Meta healing, tactical healing, and post-traumatic growth. (Part XIV)

Welcome to Part XIV of the series exploring the question, “What does it mean to heal trauma?” In this post, we explore the idea of bigger picture (meta) healing across one’s lifespan, as well as smaller journeys of healing within this longer arc. In addition, while looking back on this series as a whole, we consider the idea of healing as containing all aspects of what we have explored thus far.

Meta healing and ‘tactical’ healing.
What I mean by “meta” healing and “tactical” healing is the simple idea of smaller journeys unfolding within the larger journey that is the span of a single lifetime. The “meta” journey is the entire lifespan, and can be described as the ultimate journey of Self-realization (which can be defined as the ‘Self’ or Divine realizing or coming to know it-Self through its manifestation as an individual Person). This meta journey is fed by all other “tactical” journeys that unfold within it, each of which impacts the larger journey of Self-realization. Put in terms of healing as Wholeness, or realizing Wholeness, the meta journey of Self-realization is making real one’s knowledge of Oneness as the Divine (sometimes also referred to as gnosis).

Each smaller journey of healing I am referring to as “tactical” healing, meaning there are specific lessons or bits of knowledge if you will, pieces of the whole, which are learned through the process of healing something like trauma, or an illness, or a cold, or a relationship. In each of these other instances, they are pieces of the life, but not the whole. However, each one feeds the larger journey, each instance of healing work offers something to and for the bigger picture, the bigger knowledge. One could say that they are all ways of seeing or coming to know Wholeness through the pieces, even though each piece has the Whole within it, and offers the insight, the realization of the Whole through its healing experience.

Thus, healing trauma becomes a part of the journey but not the entirety – even though the Truth of Oneness, Wholeness, is contained within the part of the trauma healing journey. Healing trauma is fuel for this journey, motivating the individual Person to find their own resolution, recovery, healing, wholeness, in their own way. This part of the meta journey is thus sacred, inherently spiritual, serving the bigger picture. It offers deep learnings, deep teachings, profound insights and knowledge. It can even be argued that healing trauma offers a path of realizing the ultimate knowledge by coming to know the Ultimate itself through the healing process. Perhaps this is why Peter Levine asserts, “trauma resolved is a gift of the gods” (Levine & Frederick, 1997, pg. 12).

Healing as All of This.
As we get closer to concluding our exploration of these many different threads and perspectives of the healing experience, I will off the idea that healing trauma may be all of what we have explored so far. Perhaps it includes, or can include, everything we have discussed, or at the very least, a few different aspects within the course of an individual Person’s life. There is not just one path, one door, one avenue – there are many, and often those who are in the healing process will explore or experience these different avenues at different times on different stages of their journeys.

I also argue that this depends on the evolution of one’s consciousness, as well as one’s state of consciousness as they are doing healing work. In yoga, this is sometimes thought of as efforts within vidya and avidya, the domains of knowledge (vidya) and ignorance (avidya). When one is in the realm of avidya, one might not be able to see Wholeness, or even recovery, as possible. This can be explained as a part of the nature of trauma itself, which, as we explored through the lens of IPNB, offered that difficult experiences such as trauma create filters of consciousness which restrict one’s vision and sense of possibility, as well as limiting the range of behaviors available. This becomes life within avidya. Trauma is restricting and limiting one’s possibilities, and making it seem as if Wholeness is unreachable. This “ignorance” it not the survivor’s fault, but rather a natural outcome of the overwhelming experience. Through some type of intervention(s), these filters may be loosened and begin to unveil one’s limited vision, to provide “revelations” of possibility including healing and Wholeness (Siegel, 2018). This may exhibit as a movement from simply trying to feel better or obtain relief from symptoms, and evolve into an effort to grow, transform, and realize greater spiritual Truths (or what some researchers now refer to as “Post-traumatic Growth”).

Part XV of this series will be the last thread to exploring this question, before Part XVI concludes with my own personal reflections on what I have experienced through the journey of healing trauma.

References

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Badenoch, B. (2018). The Heart of Trauma (First edition ed.). W.W. Norton & Company.

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Blackstone, J. (2018). Trauma and the unbound body. Sounds True.

Damasio, A. R. (2019). The strange order of things : life, feeling, and the making of cultures (First Vintage Books edition, February 2019. ed.). Vintage Books.

Freud, S. (2010). Civilization and Its Discontents. W. W. Norton & Company.

Herman, J. L. (2015). Trauma and recovery. Basic Books, a member of the Perseus Books Group.

Larson, G. J. (1969). Classical Sāṃkhya (1 ed. ed.). Motilal Banarsidass.

Levine, P. A., & Frederick, A. (1997). Waking the tiger : healing trauma : the innate capacity to transform overwhelming experiences. North Atlantic Books.

Levine, P. A., & Kline, M. (2008). Trauma-proofing your kids : a parents’ guide for instilling confidence, joy and resilience. North Atlantic Books.

McLaren, K. (2010). The language of emotions. Sounds True.

Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Heal. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved November 23, 2022, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/heal

Miller, A. (1997). The drama of the gifted child : the search for the true self, revised edition. Basic Books.

Porges, S. W. (2011). The polyvagal theory : neurophysiological foundations of emotions, attachment, communication, and self-regulation (1st ed. ed.). W.W. Norton.

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Siegel, D. J. 1. (2012). Pocket guide to interpersonal neurobiology : an integrative handbook of the mind (First edition. ed.). W.W. Norton & Company.

Siegel, D. J. 1. (2018). Aware : the science and practice of Presence, the groundbreaking meditation practice. TarcherPerigee, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.

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Van der Kolk, Bessel A. 1943-. (2015). The body keeps the score : brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. Penguin Books.