What Personal Crisis Taught Me About the Future of Journalism
A conversation at my edge, with Kevin Young of the Gifts of Trauma podcast.
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Clip from the Gifts of Trauma:
Credit: J’aime Rothbard.
To attend a special event on Wednesday on the ‘New Science of Collective Healing’ with Danny Cohen of the Living Heart, and of
and , please click here (more details below):
Resonant World #125
At a certain point during my conversation with Kevin Young, I had the sense of time collapsing.
The words I was speaking were making direct contact with an earlier version of myself — a younger man still living my former life, at a moment when everything had seemed like it was falling apart.
We often speak in ancestral work about how the integration we attain in the present ripples back through our lineage, serving those who came before.
In this case, I felt the transmission occurring from myself, to myself, as I threw a lifeline of meaning back into a frozen segment of my own past.
Compassionate Inquiry
The Gifts of Trauma podcast, alternately hosted by Kevin Young, Rosemary Davies-Jane and J’aime Rothbard, grew out of Compassionate Inquiry, a therapeutic approach developed by Dr Gabor Maté.
Though I’d never experienced Compassionate Inquiry before, the depth of listening, and precise attunement I experienced from Kevin led me into terrain I hadn’t expected to enter. Here’s a brief clip:
Our conversation helped me to make more sense of my time reporting from Iraq and Afghanistan; ancestral imprints from the First and Second World Wars;
men’s circles I’ve co-initiated; and a significant personal crisis more than a decade ago, when my personal and professional lives seemed to simultaneously implode.As Kevin and I spoke, what had once seemed like arbitrary, unrelated events began to self-assemble into a new and more meaningful mosaic.
And I discovered renewed clarity around my impulse to develop a new form of journalism rooted in a recognition of how fundamentally individual, inter-generational and collective trauma shapes our world, and that seeks to inform a coherent global response. (Resonant World #73: Building a Media System to Heal Collective Trauma. Who’s In?)
This was no accident.
We arrived where we did because Kevin and J’aime made space for us to attune together before we began recording — and took care to follow-up with me afterwards; modelling the kind of trauma-restoring journalism that formed the focus of much of our conversation.
This level of presence and care allowed me to tap into a deeper place inside myself, and experience the new level of integration that becomes available through having such a conversation in public.
I hope our exchange will serve anyone with an interest in journalism and trauma; the ancestral and collective dimensions of healing; spiritual connection; men’s work; and building a new media system capable of illuminating the deepest roots of our global crises, and finding a way through. (Resonant World #86: What Would It Take to Transform Journalists’ Mental Health?) (Resonant World #88: Who Bears Witness for the Witnesses?)
I’d love to hear if anyone experienced any resonance in the comments below.
Thank you for listening.
Themes that emerged:
Sketching the contours of trauma-restoring media
How ancestral imprints shape our choices
The death-rebirth journey and emergence of our true self
Recognising healing as a collective endeavour
Questions I was left with:
How can I elaborate a clearer vision of trauma-restoring journalism?
What new collaborations and partnerships might help realise this vision?
How can I create the conditions for these collaborations to arise?
How can I inspire more men to engage in healing and initiation?
Resources:
Blog: The Resonance of Trauma Integration with Matthew Green
Resonant World #88: Who Bears Witness for the Witnesses?
Resonant World #86: What Would It Take to Transform Journalists’ Mental Health?
Resonant World #73: Building a Media System to Heal Collective Trauma. Who’s in?
Resonant World #8: Building the Quantum Newsroom
Transcript:
Show notes:
00:00 Clip of Matthew’s later remarks elaborating a vision of trauma-restoring journalism
01:59 Welcome to the Gifts of Trauma Podcast
02:20 Kevin Young introduces Matthew Green
03:39 “Pandemic” of disembodiment
05:20 Cut off from emotions while reporting from conflict zones
06:19 Dissociation as intelligent survival mechanism
08:00 Depression as a way to avoid facing grief
11:35 Professional and personal crisis triggers Dark Night of the Soul
14:10 Feeling of irredeemable failure leading to suicidal ideation
15:50 Nature of depression versus sadness
17:32 Looking back with compassion at younger self
20:30 Tracing childhood roots of “failure” story
25:48 What drives war correspondents
29:01 Ancestral trauma and repeating cycles
31:30: Confronting the depth of the dark energy underlying war
32:00 ‘Shadow perpetration’ of British colonialism
34:12 Understanding true nature of collective trauma
38:33 The role of media in restoring trauma
41:35 Media culture, vicarious trauma
43:35 Towards a new vision of trauma-restoring media
48:30 Impact of journalists’ own trauma on coverage
49:16 Global Social Witnessing as response to news fatigue
50:39 Resonant World and Resonant Man men’s circles
55:00 How to engage more men in healing work?
01:01:51 The inherently collective nature of healing
Special Event with Danny Cohen on the ‘New Science of Collective Healing’
I’m delighted to invite you to join Danny Cohen, Jacob Kishere and myself for a free online event exploring the ‘New Science of Collective Healing’ on Wednesday, January 29 at 8pm Berlin/7pm London/2pm New York/ 11am Los Angeles.
This 90-minute session will offer opportunities to engage in dialogue on themes including:
What are the key principles of collective trauma and healing?
How can we build ‘healing communities’ to address legacies of unresolved inter-generational and collective trauma?
How can we reframe transformational work from an individual to a collective endeavour?
How can collective healing spaces help respond to the metacrisis?
This 2025 launch event of Jacob’s SENSESPACE Studio is free to attend.
We will also be hearing about Danny’s two-month Art of Communication course, based on the principles of Nonviolent Communication, starting on February 2.
You can read more about SENSESPACE Studio here.
For more on this event, please see this post on Resonant World and the below brief video from Jacob:
Some Ways to Support Resonant World
I’m full of gratitude to everyone who follows Resonant World.
Every sentence anyone reads of this newsletter helps me to realise my intention to support the global trauma healing community. If you feel an impulse to contribute any further, options include:
Liking, sharing and especially commenting on posts
Joining the Resonant World subscriber chat
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Subscribed
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Recommending Resonant World to friends
Booking a Tarot reading for yourself, or gifting one to a friend
Suggesting people or organisations who may be interested in joining
Resonant World’s mission to build a trauma-integrating media system.
Thank you!
