“I feel like I am encountering old trauma. Is Focusing able to help heal that?”
A Reader writes:
In my Focusing process I feel like I am encountering old trauma. Can Focusing help heal trauma? Or should I go to some other method?
Dear Reader:
Yes, Focusing is a very effective method for releasing trauma. And although there are many fine methods for healing trauma, Focusing is my method of choice, because it is so gentle and respectful.
Trauma is invasive. It tends to leave us with feelings of powerlessness, fragility, and low self worth. So any method for healing trauma needs to be profoundly respectful and empowering…as Focusing is.
The most important thing about trauma work, I believe, is to go as slowly as needed. When something inside says, “I am afraid this will be too much,” then we pause. We wait as long as necessary, or we stop and return another day. As Self-in-Presence, we feel completely comfortable saying, “This is enough for now,” if that is the message from inside.
A sensitivity from a Self-in-Presence place allows us to finely distinguish between the times it is right to pause and the times it is right to go in tiny baby steps. The idea is to keep contact – but never push. This kind of contact fills in what DIDN’T happen at the time of the trauma: respect, safety, gentle holding. So the contact itself is part of the healing.
Within that context, the body sensations and feelings can tell their story, can tell what happened from their point of view, and the next right steps of forward life can form…as they were not able to form before. And that IS healing from trauma.