In these conversations (not to mention through my own personal experience), I’ve come to realize how vividly our unresolved trauma patterns can be mirrored in our work life. And, if we approach it consciously, provide one of the strongest vehicles for resolving these maladaptive patterns.
If you’re curious to know more about whether or not you’re recreating your own personal trauma history in your work life – no matter what your profession is – and, more importantly, if you’re interested in knowing how to not recreate your own personal trauma history at work, I hope you’ll find value from this month’s two-part essay series.
In this first essay, we’ll explore more about how and why our work life can serve as the ultimate mirror for our “stuff,” why our work life is excellent “grist for the personal growth mill” (so to speak), what exactly trauma is and trauma impacts you may recognize in yourself (at work or otherwise) if it hasn’t been processed, and then I’ll provide a concrete example of how this might look when someone plays this out in her business.
In the second of this two-part essay series, I’ll explore the steps to not recreate trauma in our work lives. I will provide you with a list of tools and prompts to deepen your understanding and inquiry about this.
Our work life as the ultimate trauma mirror.
All content areas are portals into our psychological patterns.
What do I mean by this?
Effectively, how we do one thing is generally how we do everything when it comes to our primary psychological patterning.
For instance, how you eat, how you vacation, how you approach money, can be a window into your primary patterning. (Examples: a “never enough” pattern, a “I can’t trust anyone” pattern, a “catastrophic thinking, and relentless activity to avoid feeling your painful feelings” pattern, a “I trust the world and others” pattern, a “struggle to say no because of fear of rejection” pattern, among countless other patterns).
In most cases, how you do one thing is generally how you do most things.
In therapy, we could look at any content area to gain greater insight into our dominant psychological patterns. But certainly, our work life will often be more stark and vivid a mirror for us to do some self-inquiry.
Why is this?
Because of the disproportionate amount of time spent on it. The growth inherent to most work life situations. And the higher stakes generally associated with it.
Let’s break this down further.
