Wounded Healer

 Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don’t see many of “the brightest and the best” among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these “nobodies” to expose the hollow pretensions of the “somebodies”? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. That’s why we have the saying, “If you’re going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God.”                                                                             I Corinthians 1:27-31 (the Message)

The term “wounded healer” comes from the ideas of Swiss Psychiatrist Carl Jung (no relation), who coined that term to describe therapists who drew healing power from their own personal wounds. Henri Nouwen famously write a book with that very title.

I was put in mind of this concept very recently as I saw a young client (now in his early 20’s) who had suffered from significant bullying when he entered high school. He is an African-American man who appears to suffer from an Autism Spectrum Disorder. His affect is blunted, and he struggles with many social cues and norms. He does not have very many friends, other than those with whom he plays video games online.    

As I have gotten to know this young man, over several months, he has responded to my suggestion that he write down how he feels in a journal. My belief, as my regular readers know, is that we need to express those painful things which rumble around our heads to help find outward expression somehow, be it through art, writing, painting, sculpture- whatever. He took me up on this, and recently, he has begun to read me those thoughts in our sessions.

I was blown away by his writing!

To say I was stunned by his self-awareness and his ability to express it would be a serious understatement. He has the soul of a poet, and I said to him that his writing reminded me a bit of the writings of Paul Lawrence Dunbar, an African-American poet from Dayton, Ohio where this young man lives.

He was able to articulate, almost poetically, the painful feelings he has- feelings of hurt, rejection, isolation, self-doubt, lack of confidence, lack of friends etc. I asked him if he would ever consider sharing this journal with other who may feel the same way, and he liked the idea.

He is making real progress because his writing allows him free and clear expression of his innermost thoughts and feelings. The idea that his writing could help others gives him hope.

We will be pursuing this, slowly, as he develops his voice. Indeed, he is finding his voice, and I am finding his heart.

Prayer: Thank you for the opportunity to see “wounded healing” at work, Amen