Recently, a person popped up online during our weekly Shut Up & Write Group on Zoom. She brought up a question in my mind as she spoke her intentions for the session into being. "I just lost my beloved sibling," she said, her face hidden behind a black square with her name written on it. "I'm just going to write down some feelings. I'm not angry at him. I'm angry at the whole situation." I realized the question forming in my mind was, "What do I do with all that anger?" She had lost her twin, her aunt, both her parents and had been raised by her grandmother.
Ironically, she was late and popped up on screen at exactly that moment when I was talking about moving away from the label people kept trying to saddle me with, "healer," towards a focus on education. Why? Because it puts the onus for shift on the participant. Additionally, like writing itself, it clarifies that moving out of one perspective into a healthier, more fulfilling one is a matter of shifting point of view.
All I do is provide a safe space for people to interact around writing in a way that stretches all of us to become more mature in thought, emotion and self-expression. I provide information about the process of shifting perspectives from the point of view of one who has been there. But I also speak from the authority of someone who has studied trauma, who has done years of inner work, as well as years of work with others: the abused, the war-torn, the grieving. Having born witness to so much suffering, and having moved out of it myself after the death of my child, if I am able to discover how writing can become a source of enjoyment, allowing me to smile once again and become engaged in life, so can you!