Hello,

It has been a long time since my last post. This was not my plan but I was buried in my dissertation process. As of June 9, I can breathe more freely and have more time to offer to you. The weight of my dissertation has been lifted, but I still have important parts lingering before I have completed the process and earned my Ph.D. The journey has been long and hard but very fulfilling as well. Especially creating my study design, recruiting my eight participants, doing my study which consisted of three meetings, one individual and two group, experiencing the participants express themselves so openly and so powerfully, and combing the data for learnings. What an amazing experience.

It was also exciting to compile the whole thing, all the chapters, and the front and back matter which included the table of contents, abstract, and the appendices. Over three hundred and thirty pages on my topic of childhood maternal wounding, exploring the transformative potential of deep grieving, which I hypothesized would move people toward cultivating self-mothering capacities, self-respect, dignity, and autonomy.

These women were able to connect with their unresolved grief about their childhood maternal wounding and express their hurt, pain, anger, and disappointment in the presence of other women who had similar experiences. Expression was the key to their new awareness and understanding of their childhood. Within the facilitating environment that was created, they were able to express so deeply their painful experiences. One must move to the depths of one’s pain in order to be set free to move toward more functioning ways in one’s life and to become authentic. Their expression of their experience melted away the traps of the past and opened them up to compassionately tending to the hurt child in the way they wanted from their mothers.

When we express, things happen, things that once were constricting and limiting, can be released and set free. This way new growth is possible, life is restored, and potentials are endless. We can see what we haven’t been able to see, able to hear what we couldn’t hear, and we are able to feel more loving toward ourselves and others.

I want to leave you with a quote to ponder until next time when I will share more about the power and healing potential of expression. This quote is from the president of the school I attend.

Expression is essential to transformation and transformation is essential to the soul’s well-being. Aftab Omer