What is the soul in terms of trauma?

[Ecdysis]

I'm trying to work out what the soul is, in terms of trauma.

In psychology and PTSD and trauma, the concept of a "soul" isn't talked about or a category that makes sense.

I think mostly, the soul is considered to be something belonging to the realm of "religion".

However, even as an atheist, I can idetify what feels like my soul. And I'm pretty sure that I'm not alone in that.

With the worst of the trauma I've experienced, I can understand it "rationally" (although it's taken me many years to even be able to understand it or put it into words)...

But on a soul level, I don't think my soul has any clue as to "what on earth happened". All my soul knows is that "a catastrophe took place that was too painful to bear and since then I no longer want to live anymore".

I've never talked about my soul before in therapy and I worry that my current T (who I'm not getting on with at all and looking to replace) will laugh at me if I ask about dealing with my soul in therapy. I'm currently doing some limited therapy sessions with a therapist at the local women's shelter tho and I think she may be more approachable on this topic.

What are your experiences regarding the soul and trauma? Have you done any specific soul healing?

 

[Freida]

Have you done any specific soul healing?

why yes, yes I did!
It was offered at a veterans retreat, and while I was sure it was a bunch of woowooo nonsense, I went anyway. It was odd. Like, there are no words odd.

She asked if I felt like I spent my life just going thru the motions, never being quite sure where I belonged, and chose environments that were chronically chaotic (hello 1st responder world!) and this was all signs of me looking for something that was missing, or distracting myself from the loss. She said I could tell her about the trauma or not, it didn't matter

She told me that I was missing 80% of the soul that makes me who I am, and that it was in pieces, so we needed to retrieve it and put it back where it belonged. Que the woowoo, and some chanting, and some nonsense stuff and then it was over.

Did it work? I truly don't know how to answer that. But I do know I felt much, much calmer when it was done so I took it as a win.

This is a good article that explains it

 

[parrotthepolly]

I think any form of soul healing is doing things or being with animals, plants or objects that make you feel comfortable.

I find music to be the closest comfort I have on this Earth if not one of the only unharmful ways to cope.

Also I don't believe the soul only exists within religion, it's more like a state of mind but not exactly, it's in the fifth dimension and not tangible and can't be reached using any of the five senses in the third dimension.

 

[Rose White]

I think of the soul as a useful fantasy for trauma work, a kind of transitional object or container for holding contradictory ideas as someone works out their thoughts and feelings about what happened. The idea of a soul offers coherence, continuity, and protection.

Fantasies are a given in human experience, but knowing which ones are useful helps so much. Suicidal ideation, for example, is a fantasy that can help with escape and numbing but is not very useful in the long term.

 

[Susan Jane]

I'm trying to work out what the soul is, in terms of trauma.

In psychology and PTSD and trauma, the concept of a "soul" isn't talked about or a category that makes sense.

I think mostly, the soul is considered to be something belonging to the realm of "religion".

However, even as an atheist, I can idetify what feels like my soul. And I'm pretty sure that I'm not alone in that.

With the worst of the trauma I've experienced, I can understand it "rationally" (although it's taken me many years to even be able to understand it or put it into words)...

But on a soul level, I don't think my soul has any clue as to "what on earth happened". All my soul knows is that "a catastrophe took place that was too painful to bear and since then I no longer want to live anymore".

I've never talked about my soul before in therapy and I worry that my current T (who I'm not getting on with at all and looking to replace) will laugh at me if I ask about dealing with my soul in therapy. I'm currently doing some limited therapy sessions with a therapist at the local women's shelter tho and I think she may be more approachable on this topic.

What are your experiences regarding the soul and trauma? Have you done any specific soul healing?

For me soul is my body. My body has history that I don’t remember or always understand. Listening to its clues and translating them in terms of experiences and responses makes me feel my soul, or what I believe my soul is.

 

[whiteraven]

So, I don't believe in a "soul" as a permanent thing that exists for all time. BUT...I view that essence we all have as energy. Energy is always changing and transforming. Because I also see it as free-flowing, I see healing the energy as defined in everything we do. In how we speak, how we think, etc. I see trauma as impeding or blocking energy, and that's all. My part in healing is to unblock it, and to feed it more positively or at least less negatively.

