About Malene
My name is Malene, and I started Between Trust and Trauma because survivors of mental health abuse deserve a place to stand together — and because our voices are frankly the missing piece in how this system gets held accountable.
I am 54 years old. I live in a 24-foot trailer with my service dog Cinnamon and my cat Moon Shadow, spending summers in northern Arizona and winters near Quartzsite in the south. I am disabled — PTSD/C-PTSD and ADHD — and in 2024 and 2025 I survived serious psychiatric abuse at The Guidance Center in Flagstaff, Arizona. Between Trust and Trauma came directly from that experience. When I sought accountability, The Guidance Center defended their conduct, doubled down on the harm, and made clear they had no interest in genuine change. My experience is well documented. The work to challenge their patterns of abuse is ongoing.
Between Trust and Trauma exists because what happened to me is frightfully common, — in clinics across is country and beyond. Mental health systems routinely harm the people they claim to serve, and then use shame and professional authority to keep survivors of institutional harm silent. That ends here.
Join me.
Between Trust and Trauma 