Janina Fisher a pioneering Trauma Counsellor and Writer recently sent an email to Sadie one of our Senior counsellors on healing. This is what she said:
About 10 years ago, a student asked me a question that stayed with me:
“What do we mean by healing? We talk about trauma healing – but what do we actually mean?”
At the time, I didn’t have an answer. For days, I kept asking myself: What is healing when it comes to trauma?
It’s not just processing memories. Clients often say, “I feel exhausted,” or “I’ve come a long way.” But that’s not quite healing.
Then one day, it clicked: healing is the moment we accept ourselves. When we extend kindness inward. When we forgive ourselves—not just for what we’ve done, but for all the ways we thought we were defective.
That’s when warmth emerges – for ourselves and for all the younger parts of us that did their best to survive. That’s the moment people truly feel healed.