Power of Collective Safety
Trauma survivors have vulnerability around political violence. Attachment literature documents the impact of “frightening or frightened caregiving”. When police and their defenders call killing people public safety, many trauma survivors hear “the people who are supposed to protect me are hurting my people”. Feelings of powerlessness in the face of injustice can mirror our earlier experiences of being overpowered and unheard. The questions and affirmations below are intended to support people in feeling connected to our own safety and to our feelings of empowerment. I want us to affirm the difference that our healing, presence, and compassionate action can make in creating a more connected and safe world.
At our best, in clinical interventions, we can contribute to increasing our collective ability to know that we matter, that we have infinite capacity for good, and that taking care of ourselves is a crucial strategy to taking care of the collective. We resist the temptation to separate our feelings from our bodies and our actions when we let ourselves feel the fullness of grief, anger, betrayal, and separateness.
Together, we can locate ourselves, our healing, our justice making, in a larger story of collective liberation.
Clinical Questions
What is safety? When have you felt safe?
When have you contributed to other people’s safety? What did that feel like?
What role can your healing have in creating justice?
When have you felt connected to other people, the planet, animals, history, or movements?
Where are we right now in the story of justice?
What would be different if everyone felt safe?
Affirmations
Your reactions are appropriate.
You are connected to other people.
You have the capacity to make change.
This time can be different.
You do not need to handle this alone.
Your healing contributes to collective healing.