With the amount of trauma all have endured in the past year and a half, I’m seeing individuals experiencing old traumas coming up unexpectedly and memories of unresolved trauma’s plaguing sleep and daily life.
Along with physical treatments for trauma, we need emotional release options that we can turn to when needed. This is a method I’ve used effectively for clients dealing with trauma/ PTSD for many years and have trained professionals on the use of in the Trauma Release trainings.
I hope it’s useful for you and would love to hear your feedback.
UNDERSTANDING UNRESOLVED TRAUMA
There have been times in all of our lives when we didn’t listen to the inner knowing, perhaps didn’t even know what intuition was at the time, and were taken advantage of, physically or emotionally hurt or and / our self-confidence was impacted. We are taught by society to pull ourselves up after these times, shake it off and move forward. We do this often without actually ever facing what we went through and this causes a level of trauma for many of us and it can degrade the connection to our deeper Selves. We may also start to dismiss ourselves and our needs more often after such an event, and, as a result, we may stop trusting ourselves. I believe this self-devaluation is a key factor in depression, anxiety and many emotional spirals we can fall into as we move forward after traumatic events.
We need to give ourselves the time and self-compassion to stop and heal that part of ourselves that got caught in something we never intended to be so harmed by.
The first step can be what I call an ‘Reconnection and Reconciliation with the Selves’.
NOTE: if you have PTSD, please do this only with your therapist or other trained professional as you can re-trigger your emotions and I want you to be safe.
THE HEALING PRACTICE: CONNECTING WITH YOUR SELVES
Get into a space of gently recalling the experience of trauma. No forcing, just allowing it to come forth. If you receive a visual memory and are seeing it through your own eyes (this means you are still in some way consciously or unconsciously feeling presently attached to it) see if you can step out of yourself and become an observer off to one side watching the event instead.
NOTE: if this is bringing up strong emotion PLEASE STOP and do this with someone who can hold the space for you in a safe and gentle environment.
WRITE – If you are not bringing up strong / triggering emotions about the event and feel safe working with it, open your eyes and write down how the event makes you feel about yourself now.
Next close your eyes and tap into that younger you that went through the event and ask how they feel about themselves right now. (If this is a new concept for you, perhaps explore inner child work, parts therapy and/or gestalt therapies first and then return to this portion of the exercise. You can still move on to the next step and skip this one if you wish to.)
WRITE – Open your eyes and write that down (feel free to switch to the non-dominant hand if it’s a child part – this is an inner child communication method).
Read what you wrote and fall into compassion in your heart for yourself.
WRITE – Now write about what this event taught you without judging it and how you changed because of the event.
Take some time to explore if the changes that you made and/or that happened within you or your behavior because of the experience were helpful or harmful for you and if you wish to shift any of these inner structures that came up because of the event. No need to DO anything now, we are just noticing.
Now that you have explored the learning, next close your eyes and tap into your heart and ask yourself if the you today can forgive yourself for any choice you made then that you feel regret, shame or guilt about.
If not, ask yourself what it would take for you to forgive yourself, is there something you need first? Again we are exploring and learning our needs, not judging or forcing an outcome.
WRITE – Write down any action items that come up for what you feel you need in order to forgive yourself and make note of if it feels like it’s you today asking or a younger version / part of you.
Next ask yourself if you feel you trust yourself now and if not, what would you need to regain the deep trust within yourself?
WRITE – Write down any action items that come up for what you feel you need in order to trust yourself and make note of if it feels like it’s you today asking or a younger version / part of you.
Next close your eyes and connect with you and your younger part(s) and let all of you know you are proud of yourself and hold compassion and love for all you have endured and the strength and courage it took to experience the event and to explore this healing today.
You have taken an important first step! You have begin the journey of self-discovering and healing of this event.
Perhaps take a break now, and come back and read what you wrote later or another day. When you do revisit, see if there are any actions you wish to take to help heal. You can also revisit the event this way a few times and each time you may feel less and less affected by it. If after revisiting it up to two more times, you are not finding yourself less affected by the event, please stop revisiting and seek assistance from a trusted counselor / healer as you may be dealing with a situation that would benefit from additional support / assistance.
NOTE: Do not do this practice more than twice a week as the unconscious mind and inner landscape need time to reset, over-doing this practice can cause re-triggering of other old traumas and doing that too quickly can cause overwhelm. Healing isn’t about forcing, it’s about allowing and all in perfect timing.
Many blessings, hope this was helpful! Satya
Copyright 2002, Jenifer Shapiro. This practice is part of a training course, you may link back to this page, however, please do not copy and paste elsewhere. Thank you!
Disclaimer: This practice an all information on this website is/are offered for educational / information use only and not for treatment or medical purposes. The information on this site is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Please seek appropriate professional care as you need to.
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