 

[arfie]

i'm still trying to work out what the soul is, on any level. sorta. i mostly let that mystery be. i worked with a spiritual advisor for a few years and we never used the word, "soul." in retrospect, i think i have been using, "soul" and "spirit" as synonyms. i don't care to debate the accuracy of that usage, but. . .

one of my greater motivations for the bullet on the healing score is that i rather solidly believe the baggage from unhealed trauma fits neatly into the funeral u-haul. i believe we take it with us when we go.

 

[WinnieThePoohChris]

I'm an atheist and find i can identify what I consider my soul. Cannot explain it other than the concept that's widely known. There is also my core, mind and body.

I had a therapist that first mentioned damage to my soul. Fit with what I felt but didn't understand.

You have to know where the damage is to be able to heal the injury. Once you know you can start to see what helps to heal and try to do more healing.

 

[Lost in the Woods]

I don’t believe in any deities but I do believe there is more than our day to day reality. Jung wrote about collective consciousness. I think he was on to something. Blake wrote about cleansing the doors of perception and again I believe he got it right. I believe we filter out much of reality so we can function in day to day so called reality. We are composed of elements that have been on earth since it was formed and recycled over and over again. The only exceptions are things falling from space. I believe heaven and hell exist in our lives as most of us have visited some challenging states of mind in this life. I believe we fade into nothingness when we die. As Kurt Cobain sang “There will be no memories” and the Talking Heads sang “Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens”. I do not believe in any sort of Cartesian duality. We are all part of the same oneness. When we die we let go of all the foolishness and fade into the oneness of the universe. Such a belief system allows us trauma survivors to not take ourselves so seriously. Bob Dylan expressed it well, “It is life and life only”. In a macro view we are not such a big deal after all. If we incorporate this into our essence and Samsara is accepted with a lightness of being. In regard to reincarnation associated with Samsara I see it as a recycling rather than reincarnation. So this is it, It isn’t a dress rehearsal. Live life and experience it all, it doesn’t last. Enjoy the adventure and wonder of it all.

 

[HomelessJoe]

I believe in the soul. I think of it as the energy that flows through us. You can call it neurons firing. Sending messages to muscles and nerves, I call it my soul. When our soul is hurt it, it affects our whole body's. I don't know if anyone else has felt pressure on their chest when they struggling through a bad memory. As for soul healing I like parrotthepolly take. Plants and Animals are great at feeling better or soul healing. We don't always have the words to explain what's on our minds. They don't need words. I dare you to watch cat videos for a five minutes and not smile. At least grin.

 

[Mach123]

I'm trying to work out what the soul is, in terms of trauma.

In psychology and PTSD and trauma, the concept of a "soul" isn't talked about or a category that makes sense.

I think mostly, the soul is considered to be something belonging to the realm of "religion".

However, even as an atheist, I can idetify what feels like my soul. And I'm pretty sure that I'm not alone in that.

With the worst of the trauma I've experienced, I can understand it "rationally" (although it's taken me many years to even be able to understand it or put it into words)...

But on a soul level, I don't think my soul has any clue as to "what on earth happened". All my soul knows is that "a catastrophe took place that was too painful to bear and since then I no longer want to live anymore".

I've never talked about my soul before in therapy and I worry that my current T (who I'm not getting on with at all and looking to replace) will laugh at me if I ask about dealing with my soul in therapy. I'm currently doing some limited therapy sessions with a therapist at the local women's shelter tho and I think she may be more approachable on this topic.

What are your experiences regarding the soul and trauma? Have you done any specific soul healing?

It means the part of me that’s not quite here or there. I went from atheist to Hindu/Christian lol that’s where this thinking is from, but also an experience at about five, one of those I’ll always remember this moment moments and I do. I was lying in the grass looking at the sky and the little shadows in my vision I learned later were called floaters . I knew I wasn’t all there so I wasn’t all here . I could feel the part of me that wasn’t corporeal. Now what that means ? It’s open to interpretation I guess. To me it’s eternal. But I guess there’s only one way to settle it. We all find out in the end.