Sunday, May 8, 2022

Learning to love part 4

I posted this a few months back, but since it is a part of my journey to forgive and learn to love, here it is again...

Regressive memory therapy

I was seeing a counselor a few years ago and she told me about RMT regressive memory therapy. The idea of this is that you remember the times that hurt, and that still hurt…

  • When I was three years old and my Dad screamed at me on Easter Sunday.
  • When I got that anonymous letter in 2004
  • When I was 13 and my mom smacked me in the mouth [one of many times]
  • When someone wrote a book and said untrue and hurtful things about me.
  • When I was rejected by a church member or staff person.

Such things hurt.

In regressive therapy, the idea is that these things still hurt because part of us was “left behind” in those moments. Part of us, part of our hearts are still stuck there in the past.

The theory is, that in order to release ourselves, and the others involved in the painful story, we need to journey to the past and recover our broken self.

So in this therapy, you journey in your mind back to that moment. Take a plane, drive a car, and get to that time and place. Find the you that is there… say to yourself… “Jeff, look, it is me… do you see me? Do you see that I am you? Look, I know you are hurting now, but you will survive… I am proof. I am sorry that I left you behind. Come with me now. Join me in my heart and lets be together. Let’s be whole again.”

And you take your broken self, left in the past, with you now, into the present.  You rescue yourself from that painful moment.

Repeat as necessary.

This approach to healing our memories has helped me a lot.
And I am still working on it.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

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I am, along with Sherri Swanson and Aaron Brown, leading a trip to the Holy Land January 23-February 2, 2023.

For more information, click the link below. And if you have any questions, please feel free to email me at jsbrink57@gmail.com

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