Macedonia-Born, Toronto-Based Artist Channels Journey from Trauma to Healing in Achingly Honest Track
Macedonia-born, Toronto-based artist Betty Strings (Elizabeth Anne Cook) unveils “Trust Myself,” a powerfully vulnerable new single that transforms years of trauma and healing into an anthem of self-reclamation.
Co-written with 2007 Canadian Idol winner Brian Melo and songwriter Paul William Stephens, and brought to life by the instrumental artistry of Matt Fasullo on banjo, the track emerged from an extraordinary creative process where Cook channeled her story in real time during Zoom writing sessions.
“We all got on Zoom, we decided on a topic I was struggling with that week—for instance, TRUST,” Cook explains. “I told my story, Paul took notes, Brian came up with a beautiful melody, and we all wrote the song together, in one session. It was beyond any of us. It was magic.” Written in late 2022 but held until Cook had completed the healing work necessary to sing it authentically, “Trust Myself” captures the painful journey of learning to trust again when the voice inside your head has become your own abuser, echoing with lines like “After all the pain they put me through / Never believing in my magic / And now you’re telling me I have it / And I can trust myself with loving you.”
The song chronicles Cook’s path from survival mode to genuine connection, documenting what happens when someone who has only known chaos, addiction, and abuse is finally offered unconditional love. “My normal was toxicity, addiction, and abuse. I became so addicted to the chaos that the light was so foreign to me,” Cook shares. The track confronts the devastating reality of becoming your own abuser, when the protective voice that once kept you safe from danger becomes the very thing preventing you from accepting love and truth.
Listen on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/album/4iXXa2O6fYAqqAQibrwLUs?si=K3thpoIcRQqETZGlbW0u_A&nd=1&dlsi=ff4b556ba41e4597
Cook’s therapist told her she had to treat her mind like an addiction and complete the 12-step program on herself—a terrifying prospect when the person you’re supposed to trust most has become dangerous. The five-year journey that brought Cook to this moment of authentic expression involved surrendering control to faith, asking God to free her not just from her past but from herself. With Melo and Stephens guiding her through the storytelling and Fasullo’s banjo work adding emotional texture, “Trust Myself” became a vehicle for Cook to reclaim the joyful, passionate young woman who had been waiting on the other side of fear, the version of herself she always dreamt of being even when surrounded by darkness.
“Trust Myself” is one of six songs Cook wrote with her collaborators in 2022, all circling back to the central theme of getting in her own way and learning what trust looks like when you’ve only known pain. The decision to wait until now to release the music speaks to Cook’s commitment to authenticity—she needed to do the work first, to stand firm in trust and acceptance, before she could sing these songs with the conviction they deserved.
“I wasn’t ready to bring them fully to life until I’d done the work, so I am able to sing and talk about them, in all of their authenticity,” she reflects. The result is a deeply moving piece of art that transforms personal struggle into universal truth, offering hope to anyone who has ever had to learn to trust themselves again. Betty Strings emerges as an artist unafraid to excavate her own story, turn debris into beauty, and prove that the road map home—no matter how many times it’s been burned to ashes—can always be rebuilt.
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