Integration is the core of healing trauma at multiple levels of scale. What I am learning as a participant in the Irish Pocket Project, focussed on the Great Starvation that more than halved the small island's population, is that such traumas are isomorphic at various levels of scale. If abandonment in early infancy is a core issue then abandonment of care of the vulnerable is even more disruptive at national and governmental levels. The lack of response to what is happening with the brutal killing of children, women and babies, in Gaza, is resonating with most of us. Only those unable or unwilling to access their deepest embodied feelings, are unmoved.
I saw the lab on the Great Starvation, I would be so interested to hear more about that at the appropriate time, what a huge topic to explore. And I love how you articulate the way trauma is "isomorphic at various levels of scale." And I agree on Gaza. Thank you for bringing Gaza in.
Matthew, all power to your bow, amigo. Where you offer that it may seem a strange step for a journalist, it seems to me a natural and more nuanced progression. The throwaway descriptor of the purpose of journalism is often "to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable". This seems pretty central to working with the integration of trauma. If we are to understand trauma as the interruption or damming (that word can be spelled in a number of ways in this context) of natural, inherent, embodied processes, then assisting ourselves and each other to return to the sense of flow is going to be a relief to some, and a challenge to others. Imagine what a trauma-informed journalism would look like? Again, here is another example of where mainstream psychology fails to offer insight into how the dominant paradigm's perception of Self perpetuates trauma. I would suggest that much of this arises from the paradigm's inability to consider and include anything greater than its own anthropocentric, hierarchical, Modernist (string of adjectives here) interests when it comes to addressing Need. Where one is comfortable within this distorted sphere (the Bates Motel!), one is inevitably going to feel challenged. The longer these psychospiritual dimensions are deemed to be purely the purlieu of either religion or personal interest and expression (eccentricity?), they get left out of a conversation that could otherwise lead towards relationships lived in wonder, curiosity, spontaneity, and presence - or, as one might say, in the moment. So, again, good for you.
Thank you Mark! Yes, I think trauma-informed (or even trauma-integrating?) journalism is the key, and it would naturally include the psychospiritual dimensions you reference. I am giving a talk on "building a media system to heal our collective trauma" at Kairos next week; your comment has given me more grist for my mill!
Integration is the core of healing trauma at multiple levels of scale. What I am learning as a participant in the Irish Pocket Project, focussed on the Great Starvation that more than halved the small island's population, is that such traumas are isomorphic at various levels of scale. If abandonment in early infancy is a core issue then abandonment of care of the vulnerable is even more disruptive at national and governmental levels. The lack of response to what is happening with the brutal killing of children, women and babies, in Gaza, is resonating with most of us. Only those unable or unwilling to access their deepest embodied feelings, are unmoved.
I saw the lab on the Great Starvation, I would be so interested to hear more about that at the appropriate time, what a huge topic to explore. And I love how you articulate the way trauma is "isomorphic at various levels of scale." And I agree on Gaza. Thank you for bringing Gaza in.
Any man with Irish roots following Matt, please let me know. Two spaces opened on the Irish journey May 15-22 around the lands of the Great Starvation
Matthew, all power to your bow, amigo. Where you offer that it may seem a strange step for a journalist, it seems to me a natural and more nuanced progression. The throwaway descriptor of the purpose of journalism is often "to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable". This seems pretty central to working with the integration of trauma. If we are to understand trauma as the interruption or damming (that word can be spelled in a number of ways in this context) of natural, inherent, embodied processes, then assisting ourselves and each other to return to the sense of flow is going to be a relief to some, and a challenge to others. Imagine what a trauma-informed journalism would look like? Again, here is another example of where mainstream psychology fails to offer insight into how the dominant paradigm's perception of Self perpetuates trauma. I would suggest that much of this arises from the paradigm's inability to consider and include anything greater than its own anthropocentric, hierarchical, Modernist (string of adjectives here) interests when it comes to addressing Need. Where one is comfortable within this distorted sphere (the Bates Motel!), one is inevitably going to feel challenged. The longer these psychospiritual dimensions are deemed to be purely the purlieu of either religion or personal interest and expression (eccentricity?), they get left out of a conversation that could otherwise lead towards relationships lived in wonder, curiosity, spontaneity, and presence - or, as one might say, in the moment. So, again, good for you.
Thank you Mark! Yes, I think trauma-informed (or even trauma-integrating?) journalism is the key, and it would naturally include the psychospiritual dimensions you reference. I am giving a talk on "building a media system to heal our collective trauma" at Kairos next week; your comment has given me more grist for my mill!
Excellent! All good wishes for your training and important work.
thank you Veronika for your support for Resonant World!