Trauma Healing

Since transferring to Naropa for the peace studies program a year ago, I have heard many times that "trauma healing" is an important aspect of the field of peace building. I have felt drawn to the psychological aspects of violence, and what it takes to build peace on a psycho-somatic level. Yet, I hadn't had exposure to the literature on healing from trauma until reading Carolyn Yoder's book Trauma Healing: When Violence Strikes and Community Security is Threatened. Needless to say, I was excited to dive into the subject!

So much of the book rang true for me, as I'm sure it did for my other classmates. The book clearly outlines where restorative justice fits in, and the ways in which secondary violence creates trauma, thereby perpetuating violence--so there was clear intersections between what we have already studied, and how trauma studies ties into it all.

The Richard Rohr quote summed up the book beautifully in my eyes. He said: "Pain that is not transformed is transferred" (Yoder 30). It is common for those who have experienced trauma to "reenact" that trauma, either through "acting-in," or turning "unhealed trauma energy against the self," or "acting out" by turning that energy onto the external environment (Yoder 32). This reenactment creates cyclical violence.

Yoder also speaks to the fact that many people who have experienced trauma attempt to "hold themselves together" rather than facing emotions and physical sensations resulting from the trauma (this is of course completely understandable!) (22). She writes that people often feel they will completely fall apart if they allow the body to process the trauma (a common human processing mechanism is shaking, or some form of movement).

What had the greatest impact on me was Yoder's words on community ritual as a means to dealing with trauma. I believe that one of the primary contributing factors to violence in the world is loss of community, and loss of ritual. Yoder writes that it is important to have safe space to release "energy blockages in the body" and process emotions resulting from that release, in order to prevent exacerbation of any re-lived traumatic experience (54). She also notes that many tribal communities have or had such community settings for processing trauma.
My heart calls out for the regeneration of ancient cultural practice! There is so much wisdom in our tribal pasts, and my wish for the world is that we may once again access our inherent healing power.
My desire to work in the trauma healing field also includes a longing for knowledge of how to integrate ancient tradition into "everyday" therapy.