Some survivors of trauma minimize their experience, saying, “It was no big deal.” Or comparing their trauma to others, “Well, I didn’t die, so I am ok.” Some survivors deny what happened, “That didn’t happen to me.”
At this Phase, it is necessary you admit the trauma happened and that it did affect you.
You now desire healing and wholeness from the trauma you experienced but may still be causing difficulties that show up day to day in certain relationships or specific areas of your life. Regardless of the traumatic event you endured, if you did not have compassionate and capable people supporting you afterward to help you process it, that event can cause lingering manifestations in your life. Trauma is not the event itself; it is the aftereffects.
Just like we are incapable of setting a broken bone, casting it, and caring for it by ourselves, we are incapable of witnessing or experiencing a traumatic event and healing from it by ourselves. And, just like a broken bone that isn’t set right will continue to cause pain, physical constraints, emotional distress, weakness, and depression; an endured traumatic experience left unprocessed will do the same. These effects start internally and take much longer to recognize.
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