A 3-phased integrative approach to healing

Healing is a process we choose to go through when we realize that we are traumatized from previous experiences in life. Life itself offers us the opportunities to come across our wounds in order to heal them, but if we are able to consciously assist our healing journey we would definitely have better results along the way.

Healing cannot take place in a proper manner if we do not establish a foundation of safety, stability and clarity first. We need this foundation in order to be able to regulate our emotions along this process of healing and also to be able connect with ourselves and others. If this foundation is shaky or if it lacks of security and connection then we will be moving in a chaotic and often overwhelming manner and most probably we will re-traumatize our self.

Today I will share with you 3 phases of integrative, trauma-informed and nervous system-centered healing that I have used during my healing journey and while assisting my clients in their own healing process:

PHASE 1:

SAFETY, STABILITY AND PREDICTABILITY

This is the first and most important phase of your healing journey. Safety is the primary aspect that is needed in order to begin any healing process. Safety or security is what we need to feel in our home, family, relationships and immediate environment. Stability is also important as it will provide the sense of safety and security that we need in order to start and move through a long healing process. All the above will provide a predictable environment where one can start their healing process.

When we establish this stage we are able to learn processes and tools and apply them. While applying them we will be able to regulate our emotions easier instead of feeling stuck in them or moving away from them. Being in a safe place will help us be in the present moment, hold space for ourselves and stay with uncomfortable emotions rather than reacting as if they are triggers or as if our traumas are happening in the here and now.

As we cultivate self-soothing and self-regulating techniques within a safe space, and as we learn to be in our body and anchored to the present moment, we will start feeling more comfortable with our triggers, overwhelming emotions and past wounds. In this way we will begin to release and therefore heal.

PHASE 2:

PROCESSING, UNDERSTANDING, AWARENESS

The second phase is a period of time where we begin to understand, process and becoming aware of OUR past experiences, triggers and memories and how they have affected us or even how they've been repeated throughout the years. We understand the connection of events and we recognize repetitive patterns that are related to our past, our triggers and our traumas.

We begin to emotionally and cognitively process experiences and change the narrative of our story by rewiring and reprogramming ourselves in the present. We examine emotions, beliefs, thought patterns, and feelings of guilt, shame, grief, loss, blame, abandonment and rejection.

Finally in this second phase we understand, feel and reflect on past experiences from a new perspective that is supported and reinforced from the resources we've build and established in phase one.

PHASE 3:

INTEGRATION, RE-CONNECTION, PURPOSE

In this third phase we are able to navigate our emotions, triggers and nervous system with more grace and from a more grounded and emotionally regulated space. We are more capable to function in our everyday life without collapsing and we are able to bring the fragments or shadow parts of our self back into its source. This is the process of integration.

In this phase we may apply self-care on a regular basis and experience self-trust and self-respect that will eventually expand and reach out to others. This will attract caring and nurturing relationships where respectful boundaries are clear and in place, and where reconnection with self and others takes place without the fear of failure or mistrust.

Finally a purpose and a stronger sense of self is created, in which we experience better communication with ourselves and others and we understand the ways we can move through the world and the states of our nervous system. At this stage we start realizing the purpose of our traumas and the purpose and meaning of our life as we complete the journey.

I would love to know in which stage you are in and how you process each phase during your healing journey. I wish that this article will be a map for you in order to understand where you are at right now and bring more awareness in your processes and healing experience.

I love you.

And remember,

Everything you seek, lies within your Self.

Heart to Heart,

Christina

© Christina Georgiou