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March 14, 2024

Trauma is a Wound in Need of Witnessing, Repair & Love.

 

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As a somatic practitioner, I’ve worked with hundreds upon hundreds of clients and even though they’re all uniquely different, they all have one thing in common.

They all have wounding.

Not all of this wounding is in your face or immediately obvious.

But it’s there, begging to be witnessed, loved, and held.

The career-focused city boy who was bullied at school.

The empathic nurse who lost a sibling too young.

The burned out mother who never felt seen by her dad.

The list goes on.

I’ve learned that our wounding, if not tended to, will end up becoming a cankerous sore, which we’ll do anything to avoid going near because it hurts too much.

But if we keep looking the other way, soldiering on as if nothing happened, we end up finding ourselves frightened, bitter, lost, burned out, and devoid of all joy.

We lose ourselves.

I’ve been there myself. I was in a relationship that turned physically violent when I was younger and I carried that pain around with me for a long time afterwards.

Even though I tried to get on with my life, it was there under the surface. Painful to the touch.

It wasn’t until I allowed myself to be tenderly and lovingly witnessed in my pain that my wounds started to repair, like the tissues of a flesh wound knitting themselves back together.

Healing our trauma is far less about revisiting the ghosts of our past and much more about bringing our old wounds into contact with love, care, and community.

In the somatic world, we call this resourcing. Reorienting to what’s stable, whole, and good.

When we come into contact with the stabilising forces of love, care, and comfort, the renegotiation of traumatic imprints starts to happen naturally, instinctively, almost effortlessly.

Love is the ultimate medicine.

Through my own personal journey and my seasoned experience as a somatic pracitioner, I´ve learned that  trauma isn’t a scarlet letter, and it doesn’t have to be a life sentence.

It’s a rite of passage that, when we bravely move toward it, can bring us into even deeper connection with love, care, and goodness.

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