ABSTRACT
In this chapter we focus on the complementary part of the Hero-Survivor mythology, their life journeys and their needs for a post-re-entry Nurturing Guide (NG). Nurturing Guides (NG) are posttraumatic mentors to recovery, who wear many cloaks, robes, uniforms, and garbs of all possibilities within cultures. Joseph Campbell's lifetime work in mythology suggests that each culture seeks to make available informed and gifted members of their community who, especially, assist the wounded Hero-Survivors on their journey home from the Abyss Experience (AE). We represent, as described in Chapter 4, this person as the Nurturing Guide (NG) (see Figure 5.1). He or she possesses certain qualities of character that will assist the survivor in fundamental and functional ways essential for recovery and re-integration from trauma. For example, bearing witness, providing a moral compass and honoring the Hero's experiences and travails in the journey simply as validation and affirmation of what has happened in their lives.
