Perfect Healing

There is a view that if we do all the right work in the right way we’ll be healed. You think? In the last 12 years I have been a community therapist, I know there is no such thing as perfectly healed or even the idea of “finished” when it comes to healing.

We can look at the wounds of our younger self and we can sit with another and be witnessed as we process the feelings and story of our childhood. We can use EMDR therapy or ART*  or other trauma processing therapies and find self acceptance, compassion and even peace. And that doesn’t mean that we are fully healed. And honestly, why would we want to be? Ultimately it’s our experiences and our response to them that make us uniquely who we are. Our enduring vulnerabilities are a core part of our self.

What we can hope for is that when the younger parts of self emerge- full of irrational emotion and demanding our attention- that we are mindful enough to give them our attention. That we are able to hold these younger parts of our self with the reverence and compassion that they deserve. However, to think that we will never experience the intense emotion or urges to self sabotage or act out or a multitude of other survival strategies learned young in the face of danger, is unlikely.

Let us be aware that all parts of our selves are acceptable and worthy of love. When we can do this, we will have healed well enough. The next step is to continually practice accepting and loving our messy human selves.
 
*EMDR-Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing
*ART-Accelerated Resolution Therapy