Have you ever heard of Focusing? It’s a sort of inner yoga and it may be just what you’ve been looking for. Focusing teaches you to access your own deepest, wisest self. It takes you to a deeper level of awareness than is ordinarily possible. It teaches you to be with yourself in a compassionate, caring way.
Check out the reasons it may be right for you.
1)Are you wondering what underlies your anxiety, shyness, depression, malaise?
2)Do you have voices in your mind telling you you’re no good, stupid, unworthy, lazy, dirty, bad?
3)Do you feel you’re to blame for the bad stuff that happens around you?
4)Do you have trouble being compassionate with yourself?
5)Do you have trouble making decisions?
6)Do you look to others to tell you what’s right?
7)Would you like a sure-fire way of knowing your life is on the right track?
8)Would you like to experience yourself as a unique and wonderful organism in the universe?
In other words, would you like to have a way of knowing what’s right for you without asking somebody, tossing a coin or getting out the Ouija board?
Would you like to be able to check inside your body for guidance? Focusing teaches you how to recognize your body’s signals, those physically felt responses to your life that are meant to keep you doing whatever is life seeking for you.
In my book, Confessions of a Trauma Therapist, I tell how Focusing helped me safely access my repressed memories of child sexual abuse and how this practice guided my healing. If that sounds useful to you, I’ll suggest some ways you can learn to Focus.
You can learn to Focus from the Bantam paperback by the same name or go online and find a teacher at www.focusing.org. It’s simple to learn and, as most profoundly simple things, it can take you to some very deep places.
Showing posts with label sex abuse. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sex abuse. Show all posts
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Germany and child sexual abuse
I’m writing this from Germany where I’m experiencing a sort of déjà vu with regard to child sexual abuse. I’m reminded of what was happening in North America years ago when victims first started coming forward to accuse The Christian Brothers and other priests of having sexually abused the vulnerable children in their care.
Everyone I talk to here, every newspaper I see, and all the radio stations – they’re all shocked and angry about the recent charges against the Roman Catholic priests.
That’s how it began in North America. The unthinkable became thinkable. Victims of boarding schools then began disclosing their sexual abuse at the hands of teachers. Pandora’s Box got opened even more when individuals started reporting being sexually abused in their own homes.
I believe that Germany—as Canada twenty years ago—is just beginning to realize the extent of child sexual abuse in its midst
By now in North America, it’s not too difficult for most people to believe that sexual abuse happens in the slums to poor, unloved children. It’s harder to accept that middle class children of prosperous, seemingly “good” families can suffer sexual abuse at the hands of the adults who are supposed to be protecting them. Our discomfort is increased by the fact that we’re more likely to identify with these middle class victims.
Confessions of a Trauma Therapist, my memoir, tells of a middle class girl from an affluent family who seems to have everything a North American girl could want. I think that’s important. Child sexual abuse, although we might prefer to allocate it to the poor, knows no class or socio-economic boundary.
Everyone I talk to here, every newspaper I see, and all the radio stations – they’re all shocked and angry about the recent charges against the Roman Catholic priests.
That’s how it began in North America. The unthinkable became thinkable. Victims of boarding schools then began disclosing their sexual abuse at the hands of teachers. Pandora’s Box got opened even more when individuals started reporting being sexually abused in their own homes.
I believe that Germany—as Canada twenty years ago—is just beginning to realize the extent of child sexual abuse in its midst
By now in North America, it’s not too difficult for most people to believe that sexual abuse happens in the slums to poor, unloved children. It’s harder to accept that middle class children of prosperous, seemingly “good” families can suffer sexual abuse at the hands of the adults who are supposed to be protecting them. Our discomfort is increased by the fact that we’re more likely to identify with these middle class victims.
Confessions of a Trauma Therapist, my memoir, tells of a middle class girl from an affluent family who seems to have everything a North American girl could want. I think that’s important. Child sexual abuse, although we might prefer to allocate it to the poor, knows no class or socio-economic boundary.
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