Why You Need To Give Voice To Your Wound

Hurting people I see always need to go through a sufficient process of "catharsis" in order to start healing. If they do not go through this, they remain locked in the pain associated with a past or early loss/trauma. Actual access to adult maturity is blocked because they get stuck in the unfinished business associated with child immaturity.

"Catharsis" in Greek means to cleanse. In counseling, it's the therapeutic process of giving voice to your wound. The Aristotelians refer to it as one of purging inner pain. Orthodox psychotherapy, too, sees "catharsis" or self-purification as the first task of the therapist and the patient/client.

Working with and through pain is one of the ways that cleansing occurs within a person. It burns away unhealthy attachments and preoccupations of the ego-centered self. Then, with sufficient "catharsis" and progressive awakenings, we become empowered to heal our self. And then, heal others of the diseases of which one's own self has been cured.