Recovering
My wife and I are on what we hope is the tail end of our first experience with Covid. Her symptoms and mine have been comparable although I have a chest cough that she hasn’t had and she lost her sense of taste and smell and I still have mine.
We’ve both had fevers, fatigue, scratchy throats, and low appetites. Of course, we both want to recover. So, we’re staying hydrated and giving ourselves permission to be less productive and to take occasional naps. Eventually, I’m confident we will both recover because we are giving our bodies the support they need to heal.
We are both focused on recovering from the symptoms of Covid, but if my body were writing about this, it might talk about how hard it is working to recover from the virus that is causing all of the symptoms.
In my work as a Results Coach, I help people who are recovering from the symptoms of disconnection and trauma. Some of those symptoms include addiction and dysfunction. Most of my clients come to me for help to recover from those symptoms. But I help them by focusing on the causes of addiction and dysfunction.
I have never yet worked with an addiction client who hadn’t lost the sense of who they really are. Of course, you might think, addiction will do that. But if addiction causes loss of the authentic Self, shouldn’t abstinence bring about full recovery of the authentic Self?
This doesn’t seem to be the case. Symptoms of the loss of authentic Self can include:
Addiction
Relationship breakdowns and disconnection
Behavior that is misaligned with values
An absence of compassion
Confusion
Chronic fear and worry
Overwhelm
Overly concerned about the opinions of others
Pursuit of approval and appreciation
Benefits of recovery of authentic Self can include:
Addiction recovery
Reconnection and repair
Behavior aligned with values
Access to compassion
Clarity
Inner peace
Increased emotional capacity
Self-love
Focusing on these symptoms What seems increasingly apparent is that rather than causing the loss of the authentic Self, addiction is an attempt to cope with the pain and discomfort of the loss. Addiction is a symptom of a much bigger problem; unhealed trauma and disconnection. Solving that problem solves the addiction problem.
I believe we each have the capacity to heal our past. It’s built right in. But, without a knowledgeable and experienced facilitator and teacher, we can’t remember how to do it on our own. Clients in my recovery groups gradually recover their authentic Self with my coaching and the support of their peers.
The IFS model trusts the internal world of the client to lead the way, showing what needs to be explored and healed next. As group clients learn this process, they practice it in their lives outside of the group, expanding their capacity to recover. Group discussions and exercises as well as intense IFS work with the individuals in the group (on a rotating basis) helps my clients get to know their own parts and bring their internal families into harmony and balance.
I’m grateful that Kathy and I have been endowed with powerful immune systems that will, no doubt heal the Covid virus in our bodies.
And I’m just a certain and appreciative that we all have equally powerful innate processes to heal mental and emotional wounds of the past.
I hope you enjoyed this article and got something of value out of it. I wrote many of my articles before I discovered the Internal Family Systems model and started using IFS in my Spokane, Washington coaching practice.
So now, any strategies that I discussed in the past can be supercharged when we also take into account the principles of the IFS model which include:
Self - which is in the IFS model who you are - your True Self
IFS Coaches use the IFS model to help their clients make changes and get results
I have created an IFS Workbook to help my clients get lasting results
Although I trained with IFS Therapists, I am not a therapist myself. I am an IFS Practitioner and can be considered an IFS Coach which means I can coach you on how to use the IFS model. And I can use IFS in my coaching to help you get the results you want.
