From Crisis to Clarity — Turning Lived Experience into Practical Frameworks

A journey from collapse to understanding, and from understanding to tools that help others find stability

Aromal SB May 2026

For over a decade, I worked as a senior electrical engineer — a profession built on precision, systems thinking, and the disciplined solving of complex problems. My life changed when I experienced a severe mental health crisis. I was declared treatment resistant.

This forced me to confront questions that conventional treatment alone could not fully answer. What began as an attempt to understand my own experience gradually became years of disciplined, independent research into crisis, recovery, and long-term psychological stability.

That journey led me across many fields, including

• Neuroscience
• Clinical psychology
• Epigenetics
• Somatic practices
• Contemplative studies

I was searching for practical understanding. I needed to know why recovery could feel real one moment, only to collapse without warning the next.

I wanted to address a severe structural gap in our care system — a gap I survived twice, and one I deeply believe others should not have to navigate alone.

To bridge this gap, I extracted and simplified complex concepts into practical, accessible tools, focusing on three foundational pillars

The Three Pillars

🔁 Rebound

 The return to crisis after apparent recovery. This phenomenon is both common and poorly understood. It is not the same as relapse in addiction, nor the rebound people speak about in relationships. It is something more specific, and  more disorienting. When it happens, it can shatter a person’s confidence in their own capacity to heal. Understanding it — and naming it clearly — is, I believe, the first step towards breaking its cycle.

🚦 Traffic Light System

This emerged from a simple but often overlooked truth: not all tools work at all times. A technique that supports someone during a stable period may be entirely unsuitable for someone in acute distress. The Traffic Light System is a state-based framework designed to help individuals recognise where they are in any given moment and choose the most appropriate response accordingly. It helps people respond more appropriately to their actual condition, rather than forcing themselves through approaches their body and mind cannot yet sustain.

🪜↗ Stabilisation Ladder

A practical approach for moments of overwhelm, collapse, panic, or emotional shutdown. During crisis, clear thinking becomes difficult. The body tightens, energy drops, and even simple decisions can feel unreachable. The Stabilisation Ladder is a step-by-step method designed to work with the body first — to stabilise, to regulate, to create just enough steadiness — before engaging the mind. It is not about bypassing thought, but about sequencing recovery in a way that actually works.

These three concepts became the foundation from which my wider research developed.

My book,

NOT BROKEN: From Crisis to Clarity and Growth

is the first major outcome of that work.

It brings together lived experience, careful research, and practical frameworks shaped through years of study and personal application.

The book draws not only from academic and clinical sources, but also from direct experience within psychiatric care — through crisis, rebound, recovery, growth, and transformation.

While research into these areas is extensive, it is often fragmented across disciplines, institutions, and borders. Vital insights frequently remain hidden within dense academic literature or tucked away in specialized therapeutic traditions that are difficult for the public to access.

My work bridges this gap:

I gather, simplify, and organize these complex ideas into clear, actionable frameworks that anyone can apply during their most challenging moments.

I write from a place of lived experience, having personally navigated the very voids I now seek to fill.

I also approach this work with the mind of an engineer—relentlessly searching for the structures, patterns, and systems that can truly help people manage complexity.

My hope is simple:

Ensure that no one feels lost when crisis strikes

By making the path to recovery easier to navigate, I aim to provide the tools necessary  to regain stability, find clarity, and move forward with confidence toward genuine growth and transformation.

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