The Bubble Of One: Trauma and PTSD

Jul 16
4 min read

Sketched Phrenology head on a parchment background

I shared this drawing, 'Bubble Of One: Landscape Of Trauma' around 4 years ago on my Flourish Insta and Facebook, my previous incarnation before rebirthing as VOLVA. Back then, I was finding that I was posting less and less on social media, for many different reasons one being that there was the beginnings of a tsunami of trauma happening in 2021 and my attention was on supporting clients as much as possible with what we were dealt. Restricted personal contact meant online sessions and adapting existing ways - it seems strange now to think that online anything was the minority. And also, I do prefer to connect with you directly, rather than social media, through my website, blog, newsletters and updates. If you know someone you feel would enjoy my newsletters and blog posts, please feel free to share the subscribe link which is at the bottom of the home page.

I'm not an artist in the conventional sense - I am little more of a nature go between in my creative crafting - so initially I felt rather vulnerable sharing Bubble Of One publicly. Often our minds present us with a myriad of justifications why we shouldn't do something, but the heart offers us only one. And so I shared this drawing then, in the midst of isolation and disconnection - and I share with with you now because the tsunami has arrived and we are in the midst of a mental health crisis.

Sometimes, when I make the time, I like to doodle for relaxation and to explore different perspectives of the world, myself and my therapeutic work - I find it very meditative when I ignore my inner critic! It helps me approach something that I'm not inherently skilled at with an open, gentle mind and an encouraging, loving heart. This is something that is incredibly important for all of us, but especially for those recovering from trauma. I state here and now, I am not a psychiatrist, counsellor or mental health professional and absolutely none of this is medical, psychiatric or counselling advice. Shamanism, Earth Medicine and Nature Spirituality approach trauma in a very different way. My practice is trauma responsive but I am in no way a medical professional in this area. To me, this is a blessing - I approach my work within the framework of spiritual, intuitive guidance - but it means that my experience with clients in this area is disregarded because I don't have medical professional qualifications. You decide for yourself what speaks to you. No one way is right or wrong, and often we get the best results by combining many different modalities. Anyway, back to the drawing (board)...

In this drawing I tried to highlight the struggles and isolation many of us were experiencing in 2021, and much has not changed in this way. As an intuitive and faith healer specialising in recovery of the self, many clients find it incredibly difficult to describe and verbalise what they are feeling. We've all felt this at times. Personally, if I cannot pour it into a blog or short video, I'll create something else. It might be a drawing, a meal, binding smudge sticks, a card reading for myself, a remedy, a cake. For you perhaps it's knitting, crochet, building, sculpture, crafts, painting, interior design, a diary, writing poetry or songs, playing music. Art, in whatever form it takes, really does help us to make sense of our inner and outer worlds.

There are so many emotions that are triggered by our body responses, learned during our survival of traumatic times that we have experienced before. Trauma's effect on our mind, body and soul is deeply complex but there are many ways to heal from it. Healing however does not mean eradication. It means a different perspective; management, awareness, alternative approaches.

The head in the drawing you may recognise as based on Victorian phrenology but instead of the section functions of the brain, there are a range of the emotions we dip in and out of when experiencing trauma's close, and often constant, companion PTSD. Grief, anger, self loathing, worry, fear, depression; emotions from previous wounds. When we are in the whirlwind of unhealed trauma, we are still in survival mode.

The circle in the drawing is intended to be both a bubble of isolation but to also give the illusion of a looking glass, magnifying the isolation and offering a clinical, under-the-microscope perspective, which is often how both society and conventional medicine treat people experiencing trauma, as a range of symptoms and mental conditions and not as individuals where every part reflects the whole.

My approach is holistic, integrative and perhaps a little unconventional, using a wide range of therapies, techniques and tools that I have professionally and personally studied, researched, applied and developed over the past 25 years of my practice. As someone who has also recovered themselves (you can read about one of my challenging experiences in The Maiden Voyage; A Journey Of Revelation and Reclamation), I also bring personal witness and a deeper level of empathy to my work.

The approaches that I use, teach and share with my clients in their own recovery, reclamation and healing are the methods I live myself. This is incredibly important in therapeutically understanding what you are experiencing and in assessing the support best suited to you at different stages of your reclamation of yourself.

With love and healing,

Andrea

PS. There's also a hidden message in the drawing, if you can find it...