Using Early Experiences as a Catalyst for Healing
When I was a teenager, a friend was physically abused by her father after he had been drinking. Maybe because he was a respected member of our small farming community, everyone turned a blind eye. Maybe no one wanted to get involved in a domestic dispute. Maybe whatever the reason, it was the wrong thing to ignore.
Other friends were abused by their boyfriends, and again nothing was done and little if nothing was said to let them know that not only was this not normal relationship behavior, it was criminal.
A seed was planted in my mind back then that no one should be made to feel as if they are unworthy of love or as if they don’t matter. As I began to study psychology, sociology, social work, and later yoga, exploring why we humans do what we do, these early memories were like deposits in a vault.
Tucked away and stored until they were able to be accessed from a distance, the critical thinking part of my brain trying to reconcile how one person can so completely annihilate another person’s sense of self. Particularly when that person is a child.
Years later, when I was working with children in foster care, this wonderment about human nature hit me like a freight train. I would read case histories that detailed abhorrent physical, emotional, and sexual abuse and neglect in all…
