Healing the Wounds of Childhood and Culture
An Adventure of a Lifetime
by
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Embarking on a healing journey is the surest way to a rewarding, adventurous, meaningful, vibrant life. It is the most certain way to grow self-knowledge and to discover new aspects of ourselves. We can live life with a growing sense of agency, a sense of “I’m the one in charge of my life,” and simultaneously a growing sense of alignment with a higher order—whether religious, spiritual, or secular—a sense of something supportive beyond the limits of our body-mind. When committed to this journey, higher energies will present themselves, even if only in the form of improbable coincidences or even a sequence of improbable events. My surviving a serious heart attack without any medical treatment for three months was one of those for me.
In time a new model of what it means to be healthy both physically and emotionally will prevail. The model I envision will view relationship health, emotional health, physical health, and spiritual development as inter-related. (page 7, bottom of page)
Mental health approaches contribute to the atmosphere that fails to view the healing journey as the adventure it really is. “Am I normal?” is a question I hear over and over in countless forms. Here’s the problem: as long as we accept the absence of symptoms as normal and the goal we should strive towards, we are without the comprehension necessary to pursue what’s possible: our own beautiful uniqueness. More and more psychotherapy has come under the sway of the medical model and the ubiquitous insurance industry. It’s about curing symptoms and submitting codes to the insurance company. The medical model has prevailed. Lost is probing the depths of our unconscious and uncovering parts of ourselves heretofore disowned. We need guides, elders, and wisdom holders for this journey I am describing.
An important step on this path is to let go of the concept of normality. Let’s no longer ask if we are normal; let’s ask what is possible. The work of Mae-Wan Ho, Gerald Pollack, Dan Siegel, and Charles Eisenstein move us towards a new story, not of separation, but of connection. Coherence—or Integration—lead us to a journey of healing: a journey towards wholeness. They give us a road map to follow. Whether we are looking at our body and being, our intimate relationships, or our connection to nature, integration is the direction we need to go. It is an adventure of unlimited dimensionality, challenge, and reward. It is a lifetime journey.
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About the Book
In Healing the Wounds of Childhood and Culture, author Dr. Don St. John offers a new model of wholeness, and he challenges us to embark on an adventure of a lifetime. It awakens us to the multiple effects of personal traumas and of the wounds inflicted by our culture.
Blending his personal and clinical experiences, St. John discusses why many have failed to recognize how their potential has been limited. In this guide, he helps you understand the root causes of many of society’s ills: violence, addictions, substance abuse, loneliness, depression, apathy, polarization, and relationship distress.
Insightful, Healing the Wounds of Childhood and Culture points the way toward harmony, self-love, and a capacity for deep, emotional intimacy. It provides an understanding of what’s needed to flourish and thrive, especially in relationship to ourselves and our loved ones. It’s what we as individuals and as a culture need to understand to move beyond survival and scarcity and embrace abundance and harmony.
About the Author
Don St. John, PhD, a psychotherapist, has been immersed in the somatic, psychological, relational, and spiritual worlds for more than fifty years. His academic roots are in traditional clinical psychology, but early in his career he realized from his own experience that one’s body, relational intelligence, and spirituality must be included to achieve a thriving sense of wholeness.