive in your career.
Do you have CPTSD? Take the QUIZ: FREE PDF Download: https://bit.ly/3X9MZ7J
🟢 Order My New Book, RE-REGULATED: https://bit.ly/4dtGVze
Take my FREE Course or Quizzes: https://bit.ly/40M2YeW
Enroll in my Courses or Membership: https://bit.ly/3HP5qcf
Send your questions & comments to: hello@crappychildhoodfairy.com
NEED ONLINE THERAPY? *BetterHelp* can connect you with a licensed, online therapist: https://betterhelp.com/CCF

Feb 21, 2025 • 14min
How to Escape Emotional Manipulation Before It’s Too Late
People who were traumatized in the past can be easy targets for people seeking CONTROL. Has this happened to you? If your sense of self is not yet strong, it's easy to fall under the spell of someone who will TELL you who you are. They’ll what you should do and if you push back, they will punish you. This is narcissistic abuse. It’s emotional manipulation. And it's how people can be "brainwashed" to believe anything. In this video, I reply to a letter from a woman with a controlling boyfriend, who is desperate for advice. But can she hear it?
10 Things Romantic Manipulators Say: FREE PDF Download: https://bit.ly/3ZcUnkm
🟢 Order My New Book, RE-REGULATED: https://bit.ly/4dtGVze
Take my FREE Course or Quizzes: https://bit.ly/40M2YeW
Enroll in my Courses or Membership: https://bit.ly/3HP5qcf
Send your questions & comments to: hello@crappychildhoodfairy.com
NEED ONLINE THERAPY? *BetterHelp* can connect you with a licensed, online therapist: https://betterhelp.com/CCF

Feb 19, 2025 • 21min
How to Set Boundaries with a Sibling with CPTSD
When someone is wounded by trauma in childhood, it can SEEM to them that other people should be able to make them feel better. They may believe that if only you cared enough, or validated their feelings enough, their loneliness and hurt would go away. This is a lot of pressure, and a projection that you can't actually fix for them. It's hard to be compassionate with someone who is hurting, and yet say NO to their demands that you keep listening, keep giving, and keep taking responsibility for their healing. In this video, I respond to a letter from a woman who is fed up with a sibling's venting and emotional hounding. Hear my advice for how to set boundaries with a sibling with CPTSD. Difficult People in Your Life?
Try These NINJA BOUNDARIES: FREE PDF Download: https://bit.ly/3YCnpZJ
🟢 Order My New Book, RE-REGULATED: https://bit.ly/4dtGVze
Take my FREE Course or Quizzes: https://bit.ly/40M2YeW
Enroll in my Courses or Membership: https://bit.ly/3HP5qcf
Send your questions & comments to: hello@crappychildhoodfairy.com
NEED ONLINE THERAPY? *BetterHelp* can connect you with a licensed, online therapist: https://betterhelp.com/CCF

Feb 17, 2025 • 17min
Signs That Early Trauma Affects You Now
Complex PTSD (CPTSD) is a cluster of symptoms that can result from chronic, intense, ongoing trauma, usually during childhood. The symptoms include poor mental focus and procrastination, emotional dysregulation, chronic health problems and a haunting sense of disconnection from other people. It can be a huge relief to discover these symptoms have a name. And once you know the signs, you can get to work on healing. In this video, I teach 12 signs that early trauma may be affecting you now. Share in the comments which ones you've noticed in yourself.
Do you have CPTSD? Take the QUIZ: FREE PDF Download: https://bit.ly/3X9MZ7J
🟢 Order My New Book, RE-REGULATED: https://bit.ly/4dtGVze
Take my FREE Course or Quizzes: https://bit.ly/40M2YeW
Enroll in my Courses or Membership: https://bit.ly/3HP5qcf
Send your questions & comments to: hello@crappychildhoodfairy.com
NEED ONLINE THERAPY? *BetterHelp* can connect you with a licensed, online therapist: https://betterhelp.com/CCF