Healing Trauma: A Unique Approach
Being human can be challenging. Over the course of our lives each one of us experiences varying degrees of trauma. No one is immune. Whether it’s due to an accident, loss, injury, violence, abuse, or unexpected tragedy, whether it’s intentional, accidental or vicarious – at some point we’ll have to go through at least one harrowing and painful experience. And these events change us. As a long time psychotherapist, my opinion is that the field of psychology has had limited success in treating trauma and post-traumatic stress. I believe this is the case because trauma isn’t strictly a psychological issue – you can’t talk it away – it has a physical and spiritual impact, as well. A traumatic experience stains your entire being. On a physical level, trauma is a shock that can alter your nervous system and wreak all kinds of havoc on your health, particularly if you’ve experienced a lot of trauma. On a spiritual level, a trauma can fracture your sense of self, your essence (your soul or whatever you want to call it), depleting your personal power and leaving you without the inner resources you need to move through your life with more ease. On the mental/psychological level, you can be haunted by memories, flashbacks, nightmares and fearful thoughts. You may live with a baseline of anxiety that makes it difficult to feel safe and to trust yourself and others.
Fortunately there’s a new trend emerging within the field that addresses more than the psychological symptoms of anxiety related to trauma. Research is demonstrating the effectiveness of mindfulness practices and somatic/body-centered approaches in treating trauma and PTSD. This is really good news!
Yet, I’m looking forward to the day when researchers investigate the indigenous approach to healing trauma since that’s when I believe they’ll really start making some headway. In shamanic societies traumatic events are considered injuries to the soul. Specifically, in times of trauma a person’s essence/soul/consciousness leaves the body in order to escape from or get through the difficult experience (an effective way to cope with horrible events) and returns when the event is over. However, if the trauma is big (and that’s relative) or is repeated (i.e., as in cases of abuse, combat, etc.) those aspects of the person’s soul/essence don’t return leaving the person a shell of who they once were. This is called Soul Loss. The symptoms are depression, sketchy or no memory of the event, addiction, a general sense of feeling lost, difficulty giving and receiving love, and feeling dead inside, not whole or “different” since the event(s).
The shamanic remedy is what’s commonly referred to as Soul Retrieval. The concept is simple – a trained shamanic practitioner finds the lost soul parts and brings them back home in order to make the person whole again. It’s challenging work to do since not all soul parts want to be found. I’ve managed to hone my negotiation skills over the years and am happy to say that I’ve never had a soul part refuse to come back home!
Soul Retrieval is big medicine. It can take from six months to a year for the returning parts to fully reintegrate, but once that happens I’ve noticed that many of the folks I’ve worked with seem to make big shifts in their lives – they might leave unhealthy relationships or start a new one, change careers, move, or move towards dreams they never had the energy or confidence to pursue before.
I’ve also witnessed some profound shifts in people with a history trauma who’ve gone through Life Vessel therapy. The exposure to light and sound frequencies appears to gently detox the imprint of trauma – like a stain remover – as the nervous system is brought back into balance. It’s as if the distortion of the trauma is brought into harmony while also calming the nervous system. Depending on the nature of the trauma (i.e., severity and how long the person has been living the imprint of it) the experience of detoxing trauma appears to be a rapid process that doesn’t re-traumatize the person. I’ve been a little surprised at how un-dramatic the process can be.
When you combine Soul Retrieval with Energy Genesis therapy the capacity for healing is greatly enhanced since your body is a more welcoming environment for the returning soul parts thereby making integration a quicker, more organic process.
Good medicine, indeed!