Healing Childhood Wounds

Troubled families lead to a mix of co-dependence (low self-esteem; poor boundaries; disowning our body, feelings and behaviors; denying needs and wants; extreme reactions) and PTSD (fear, panic, anxiety, depression, easy irritability, impulsive or explosive behavior) in the adult children.

polar-bear-and-dog

“Dog and Mother Bear” Christine Hartmann

Healing Childhood Wounds is a therapeutic group for adult children of troubled families who want to heal childhood trauma (physical, sexual, emotional). The group uses the Therapeutic Spiral Model, which consists of psychodrama and numerous safety structures to help group members experience and gain confidence embodying healthy, self-supporting and self-protecting roles.

“TSM offers a complex of techniques that represents the equivalent of heart surgery for trauma survivors.”¹

Without enough resources or authority to stay safe as a child, the traumatic experience remains unresolved and dis-integrated. The main actors – you as a wounded child, the perpetrator(s) and the adults who should have protected you but did not – are internalized and perpetuated. You attack yourself; you get hurt again; you abandon yourself. Shame attaches at the most vulnerable spot(s) and the defenses that helped you survive as a child are problematic as an adult.

“The patient, in order to be helped, must undergo a corrective emotional experience suitable to repair the traumatic influence of previous experiences.”²

trauma-triangle-2

TSM Trauma Triangle

“TSM is perhaps the most holistic and compelling approach [to trauma treatment] yet devised, one that integrates the power of social support through the group or team setting with an approach that works at both the conscious and unconscious levels.”³

More Information

Joy Liu, LMFT #53681, joy.wong.liu@gmail.com, 510-999-6380
Gregory Burns, LMFT #96018, gdburnsca@yahoo.com, 925-223-7228

Third Saturday of the month, 9AM to 4PM, in Livermore or Berkeley

  1. Blatner, Adam. Healing world trauma with the Therapeutic Spiral Model: Psychodramatic stories from the frontlines. Edited by Kate Hudgins, and Francesca Toscani. Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2012.
  2. Alexander, F., and T. M. French. “Psychoanalytic therapy; principles and application.” (1946).
  3. Blatner