ABSTRACT
Like physical injuries often leave scars and need treatment to improve, emotional injuries and trauma can leave scars which need treatment too. While it can feel extremely difficult to face our emotional scars, it is also very freeing to finally face them, speak about how we got them, and process the emotion that comes with those scars. This seems counterproductive to many people who believe it is best to leave the past in the past. The hard part about this, though, is that our bodies still hold the pain and scarring as if still in the present. Since emotion knows no chronology, the only way to truly move pain into the past is to process it rather than suppress and deny it. Since our survival depends on not forgetting our pain (think of a hot stove…what would life be like if we forgot the pain of touching a hot stove?), our bodies and nervous system are tasked with reminding us of our pain in order to ensure our survival. In this process of healing, naming your scars is one of the first steps in acknowledging that you have endured, and that you have suffered. We will help you to move from naming your scars, to writing about these events, and then sharing them with a safe other in order to gain the freedom that you so deserve and long for. While you might always be able to see the faint line of an old scar, after experiencing these exercises your body will actually get relief and soothing closure.
