#healingisnonlinear

[breathenet]

There is no tidy trajectory of victim to survivor to thriver, although there is pressure to move through that linear process, often with the notion of an arbitrary timeline. Some of those labels resonate for some people, some of them feel empty, and some feel invalidating of the scope of trauma - depending who you ask. How any individual chooses to define, redefine or not define in relation to what they’ve lived through is their choice alone to make. No two survivors have the same experience of sexual assault or its aftermath - which involves and impacts so much, sometimes everything, that follows. No two survivors have the same identity and therefore life experience, before or after sexual trauma, and factors like gender, race, socioeconomics, ability and sexuality, can all influence, if not complicate, a person’s access to healing, resiliency and their capacity to avoid future harm. The wounds we incur may constellate, so responses to sexual trauma can intertwine with or be intensified by all the other overwhelming, frightening and destabilizing experiences, circumstances and events we’ve survived/are surviving. That I (usually) identify as a survivor and that person over there identifies as a human, and another claims victim, while still another identifies as a superhero is not a problem. It doesn’t need fixing. None of us is inherently weak, wrong or not doing it (healing?) right. Language has power and we empower ourselves by self-defining, which is a knowing that often emerges out of the intense, inner intimacy required to recover a sense of self after trauma. It’s not necessarily static, but rather responding to the ebbs and flows of how life continues unfolding. We can validate how others understand themselves by embracing their words unconditionally. This is important to the issue of sexual trauma and it also transcends this issue. Sexual trauma involves a loss of agency, and self-defining is part of our righteous reclamation. My body, my experience, my truth. Mine. Supporting people in naming their own experience is an easy thing to do if we simply and humbly decenter ourselves. Each of us deserves such agency and respect. #healingisnonlinear

[breathenet]

There is no tidy trajectory of victim to survivor to thriver, although there is pressure to move through that linear process, often with the notion of an arbitrary timeline. Some of those labels resonate for some people, some of them feel empty, and some feel invalidating of the scope of trauma - depending who you ask. How any individual chooses to define, redefine or not define in relation to what they’ve lived through is their choice alone to make. No two survivors have the same experience of sexual assault or its aftermath - which involves and impacts so much, sometimes everything, that follows. No two survivors have the same identity and therefore life experience, before or after sexual trauma, and factors like gender, race, socioeconomics, ability and sexuality, can all influence, if not complicate, a person’s access to healing, resiliency and their capacity to avoid future harm. The wounds we incur may constellate, so responses to sexual trauma can intertwine with or be intensified by all the other overwhelming, frightening and destabilizing experiences, circumstances and events we’ve survived/are surviving. That I (usually) identify as a survivor and that person over there identifies as a human, and another claims victim, while still another identifies as a superhero is not a problem. It doesn’t need fixing. None of us is inherently weak, wrong or not doing it (healing?) right. Language has power and we empower ourselves by self-defining, which is a knowing that often emerges out of the intense, inner intimacy required to recover a sense of self after trauma. It’s not necessarily static, but rather responding to the ebbs and flows of how life continues unfolding. We can validate how others understand themselves by embracing their words unconditionally. This is important to the issue of sexual trauma and it also transcends this issue. Sexual trauma involves a loss of agency, and self-defining is part of our righteous reclamation. My body, my experience, my truth. Mine. Supporting people in naming their own experience is an easy thing to do if we simply and humbly decenter ourselves. Each of us deserves such agency and respect. #healingisnonlinear

[breathenet]

There is no tidy trajectory of victim to survivor to thriver, although there is pressure to move through that linear process, often with the notion of an arbitrary timeline. Some of those labels resonate for some people, some of them feel empty, and some feel invalidating of the scope of trauma - depending who you ask. How any individual chooses to define, redefine or not define in relation to what they’ve lived through is their choice alone to make. No two survivors have the same experience of sexual assault or its aftermath - which involves and impacts so much, sometimes everything, that follows. No two survivors have the same identity and therefore life experience, before or after sexual trauma, and factors like gender, race, socioeconomics, ability and sexuality, can all influence, if not complicate, a person’s access to healing, resiliency and their capacity to avoid future harm. The wounds we incur may constellate, so responses to sexual trauma can intertwine with or be intensified by all the other overwhelming, frightening and destabilizing experiences, circumstances and events we’ve survived/are surviving. That I (usually) identify as a survivor and that person over there identifies as a human, and another claims victim, while still another identifies as a superhero is not a problem. It doesn’t need fixing. None of us is inherently weak, wrong or not doing it (healing?) right. Language has power and we empower ourselves by self-defining, which is a knowing that often emerges out of the intense, inner intimacy required to recover a sense of self after trauma. It’s not necessarily static, but rather responding to the ebbs and flows of how life continues unfolding. We can validate how others understand themselves by embracing their words unconditionally. This is important to the issue of sexual trauma and it also transcends this issue. Sexual trauma involves a loss of agency, and self-defining is part of our righteous reclamation. My body, my experience, my truth. Mine. Supporting people in naming their own experience is an easy thing to do if we simply and humbly decenter ourselves. Each of us deserves such agency and respect. #healingisnonlinear

[breathenet]

Thank you to Stephanie Lawrence and Amanda C. Owens for their generous support of our Indiegogo campaign! #tbnholistichealing #indiegogo #day19 #trauma #resilience #healingisinnate #healingisnonlinear #seasonsofhealing #cyclesofhealing #survivor #sexualassault #transformingtrauma #nonprofit