Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving

by Pete Walker

Find a safe and comfortable place where you won’t be heard. Close your eyes and remember a time when you felt compassionate towards someone. This can be from real life, or from reading a book or a poem, or from watching a movie or moving news item. Invoke self-compassion via the memory of someone who was kind to you, or imagine someone you think would be kind to you. I would be kind to you. Verbally ventilate about what is bothering you in a journal or aloud to a real or imagined friend or to me. Imagine yourself being comforted by a Higher Power. See yourself in the lap of a kind higher power or actual person who seems kind. [Santa Claus once worked well for one of my clients]. Remember a time when you felt better from crying or angering, or seeing someone else cry in real life or in a movie. Remember a time when being angry, or when someone else being angry, saved you from harm. Imagine your anger forming a protective fiery shield around you. Imagine your tears or anger carrying any fear, shame or depression up and out of you. Imagine holding your inner child compassionately. Tell the child it’s normal and okay to feel sad or mad about feeling bad or hurt. Tell the child you’ll protect him/her from being criticized. Breathe deeply, fully and slowly. Put on some moving or evocative music. Watch a movie that is poignant. Watch a movie that portrays “enviable” anger release.