Healing is all about integration, bilateral and vertical linkage and differentiation of parts of any system (brain, body, society) versus fragmentation and separation (Tonya Alexandri, February 29th, 2016)
Trauma, whether viewed at an individual or collective level is about division, separation, segregation; it is about erection of walls and gates, and closed doors. It is never about wholeness and integration, linkage and connection (Tonya Alexandri, March 27th, 2015)
Working on making sense of past experience and how it has impacted both the past and present is a process that brings about new understanding and clarity and highlights the simple truth that our human experience and sense of self are deeply influenced by our external environment and circumstances, and those we are related to in one way or another. There are no non-permeable boundaries between people and our self and experience is constructed within historical contexts. We do not exist in a void and we are embedded within particular socio-political and geographical contexts. We grow up in particular families and groups and are influenced by societal conflicts, values and practices. Nancy Chodorow supports that there are no non-permeable boundaries between individuals and that relationships involve ‘intersubjectivity’; a meshing of individuals’ desires, needs and anxieties. She challenges the individual-society dualism by suggesting that we internalise aspects of the world, during childhood, which become intra-psychic processes that can operate throughout our lives by influencing behaviour and social lives (cited in Sclater, 2007). By transcending the individual-society binary one can explore how external forces and processes are interconnected with individual and group psychological processes. Within this perspective the self is viewed as inevitably social; in constant interaction with family members, communities and institutions (cited in Tonya Alexandri, 2009). Additionally, the more recent findings in the field of interpersonal neurobiology support that we are connected not only to others but also to our wider environment, and that our mind, (embodied) brain and the people we interact with are interdependent. Neuroscience studies support that our connection to others impact our brains, health and well being, and that nurturing, healthy relationships are one of the important factors that can promote neuroplasticity throughout the lifespan.
