06/12/2016
Thinking of Trauma
by Binnie Kristal-Andersson
December 6, 2016
Thinking of trauma
-outer trauma
-inner trauma
Outer traumas that have caused inner traumas: from being left to cry as an infant; to being beaten, abused, as a child; to being physically or mentally tortured as an adult; to enduring poverty, famine, climate, economic, social catastrophes, wars and their outer and inner sufferings.
How can we, as professional caregivers (even psychotherapists) treat them?
Firstly, we caregivers (psychotherapists) must learn and be able to separate and clarify to ourselves, and then, to the person seeking help, the difference between outer traumas and their inner consequences, personal or otherwise and why, from inner psychological traumas and their causes and consequences
Outer traumas can be worked through if the caregiver (psychotherapist) has respect, knowledge and is humble to the inner sufferings due to outer traumas. Any method or technique can work, if the caregiver (psychotherapist) can learn to differentiate the cause, consequences and inner sufferings due to outer traumas, from inner psychological traumas. This is made clear to the individual and that the outer traumas he or she has endured can never be "cured". They may be "healed" somewhat, but their scars will always be there in their lifetime in different destructive and constructive ways. The caregiver can help the person to learn to understand and live and deal with and finally, to be able to use constructively the inner consequences of outer traumas. This being realized by the individual, he or she learns to live with his/her outer traumas and their inner consequences and can separate them and deal with their other present and future life-difficulties. The person is freed of mixing up his or her past outer experiences and their inner consequences with his or her present life.
It's not only learning technique or method, it's learning to be respectful, have knowledge of outer traumas, their causes and consequences, and the inner sufferings due to them within the individual, their society, and Life and be humbled by them and It.
Usually, a person who meets such a caregiver (psychotherapist) becomes stronger in realizing he or she has lived through, survived and overcome outer traumas and can use these in constructive and creative ways in his or her life.
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