Health after trauma

I recently was contacted by Dr. Ellen Taliafierro; she specializes in trauma recovery and is an expert in her field. Dr T promotes the thory that writing is part of the recovery.I have long supported that thought myself.

I was drawn to write as a very young child; what was ironic is that I was probably what they now determine as "learning disabled". Words and the spelling of them were difficult for me; my father had a regimen that I had to learn three words a day, know their definition, put into syllables and be able to use them in a sentence at any given time.
His tactics were wrong but his motive was good. And, although it began as punishment for my unacceptable ineptness it served me well throughout my life.
I guess one would say I took lemons and made lemonade.

As many young girls do I wrote stories, kept a diary and journaled as well as the obligatory notes back and forth among who you thought were trusted friends.

Another irony was that my given name was Margaret Mitchell; the same name as the author of Gone With the Wind. Somehow, that connection was what motivated me to dream and believe it was possible that there was a different life outside my home and one day I would discover it.

So writing in some form has been a constant in my life as well as reading the written word.

Words give a voice to those of us who have been/are silenced by abuse and trauma. We sometimes are not given permission to use our voice and sometimes don't know what or how to say what we need to speak but in writing the words down the voice becomes clear.
It isn't important that the words are spelled correctly as much as the thought is spoken even in silence.

The thought, once given importance by writing it down, becomes a historical record of ones life.
You were there. You were the witness. You are the evidence.
I have been told my entire life to write books; to tell the story of my life.
For so many years because I was told I was insignificant I believed my story would be unimportant.

In the last few years I have come to realize that even if no one would read the words its an important story just because I lived it. And the most important person helped by my writing the words is myself; the bonus is that along the way some others were helped by my accounts of my experiences.

Anyone who has been a victim of violent crime, whether domestic violence or other forms should take a look at her website.
I will provide the link.http://www.healthaftertrauma.com/index.html

I like a quote of Dr.T which says, "life is not what happens to you, but what you do with it".