ABSTRACT
The essence of trauma-organized systems is that they are focused on action, not talking or thinking. The victimizer blots out and deletes his actions as forcefully as the traumatized individuals and avoids thinking, talking, or being reminded of his or her abuse as if the reality of action is negated. There is then the possibility of developing an alternative and preferred knowledge separate from the "dominant" stories that constitute their lives and are constructed from traumatizing and traumatic responses. Story stems were introduced as a way for children to use various stories as narratives to develop their own story, reflecting their own way of processing their experiences and particularly their attachments. Feeling an "abandoned" child herself, she could not bear the demands for care in the crying of her own child—which reminded her of her own abandoned-self story.
