3 myths about abuse and trauma that are hurting us
Today, I’m sharing the 3 most common myths I hear about abuse, so you can begin to see how it may be influencing your life in ways you didn’t realize:
MYTH #1: All violent interactions are abuse
When I use the word abuse, I’m looking at the impact it has on a person.
How have you taken that violence in? How has it penetrated your thoughts and feelings? Are you able to defend yourself?
If the same violence happened to two people, it could knock one person out and barely impact the other.
Unless there is a power difference built into what happened, and you can’t defend yourself, that violence won’t lodge itself into your psyche in the same way. We can still get hurt, and you may still need to process that hurt, but there won’t be a lingering trauma around that abuse.
MYTH #2: You can create a life that is 100% safe
Looking for a therapeutic space in your relationships or professional life often comes from a wound.
In reality, avoiding all pain and danger will prevent you from living in your gifts. You will never publish that book or take the risks to create a fulfilling relationship if you’re looking for safety.
The truth is that there is no such thing as 100% safe, because we are all humans with our own blind spots.
And the good news is that you don’t need to find this safe space that doesn’t exist. You only need the skills to navigate an unsafe world.
MYTH #3: Hurt people hurt people
Some hurt people are the kindest, most generous and loving people on the planet. Some people who received a lot of love are greedy and malicious, and don't give a shit about anybody.
Some people hurt people because there's satisfaction in hurting another creature that lives in them. I have parts of me that are like that – it's not just the sociopaths. And it's not only because I was hurt. But we have this inside us to different degrees, and everyone is different.
Many of us have powers and violences that live inside of us that we're unconscious about, and don't know what to do with.
What makes the difference is whether we are witnessed and educated by unshaming, loving witnesses.
These myths often stand in the way of people viewing their own trauma, and the trauma of others, without shame.
In Trauma & Abuse: The Unshaming Way, you will counter the pain and shame of violence by learning how to find the wisdom, beauty, and power within it.
You’ll learn tools that you can use for the rest of your life to…
Grow the love and compassion you need to care for all parts of yourself, especially the parts you previously wanted to “heal,” “fix,” or “remove”
Develop the consciousness to safely work through your trauma without re-traumatizing yourself and making it worse in the process
Integrate the clarity & understanding to truly listen to yourself and your body, no matter what comes up
Work with the somatic experience embedded in your story & trauma
Transform your relationship with yourself and others, breaking patterns & freeing you from the entanglements created by earlier abuse
Deeply connect with the meaning and medicine that has been alchemized within these greatest of wounds - abuse and trauma
As long as the violence you’ve experienced remains unwitnessed, it will stay alive inside you.
Alchemizing your abuse is the potent medicine that will transform your understanding of your life’s story + revitalize your relationship with yourself.
Click here to learn more and join Trauma & Abuse: The Unshaming Way.
Here’s what past students have said about working with David:
“I feel like this course so far has been 50x as powerful and healing as years of therapy and self-work.”
– Peter
“Thank you David Bedrick for the incredible work you are doing. I'm so honoured to have been witnessed… I can't even describe the healing and transformation I feel from David showing me that I can and am healing Myself. We all are.”
– Koula
“I started feeling shame start dropping away, in regards to my health. I think you are remarkable, the refreshing change that humanity needed.”
– Amelia
