I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read comments from folks over the last decade wherein it is just assumed that it is impossible to fully heal and restore real regulation back to the nervous system, and of course the human being who contains that system, when severe longstanding physical and sexual violence was a weekly (daily) occurrence from infancy to adulthood …
Don’t get me wrong, healing the horrors and terrors of domestic abuse takes time – but it can happen.
The other thing that’s important to consider (and remember) is that what we know now about healing a nervous system that’s living (surviving) in these highly traumatized somatic and nervous system layers is still pretty new for most.
Also, if one hasn’t experienced a way of healing that taps into ALL the layers of human experience—thinking, sensing, feeling, movement, behaviour, relational, environmental—and they are only working with each of these piecemeal, and are never taught how to integrate them all together into one big ‘somatic experience,’ and let’s not forget a deep understanding of their physiology and how it works (or does not), then yes, it is quite possible one would not believe, or even know it is possible, to fully restore regulation, and actually move beyond a way of surviving that only knows coping and management.
So with that long introduction, I introduce to you Hosannah…
She’s living proof that you CAN recover and restore after repeated sexual abuse from age 1 to 21, and while I wish her story was unique, in my professional experience, not so much.
She shares her story so openly because she wants others who have lived through similar horrors to know it is possible to not only get better, but be remarkable. She also doesn’t sugar coat this process, and says repeatedly: you must do the work!
A few more notes on this topic…
I think a lot of humans who suffer from complex PTSD, severe mental illness, and physical incapacitation, usually a result from severe early traumas like what Hosannah lived through, never make it. Suicide is common, as is substance abuse (which also takes people’s lives)…
Or the medical system bounces them from specialist to doctor to shrink to try to help them, medication is often heavily prescribed, or medical protocols re-traumatize people in an attempt to heal the overt real medical condition, but rarely do they get to the root of what is creating that condition, the symptoms are suppressed, the traumas drive deeper inside the body and mind – and then another ailment pops up!
To sum that all up in one sentence: the whole person plus their past traumas are rarely worked with at the physiological level.
Additionally, or, to make it even harder, insurance providers, and even doctors for that matter, rarely factor in (or even realize) a person with this severity of trauma history needs way more than ten sessions a year of therapy: they need ongoing support, often for decades, and a team of helpers and healers to re-teach them how to be human again.
In my first talk with Hosannah, aired earlier this year, she talked about ALL THE THINGS she did to try to heal—reading the big-name trauma books, crystals, essential oils, vagus nerve stuff, movement, exercise, and more.
While she was dedicated, it still wasn’t enough to get to the root of the abuse.
But when she started learning about her nervous system, and gained practical skills to work with her physiology via SmartBody SmartMind™️(SBSM), everything changed for the better.
The second talk we released yesterday is not only a testament to her dedication and commitment to thrive and not just survive, but that one can really become their own medicine, and as I like to say, ‘nurture their nature.’
You see, when our nurturing was nonexistent, and we experienced nothing but a series of repeated threats and abuse from the start, not to mention from the people who should be caring for us and keeping us safe, the only way up and out of this is to re-nurture that nature (the physiology), and then give the body what it not only needs, but what it never got.
If you’re genuinely curious about whether or not this work is for you, then I strongly encourage you to watch both of our talks, connect with this level of humanity, and then consider how you might be in a year’s time if you commit (or recommit*) to your nervous system and its health.
*To all my alumni, do NOT give up now. Keep going and use the resources you have already invested in!
When you finish watching one or both of these talks, please leave a comment or drop a nod to Hosannah. And one final favour – please give the video a like, and if you haven’t subscribed to my YouTube channel, I would appreciate that, as it has been tough to get videos that really talk about this deeper healing out into the world. Thank you in advance.
To your nervous system health, and our individual work shifting the collective’s potential.
PS Is this you? (If yes, then be sure to take me up on my strong suggestion to invest in yourself with my expert guidance, along with structured (yet still engaging and often fun!) tried and tested learning and skill building practices. SmartBody SmartMind is waiting for you <<
