Showing posts with label oprah. Show all posts
Showing posts with label oprah. Show all posts

Saturday, November 6, 2010

No More Shame: 200 Men Stand Together

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Part of this healing journey is having our our trauma experiences validated by others....


This week has been groundbreaking in the area of breaking the shame and the silence around sexual abuse.  Oprah Winfrey invited 200 adult men to come forward and tell their stories.


Generation after generation of sexual abuse is happening around the world. Yet - the stories are often never told.  In therapy many of us have been told that the past had nothing to do with our today, to just get over it, move on; we are often labeled and medicated.  


Our very being is denied when these life changing experiences are dismissed as inconsequential and unimportant by others. 


Today, abuse of all forms are still not freely shared or discussed


yet...


 it is in the telling of the story and having it validated as horrible by another human being that allows us to finally begin to move on and begin to create a life beyond this kind of life experience.


There is a time to put the past to rest, to move on, to create the life we want for ourselves but when we are denied this part of the healing process and forced to carry these burdens alone in time our pain will surface in a myriad of symptoms and very often become a distraction to the real issues that are overlooked. 


The only way out


is through.


With that said; this broadcast may be triggering to those who have survived childhood sexual abuse yet at the same time there are great hints at how to begin this healing journey. 


Please make sure you are in a safe, supportive place if you are concerned that you may be triggered...


Please follow the link below to watch this in its entirety on Oprah.com


200 Adult Men Who Were Molested Come Forward on Oprah


For resources to support your own healing journey check out our Resources page

Friday, August 6, 2010

Grief is an Emotion, Not an "illness"


I don't often watch television since I've left behind "illness" for this new, full life of "wellness"...

I don't watch a lot of television but one day earlier this week I got home and flipped on the tv to a program on Oprah. The story was heart-wrenching - when he was just 9, Aaron's twin brother died of a brain tumor.

Aaron told his Mom that he "didn't want to be here anymore".

Aaron's Mom of course, calls the pediatrician who saved Aaron's life in more ways than one.

First, instead of labeling him "mentally ill" with "suicidal ideation" and "clinical depression" and so on....

she listened to him and heard his pain, saw his grief.

Then she helped Nate to make meaning from this horrendous loss and honor his brothers memory by using his pain to fuel his passion for cooking.

Grief is a normal human emotion....

a normal human response to loss

not an illness.

Aaron missed the "magic bullet" and the drugs that would have changed him and his life forever.

Three cheers and a whole bunch of hurrahs for a doctor who listened and allowed this boy his tears instead of labeling him "disordered" and giving him that lifetime membership to "Club MI".





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