Recovering from trauma is an act of courage.
Any healing is best accomplished in a journey with others. I invite you to join me here, in our online groups, Bible studies, and online community.
This online community is a tiny start; it only begins to touch the surface of healing your writing or creative self, to help encourage your trauma growth and resiliency. I will be updating the site frequently with new information, so check in often.
We also encourage submissions by our readers in the form of articles, poems and other art works, created as part of a healing journey. Check out our submission guidelines at xx
Here’s what you’ll find on this site:
- A writing community that encourages and supports writers of all kinds to start again. Join here:
- Classes online and off-line on specific topics for writers. Go here for current classes:
- Our Writers Group, powered by WriteShare: a place to share your writing in a group.
- Our shop where you\’ll find all the things writers love — pens, papers, and notebooks and journals and more. Go Here:
- A Creative writing Wiki where you can learn all you want at your own pace. Go Here:
- Travel: Ideas for retreats for writers, places to travel and places to go to inspire your writing dreams. Coming Soon.
- A Blog with interesting and encouraging posts to help you on your writing journey. Sign up here: [mc4wp_form id=\”965\”]
Next Steps
I highly recommend Basser van der Kolk’s book, The Body Keeps the Score. If you are experiencing struggles, the help of a trained counselor is beneficial too.
“BEFRIENDING THE BODY. Trauma victims cannot recover until they become familiar with and befriend the sensations in their bodies. Being frightened means that you live in a body that is always on guard. Angry people live in angry bodies. The bodies of child-abuse victims are tense and defensive until they find a way to relax and feel safe. In order to change, people need to become aware of their sensations and the way that their bodies interact with the world around them. Physical self-awareness is the first step in releasing the tyranny of the past. In my practice I begin the process by helping my patients to first notice and then describe the feelings in their bodies—not emotions such as anger or anxiety or fear but the physical sensations beneath the emotions: pressure, heat, muscular tension, tingling, caving in, feeling hollow, and so on. I also work on identifying the sensations associated with relaxation or pleasure. I help them become aware of their breath, their gestures and movements. —Basser van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score.
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I look forward to walking alongside you in a healing journey.
Join our Writing to Heal Workshop
Seven Lessons the Fynbos of South Africa Teach Us About Trauma Resiliency
“The conflict between the will to deny horrible events and the will to proclaim them aloud is the central dialectic of psychological trauma.”
― Judith Lewis Herman, Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence – From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror
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Fire Ephemeral, by Leita Hermanson
I am the Banksia seed from the wild and stunning hills
high above the oceans in South Africa
a fire ephemeral— I am awakened from slumber by intense pain
to colour the fields burnt orange, lipstick, white and green
to fill the air with fragrance to attract the bees
who come to feed on my nectar, then leave to pollinate
the shrubs, plants and grasses, regenerating
life and beauty in an ever-lasting circle.
I have discovered amazing ways to adapt and to survive.
Like the Fireweed, I am liberated by a deep burn.
Sometimes after a fire, I drop my seeds into the rich ash
sprout from roots hidden deep in the earth
Like the Fire Lilly, my seed can lie dormant for a decade
or more then bloom within days of a fire
I am the plant, which protects its vital organs, the Larch
which grows a thick shield of bark, the Ponderosa
that sheds its lower branches to keep the flames away.
Then, I rise up out of the devastation to rebel.
I am an orchid, sensuous, fragile, and exquisite
despite the fire that destroys everything.
Invigorated by the chemistry of combustion, I am beauty
born of complete ugliness, yet not indestructible.