Healing From Trauma: Seven Stages to Trauma Recovery.

Healing From Trauma: Seven Stages to Trauma Recovery.

Found a great article by Rabbi Dr. Tirzah Firestone (Jungian analyst, rabbi, and the daughter of Holocaust survivors) on what she defines as the seven steps to trauma recovery:

Facing the loss:

More than anything, directly facing our losses initiates the process of healing. This first principle means resisting our friends’ well-intentioned urges to get back to work or “get on with life.” We must give ourselves the gift of time and ride the waves of pain.

Harnessing our pain:

Once we face our losses, we may encounter intense pain. Because trauma disconnects us from our bodies, there’s a tendency to numb out. The alternative is to re-inhabit our physical selves. Physical exercise and self-care are paramount. The pain made conscious can turn into fuel.

Finding new community:

We may find ourselves changed by our trauma, and there is no going back to how we used to be. We have to find people who understand us. Because traumatic experiences often leave us with a sense of shame or isolation, finding authentic connections with people who can hear and hold us compassionately is essential. The people I worked with felt a need to build a new social network, to find other like-minded people.

Resisting fear, blame, and dehumanization:

Unprocessed trauma can leave us permanently defensive. The human tendency to other people around us is the obvious next step. But that leaves us isolated, self-righteous, and lonely. Those who do the hard work of healing their traumas succeed in melting the walls of separation and resisting hatred for those who hurt them.

Disidentifying from victimhood:

One of the main keys to trauma recovery is agency, the inner sense that we are in charge of our own lives, and we can shape outcomes.

Redefining specialness:

One of the legacies of trauma can be the feeling that we are different, alone, and separate. But these feelings can flip into their opposites: feeling special, chosen, superior, for what we have gone through. One of the most important takeaways from trauma healing is that human beings are interdependent and that our healing depends on one another.

Taking action:

Trauma recovery means facing what has happened directly and deeply mourning our losses. For each person, there is internal timing, some kind of work or meaningful action in the world emerges.

You can read the full article from Psychology Today at.