Realities of Resiliance

If nothing else, we humans are amazingly resilient.  We have all heard stories of survival of the most amazing physical order.  People who have made it though the night in blizzards with nothing more than a small fire and the clothes on their back.  Or have been in horrific auto accidents that certainly should have ended their lives…and instead walked away with nary a scratch.  This resilience can be applied just as appropriately to the psyche and the emotional mind.

Less than 20% of those who have experience an event that can be considered traumatic actually go on to develop symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress (PTS/PTSD).  This is a far cry from the common belief that traumatic event=traumatic symptoms.  There are pre-existing conditions that could result in the development of symptoms of PTS.  The age of the trauma, as childhood experiences tend to be more likely to bring forth symptoms.  Multiple events, such as abuse over weeks, months, or years also leave the individual vulnerable.  Traumatic events that were intentional in nature, such as abuse, crime, and terrorism are events that have a higher incidence of symptom development in individuals.

The good news is that there are more available treatments for those with post-trauma symptoms than ever.  They are more creative and more “out of the box” as well.  Treatment professionals understand and have embraced the importance of empathy in the therapeutic process…and it shows.  Everything from Cognitive Behavioral to Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and Dr. John Arden’s brain and memory rewiring, often used by this therapist, are among those available modalities.

If you are currently struggling with your own past trauma and the symptoms that may have resulted, please reach out for help and guidance in your healing.  When you are ready.  You owe it to yourself to find that peace.

Namaste!

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About New Path Therapy

“The therapeutic relationship-when supportive, insightful, and empathetic-is the greatest tool in the healing process.” -Sara Grier

Sara Grier is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) and Behavioral Specialist Consultant with 15+ years of experience in the mental health field and counseling. Sara’s counseling and psychotherapy experience includes sexual abuse (both offender and victim) and processing the painful effects of trauma. Her experience includes disorders of mood, anxiety, depression, adjustment, and personality in both adults and children. Sara is currently licensed in both Pennsylvania(LCSW) and Ohio(LSW) and is a Certified Clinical Trauma Professional (CCTP).

I have found a true passion in being part of the guiding and healing process for those individuals who have experienced the heavy weight of trauma in their lives.  Such healing is one of the most wonderful gifts a person can give themselves and allowing me to be a part of that journey is a most wonderful gift to me as well.

Namaste!

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Your Lacquered Box

Abuse and intentionally inflicted trauma can lead to a person carrying with them the weight of this in their soul for a long, long time.  It is a weight that is almost physical in nature and can be felt as you move through life.  It drags you down, it makes it hard to put one foot in front of the other, and it is a barrier to peace and happiness.  As this weight of your trauma seems so very tangible to you…let’s treat it as such.

Your soul is a beautifully constructed, intricately designed lacquered box like those used to store precious gifts.  The beautiful design is one of your making and has been pieced together using life experiences and your own uniqueness.  Bring the image of the person who has, in your life, hurt you so deeply.  As you sit with them, reach into yourself and find that beautifully constructed, intricately designed lacquered box that is your soul.  Open it.  You won’t even have to look or search within it because you know the contents of it so well.  Place you hand inside and you will find that for which you are searching.  The unwanted “gift” of pain and despair that comes part and parcel with abuse and mistreatment at the hands of others.  Find it there in your lacquered box.   Now, take…it…out.  You don’t have to look at it or even acknowledge it.  That’s because you are going to give it back.  Back to that person or persons who should have never put it in your beautifully constructed, intricately designed lacquered box in the first place.  It was left their in error.  You will do what all good people do when they mistakenly have something that doesn’t belong to them.  Give…it…back.

Whether that person is physically in front of you or before you in your mind, you can do just that.  With this unwanted “gift” cupped in your hands, hold them out and say out loud, “This doesn’t belong to me.  I am giving it back to you.”  Open your hands and release it.  Whatever that person to whom you are returning this does with it from here on out…is up to them.  Like all things “given”, there is no say by the giver.  They can throw it away, put it on a shelf, place it in the closet.  Don’t dwell on what they do with it because it doesn’t belong to you.  And never, NEVER let them try to hand it back to you ever again.  Remember, it didn’t belong there in the first place.

Now, you will reach down and, so carefully, close that beautifully constructed, intricately designed lacquered box.  Pick it up in your hands like the precious object that it is and feel it.  Feel its weight.  So much lighter now that the unwanted “gift” has been removed.  And now you have room in that box, in your soul, for something wanted and good instead.  So, close it…but don’t lock it.  After all, you want the good to be able to get in.

Namaste!