A lot of things in the news bothered me lately – calamities, political unrests, environmental destructions; but what bothered me the most is the series of news items that are related to sex abuse. All of the other “bad news” these days are really because of our abusive behaviors - climate changes, the unrest in the Middle East, and the news of abusive men in power.
One of the marks of an empowered person – man or woman – is his or her ability to recognize an abusive behavior and put a stop to it. But such a form of empowerment might take longer for those who have been abused sexually.
The trauma from an abuse experience is not just in the mind – the memory is stored in the body. That is why those fears, those trembling, those paranoia, those anxiety are not just mental baggage, they are real, physical experiences.
As I mentioned in past blogs, a trauma is understood as any experience of pain which is beyond the person’s capacity to bear. In order to survive from a trauma – the body “stores” the memory and the mind develops a coping mechanism. While ordinary counseling helps in understanding the abuse experience and reframe the mind, the body continues to store the memory in the form of a trapped negative energy.
That is why EFT – emotional freedom technique – is an essential element for the healing of victims of sex abuses. EFT, by tapping these parts of the body – releases the negative energies and frees the person from the bonds of a painful past.