Healing From Trauma Is Not An Exorcism. It Is An Integration.
I am living with PTSD. I am full of vitality. I am more present with my family and career than ever before. I am more compassionate with myself and others. I am more energized. I got to this place with hard work and by trying various techniques and therapies. The modalities that have allowed me to process and then integrate my memories, emotions, and pain into my life, as opposed to those that encouraged me to release my memories, emotions, and pain from my life, have been the modalities that have helped me move forward and feel vital again.
The Difference Between Integrate and Release
Picture someone “releasing.” You are probably seeing someone having a physical response, like a big cry. This physiological response is what is commonly used to determine that someone is “releasing” something overwhelming.
But let’s take a closer look at this response. This “release” usually involves a person reliving an experience or an emotion that is so strong it is completely overwhelming, making it by definition, traumatic. When someone experiences being overwhelmed, whether it is in that moment, or returning to that moment in a felt memory, their limbic system, which cannot tell time, takes over. “My person is overwhelmed RIGHT NOW,” it exlsims, activating flight, fight…
