Is it possible to heal trauma fully? Yes!

 

Is it possible to heal trauma fully? Yes!

Mani: Hi! I wanted to share this channel on youtube, she has some great videos for people who has trauma from childhood/teenage years. It's always good hearing someone talk about something they themselves have been through/worked through, and so has solid advice. Be it trauma in the form of neglect, ongoing stress over years, episodes at school, illness etc. She speaks mostly from a psychological and physiological perspective, and not so much spiritual, but it still has been super helpful. For the longest time, as I wrote many times in my log thread here in the group, I genuinely thought I had autism or some other mental/neurological duagnosis. ? Turned out it was childhood traumas, which I am working through with the wonderful practices Baba has taught us.
Now she says in one of her videos that childhood trauma can never fully 100% heal, which I don't think is true, but that just seems to be the general perception for mental health, that it is difficult or impossible to fully heal.


Baba: I never bought that you'd be autistic. Misdiagnoses have been a nuisance in your family...


Mani: Yeah, I am so glad I didn’t settle for that diagnosis and know what the cause is now. It makes all the difference. My sister also got a misdiagnosis of bipolar disorder, but it turned out to be PTSD from childhood and of being failed by the medical community.
I am so glad to know now about the subtle bodies and how tantra can heal...

Baba: We had a discussion with Amrita Uma (who is a psychologist) at the recent retreat about the common perception about the heal-ability of trauma among professionals of psychology. Gabor Mate who is a very influential trauma specialist said what I've heard from a number of others (the ones I've listened to) that "you can learn to live with trauma but you can't (fully) heal it". But Uma enlightened me by saying that that is not a prevalent opinion, that some psychologists and psychoterapists have the opposite view, that it is possible to heal it fully.


Even without the methods to heal it fully I find it very problematic and disempowering to say to patients that it can't be healed. We all probably know someone with trauma or some other illness who's been said that they can't heal and that they just have to suffer with it for the rest of their lives. Of course if we are talking about tetraplegia it is a different matter but my point is that just like in dharma you have teachers who give really poor, insufficient and actually completely wrong instructions backed up by a lineage, the same happens in medicine where doctors go too far in their statements and diagnoses.


Having worked my a*s off with my own trauma with very specific energetic practices, I am highly doubtful if it is even possible to become fully aware of one's early trauma by psychological means (that are basically sutric/non-tantric) and consequentially if psychology really even understands what full healing of trauma means. That might sound like a very arrogant thing to say and I am happy to be told/proven otherwise but having seen the regular shallowness of non-tantric methods I am doubtful, though really hope that there'd be tons of efficient methods and techniques out there available to humanity. But even for those few who have the priviledge to live in wealthy circumstances and have the access to psychotherapy, that extremely few in the world have, the actual results don't look too good, even after years of regular therapy. Little benefit is much better than no benefit at all but just like in dharma, it's just not good enough.


Childhood trauma being misdiagnosed as bipolar or as a million other things doesn't surprise me at all, though it is of course quite tragic. The understanding of trauma and how thoroughly it affects people is very poor among medical professionals from what I know.
All people should go back to their religions to find answers to these problems. Not the dogmatic belief rubbish but the practices; prayers, chanting, meditation, service, contemplation and above all to receive the grace that heals. You know, being healed by the spirit that dwells in all of us is not a fairytale, it is real.


Linking a short documentary from Finnish tv (swedish with finnish subtitles) from 2019 that testifies about the power of prayer. It's very impressive, especially the testimony given by the doctor. https://areena.yle.fi/1-4598175

Buddha Within Can Heal Traumas

 

Buddha Within Can Heal Traumas

Kim: I was reading some discussions among buddhist practitioners and saw this remark that "buddhist meditation does not heal trauma", which I have seen many times before. Well, there are different types of buddhist meditations but all in all my experience is exactly the opposite. However, it depends greatly of the teacher and the method/lineage one follows, whether psychological aspect is included and covered or not.

History of mankind is the history of trauma, so I don't believe that past generations of Asian practitioners didn't have traumas, and therefore healing of trauma must have always been part of the greater buddhist tradition, even if many particular lineages had and still don't have a clue about it. Now that we live in modern society, also all over Asia, I think it would be tremendously beneficial for dharma practitioners and teachers to learn about the basics of western psychology. The way I see it is that it discusses and adresses the same issues, just from a different perspective.

Anyway, in my experience, buddhist practice, which first and foremost is the practice of awakening or recognising one's own already wakeful and pure heartmind, is very much about healing of trauma, along with removing ignorance. In fact, I would say that there aren't other ways to really heal. By this I mean that through either buddhist meditation or western psychology one can potentially heal.

For those interested, here are recordings of Tantric Trauma Therapy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSEZ489DYaE&list=PLqTm9fV9DGhswnFhxIQR3kJwxKPw78186&index=5&fbclid=IwAR230ypa6uxrkeKwSAF3xW_2BYN5_Riu-YGzvtc-k4YB2goduktNZb6emHU

Ugi: I think what is essential about healing trauma is the position from which one approaches trauma. And there seems to be more and more agreement in western psychology and trauma research that the only position that can heal trauma is the position of wholeness/being already whole (and safe). One cannot heal trauma by coming from a self-image of being inherently broken/unsafe. Because the "trying to fix myself"-mentality re-creates the trauma again and again, always pre-supposing that I'm not already safe.

Leading trauma scientists like Bessel Van der Kolk recommend working primarily with the body and discovering safety in the body. Or also more mind-oriented modalities like Internal Family Systems by Richard Schwartz work with discovering and establishing some kind of non-conceptual presence first which doesn't take any position in the internal conflicts that started to develop with the trauma (and keep it alive).

So I completely agree with you that true Dharma practice naturally and very directly includes trauma healing. To say that buddhist practice doesn't heal trauma because buddhism isn't practiced correctly anymore is throwing out the baby with the bath water.