women with rage

As it is so profoundly seen, witnessed and experienced by so many people for whom i work with, my dear friends Elayne and Sylvia are currently sharing their time learning and helping the Congolese women in Africa who have also suffered great sexual abuse in their lifetime. They are exploring their past and present and how their political and sexual torture has affected them on all levels, physical, mental and emotional. As this has become a common experience in their culture and as stated by Elayne , "a norm in their society", i am deeply saddened by the effect it has left on women all over the world including the special women i work with here in San Francisco. Everyone whether male or female are affected by the sexual cruelty of inhumane rape, crisis, and molestation at one point in their lives or another. Question is, what can we do now? Being a survivor myself, what i know about this is that one of the most important things about using the rage and anger is to be 1) in touch with it and 2) be aware that it is stronger than you might think. Being "in touch", however is so difficult because the body and mind protect ourselves so we can "survive". This issue of survival is something i am talking more about these days and will be writing about in blogs to come. The point is, that the residual effect of trauma is that it can become locked in the cellular structure of the body, thus compromising it of its natural and flowing resources.


When this happens, (also called "stagnation, or stagnant chi") a women's (or man's) body is thus suspended in time and basically "frozen", as if they resemble a deer in headlights. Yes, you might not be able to tell from afar but we all have some trauma held back in our bodies and working with that is one of the most important and least covered rituals in our society. Due to this increase in awareness in consciousness around trauma held in the body and the necessity of it to be released comes a new wave of bodymind techniques that offer somatic expressions. These kind of mind/body works were developed years ago but are now gaining more popularity among trauma survivors each day. Some of the work you may find out there is called, "somatic psychotherapy", "dance and movement psychotherapy", "mind/body therapy", "emotional release bodywork". More on this later...

How? Lesson One

1) Trust yourself first
2) Take a strong honest look inside of yourself and in the mirror
3) Take note on what are the differences between the two.
4) Distinguish between "objectivity" (what others say about you) and "subjectivity", (what you say to yourself)
5) Take a moral and ethical inventory of yourself now
6) Take a moral and ethical inventory of yourself in the past.
7) Report back to me
askalisonleigh@gmail.com
"It's where you find yourself"

Lessons on "how to be good to yourself

http://alisonleighmft.wordpress.com/