đź’Ź Welcome to our Healing CommunityÂ
Our goal is to empower people to share their stories of family trauma and shame.Â
I, Andrew, founded this community after going down my own spiritual journey of healing, and connecting with family and friends over my journey of overcoming my family trauma and shame. This has caused them to reflect on and share their own stories with me, resulting in a virtuous circle of empathic connection and healing. Now, I want to grow a community to expand my personal impact beyond family and friends, which is why I started Trauma Sharing Circles.
The most powerful indicator for happiness is human connection. One of the pillars of human connection is storytelling. There is enormous power in sharing our stories and feeling seen and heard, then hearing and seeing others for who they are. This is a community based on storytelling.
Not all of us have had a happy childhood upbringing and strong relationship with our family or greater community. Or maybe we thought we did, but have stored away negative experiences inside our subconscious memories, which still manifest today in anxiety, depression and/or shame. It’s not to say our parents didn’t love us. They did. They just didn’t know how to express it, because of their own traumas in their lives.
Because our stories relate to family, we need to be able to share our stories with people outside our families who can hold space. We need to be able to share our stories with people who have gone through similar struggles, who will listen with objectivity and empathy.
This is the main goal of this community. Other goals include learning about trauma and shame. This can be done through sharing resources such as books, podcasts, et cetera, to learn about healing shame and trauma. And to possibly meet in real life and make friends.
🌷 Core ValuesÂ
Our core value is healing.
Healing happens through being seen and heard in a nurturing community. Our most urgent need in a community is safety. Sharing our story requires vulnerability. Listening to stories requires empathy. To hold space for each other requires integrity. To maintain integrity, the community must maintain a feeling of intimacy. Thus, this community will not have a goal of more members, but the right members - quality over quantity.
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🙏 RulesÂ
We are here to hold space for each other to tell our stories and feel supported. In order for everyone to feel safe, this must be a judgment-free space. We must agree to the following guidelines:
1. All walks of life welcome;
2. Every community member agrees to share their story. The focus is on our relationship with our family. If this is success, other groups can be started for other types of stories. We can share traumas we took on through our family, or shame we feel because of how they treated us. Not too short, not too long – too short and it’s not a story. Too long and listeners will tune out. Be respectful of others’ time and energy to listen;
3. Leave your bias at the door. You are entering a safe space for you to feel heard, and you must offer the same safety for others to be heard. That means discarding your biases, checking your ego, being open minded. Be a listener first, reactor later;
4. No judgment or criticism – remember, we are here to escape these things. If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t reply. If you have constructive criticism or thought-provoking ideas, be very careful how you word them. See next guideline;
5. Whenever possible use “I” statements, such as “I feel…” For example, “I feel hurt by your statement,” instead of “You are ignorant.” It is important to focus on the action or behavior, not the person;
6. Provide context – if sharing resources and links, provide some context. Don’t share links without doing this, or the channel could easily accumulate spam. On that note;
7. No spam, no business promotions
Any inappropriate comments will be removed by myself, until such time that I may need additional help to moderate.
❤  Thank You
Finally, I want to thank you for embarking on this journey with me. This is my first attempt at facilitating this type of community, and it will be constantly growing and evolving. Please bear with me through these changes and iterations.
I am also open to feedback on how to make this community better. I am starting this on Librti as an alternative social networking platform. Eventually I would like to have Zoom meetings.
