In 2020 I returned to study to complete a Masters in Counselling Practice, after years of working in a trauma organised system, I could no longer escape the fact that a system that works to create and hold trauma, is not an abstract object. It is a system made up of people who are hurting, with the result being that their unacknowledged and unhealed trauma unintentionally causing harm to others. At least, this is my observation.
So, I returned to study, to gain a better understanding of trauma and healing in the context of people, groups and systems, and as part of this undertook a literature review which looked at self-healing in the context of trauma. I am now in the process of taking steps to continue this research independently, this provides me with the ability to share my learnings and findings without any limitations. In this blog, I will be exploring the concept of self-healing, talking about what it is, how it is an innate aspect of being human, and why I think this is important in my own approach to working therapeutically with others.
Let's first look to the Merriam Webster dictionary defines healing 'to cause an undesirable condition to be overcome', others describing it as the ‘personal experience of the transcendence of suffering’. What has since emerged is that healing is experienced to be an intensely personal experience. With one of the most fundamental steps involving the individual making meaning of what has happened to them, and their experience of suffering, in the context of becoming whole or experiencing wholeness. This meaning making occurs in relationship with oneself, or and, with another, such as with a trusted friend, family member and/or with a therapist. Self-healing is the individual actions one takes in association with healing oneself. This is the basis on which we will further explore the concept of self-healing.
Let’s first look at healing in the context of counselling and psychotherapy. Therapy is described as being focused on growth and transformation, rather than the reduction of symptoms. A clients intrinsic ability to self heal, tends to fall outside of modalities of intervention which are consistent with a medical approach i.e. the treatment of symptoms. In a medical model (medical approach) the therapist, and the therapists' interventions (the types of tools and modalities a therapist will use) are seen as the primary reasons for client
change. However, the emerging research on the efficacy of modalities doesn’t fit with this belief, the result of a meta-analysis of the data which focused on this, found that in fact, fundamentally all modalities work more or less the same.
What is now emerging from research on this topic, is that the dominant factor which contributes to the success of therapy are due to the person that is seeking the support, and factors in the client's life, being approximately 40 percent. The alternative model proposed to medical models of intervention, is that the client is the most common factor to
the success of therapy, and this is attributed to the individuals own self-healing capabilities which make therapy work. However, the concept of self-healing, and that individuals are indeed the most significant factor which contributes toward change in their live is more prevalent within complementary and alternative medicine rather than in traditional models of healthcare. But what does it look like within the context of a therapeutic relationship? Within a humanistic framework, therapy is described as the creative and transformational process whereby the therapist supports the client in their exploration of their own intrinsic ability to self-heal.
Emerging literature on the topic of self-healing is that occurs when the client allows and accepts their inner painful experience. It also involves the suspension of self-criticism and overly cognitive and analytical thinking and holding space for painful and difficult experiences such as feeling as emotions that we feel the need to suppress. In this approach clients are supported to observe with some objectivity, their thoughts and experiences. It is through this, that the self-healing process occurs, ultimately, this is what we know as self reflection.
Not everyone engages a therapist at times of struggle and challenge in one’s life. For the most part, many people are able to cope and even thrive in the face of the adversity that comes with everyday life challenges such as managing a career, raising children and navigating relationships. They are able to navigate these challenges and find the solutions that they need. Sometimes it’s not a pretty process, but nevertheless, they work. There are also times where it’s not quite clear how a solution resolves itself.
Self-healing is the capacity to repair dysfunction and recover from experiences where emotional harm has occurred. It involves changing ways of being, behaving and experience so that they are able to develop more functional ways of being. Many leading therapists believe that people are able to transcend highly adverse experiences and go on to live very productive lives even in the absence of therapy. Many people are able to find solutions to their own problems, psychological problems tend to arise when the problem is encountered and their usual methods which have worked, no longer work any longer. Fundamentally, human beings are built to begin the process of restoring a sense of balance to their life. Self-healing characteristics actively seek to restore balance in their life when problems or issues occur and are able to find new ways of being. People often engage a therapist when the problem becomes too much, they feel stuck and/or their own self-help efforts aren’t working.
My own idea of self-healing prior to undertaking this research, was peppered with my own response to traumatic experiences that had occurred throughout my life. These experiences had instilled in me a fierce independence, so my concept of self-healing entailed ideas that reinforced needing to 'do it on my own', and that even seeking help was somehow a personal shortcoming. I now know that these ideas and beliefs had been ways of coping with my own trauma, that no longer worked and it is through engaging with a therapist, finding likeminded groups of people had significantly propelled my healing journey forward. It is holding these fundamental beliefs in mind, our own innate ability for self-healing in the context of relationship, either with self and/or others, that I come into a space with a client, to form a therapeutic alliance, working with you to identify what is happening, what has been working, and what you want to change in your life, then walking together to navigate the transition and integrate your experiences moving to a place of healing and wholeness.
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