Thoughts on the Current Strife in Society

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.” Rumi Black and white thinking occurs when we believe there is a right or a wrong view or a good or a bad way of behaving and we split by taking sides. We are closed to learning and to others who do not reflect our view. We may attempt to strengthen our position by nurturing our dislike and even hate of the other who is wrong and we alienate one another and often refuse to interact with those who do not express our views thus…

Feelings and Violence

I believe that most of the violence in society comes from our aversion to our emotions. We fight the reality of what we feel because we don’t like the feeling. We try to make it go away by resisting what is. We battle with our feelings by drinking, running, eating, refusing to feel. When we have feelings we don’t like, we battle with others by blaming them for how we feel. When we resist our feelings, the emotions get stuck in us and then when something comes along that resembles that stuck emotion, we get triggered and respond as though…

Shifting Patterns of Learned Helplessness

Growing up with developmental trauma* can cause patterns of learned helplessness where we shut down, get small, space out, disassociate and eventually get depressed. Another response would be to go into the big one where we puff up and present ourselves as bigger than we are (see “Being the Big One” article https://www.changeworksinc.com/being-the-big-one/). And we can alternate between being the big one and helplessness. This article is dealing specifically with “learned helplessness” and how to shift that pattern. When we grow up with developmental trauma, we are helpless. We cannot leave our situation because we are children and we have…

Being a Witness to Our Suffering

Repetition compulsion* is a pattern we get stuck in where we are trying to ease the pain that manifests because our needs as a child were not met. The pain occurs when we are younger and because our feelings weren’t acknowledged, the emotions (of fear, anger and grief) are not resolved and we get stuck in a loop of recreating the pattern in an attempt to resolve the feelings that get triggered in us. As children when our pain is not seen, it is traumatic and we often end up questioning if there is something wrong with us and we…

Bringing the Feminine Forward

When we work together in a safe environment, people are free to share their ideas and be creative and productivity improves. If the leadership is not open, and not aligned with its values then you will lose the energy of people because they lose trust and don’t feel safe.

What Do Kids Need?

Children need to be seen and appreciated for who they are and what they feel. Our job as an adult is to look at a child and ask, “Who can you be?” This means we create an atmosphere of curiosity and attention, which nurtures a child to find the essence of who they are. We support their way of being, their emotions, and provide freedom for them to be who they are while teaching them how to be a kind and authentic human. When we tell children not to feel something (don’t cry, don’t be sad, don’t be angry) we…

The Victim Tyrant Cycle

The tyrant looks like the problem because they are easily identified as the angry one and the victim can gain the upper hand and support from others (usually unconsciously) by making the tyrant look bad when he or she responds aggressively to the passivity.

Being the Big One

Sometimes when we are little and things go wrong, we think we have to take charge and fix things. We feel it’s up to us to make it better. We think we have to be the big one and we’ll show the adults how to do it. Or we feel like no one else is seeing what a mess things are, or how unsafe things are, so we try to make it better. It might be that the parents aren’t loving, so we decide we’ll be the loving one. It might be that we have to protect someone (siblings, one…

Healing Trauma in War Torn Countries

Abstract: Women for Women International (WFWI) helps victims of war become self sufficient in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, Kosovo, Nigeria, Rwanda, and Sudan. WFWI conducts year-long programs for participants, providing financial aid, job training, rights awareness and leadership education. They also want to help participants deal with the often severe trauma they experience during war. I have adapted my Energy Psychology methodology called Clearing Limits Energetically with Acupressure Release (CLEAR™) so that it may be used in groups in short, one-hour sessions as a part of WFWI’s program. In July 2008, WFWI sent me…

Listening to Our Needs Strengthens Us

When we are authentic we can bring ourselves fully to what we do rather than doing what others want in order to be accepted or trying to fit in by being who others want us to be.