The Portrait: Stanley Kunitz: A Poet's Version of the Long Arm of ACEs (1 min - Dailymotion.com)

Christine Cissy White posted:

Peter:

You make me think there should be a book about "Things I Now Understand that My Therapist Was Trying to Teach Me" and a companion one, "What I Think My Therapist Didn't Know When He/She Tried to Teach Me......" 

I bet it would be FILLED with insights and stories. There were so many times, in therapy, that it felt like the therapist was speaking another language. Some of that was class issues and differences and some of it was misunderstandings and lack of knowledge about the impact of developmental trauma in childhood on adults. 

Sometimes, the poets seem most wise to me. Thanks for sharing your comments!

Cissy

That brings me to my most recent saying, "The protest against the conformity to a life we are lead to believe is ours".

Peter:

You make me think there should be a book about "Things I Now Understand that My Therapist Was Trying to Teach Me" and a companion one, "What I Think My Therapist Didn't Know When He/She Tried to Teach Me......" 

I bet it would be FILLED with insights and stories. There were so many times, in therapy, that it felt like the therapist was speaking another language. Some of that was class issues and differences and some of it was misunderstandings and lack of knowledge about the impact of developmental trauma in childhood on adults. 

Sometimes, the poets seem most wise to me. Thanks for sharing your comments!

Cissy

Jane Stevens posted:

Peter -- Sounds as if you had a wonderful therapist!

In my 30's he tried to get me to see the exploited child by trying to get me to visualize my child in the chair next to me. He failed to see he was talking to the child. I finally see 35 years later what he was attempting to do. The child would suppress it's feelings and its need of appreciation for those of the parent. The result being an attachment that prohibited independence. 

Peter -- Sounds as if you had a wonderful therapist!

Thanks so much for this, Cissy. Can't wait to get my hands on a copy and use it in my next writing workshop for CSA survivors. 

The exploited child.  I once told a therapist that I was only struck 4 times by my parents as a child. He replied "Four times to many".

Jane:

I think/see and hear ACEs in everything. I love when Kunitz added those words "even at 88" after his poem. I wonder if the writing was one of the things that helped him live a good and long life despite his ACEs? Cissy

Even at 88....that's a long reach through time, and yet, in the brain, pathways of neurons that fire up before we're conscious of our reactions.

Thanks for posting this Cissy.