With Kate Schroeder, M.Ed, LPC, NCC
A Picture of Your Soul (part 1)
When we are born, we are born integrated, body/mind/spirit functioning effortlessly with each other. What happens is that pretty early on, we all begin to receive messages from the world around us about who we are and who we are not, or how we must be in order to fit in or be accepted, what works or doesn’t work about our self, and so on. These messages come from a variety of sources, including our family, friends, school, religion, and culture, and although perhaps are not intended to hurt, can be incredibly damaging and wounding to a child’s spirit or core self. These wounding messages occur from a variety of sources, including messages related to our personality: perhaps a child is considered “too quiet”, or too hesitant to “jump right in” to new experiences, or conversely is chided by their parent about being “too impulsive” and not thinking.
Sometimes a child would prefer to be outside climbing trees and playing in the mud, and are told that they need to “get serious” and “really buckle down and focus”. Very often, children are teased and bothered about their physical appearance or gender expression, and told that they are “too masculine” or “not masculine enough”, or are forced by their parents to adopt a certain image and wear certain clothes or be a certain weight or body type. As well, consider the child who knows that they do not conform to heterosexuality – one does not have to look very far to see the amount of wounding that occurs when family alienation or rejection by friends or religious communities abounds as it still does in this day and age. Too, schools typically teach to one personality learning type, and so it is difficult for the other personalities that do not conform to those learning styles to be successful or learn as effectively, and in many cases these kids are often labeled “ADHD” or “learning disabled” and so on, which has lifetime effects.
In those cases where parents insist that their children conform to their values/likes/dislikes or world view, it is incredibly detrimental to the child’s own emotional development and emerging sense of self. In all these cases, the wounding that occurs from the negative or limiting messages has a profound effect on a child’s future mental health. Look for a continuation of this article in the August 2014 edition of The Healthy Planet. For more on this excerpt, you can purchase the complete digital program or individual digital track of this guided imagery and article at: www.kateschroederlpc.com/store.html.
For more information contact Kate at:
Transformation Counseling, LLC
8084 Watson Road, Suite 226
Saint Louis, MO 63119
(314) 761-5310
kateschroederlpc@gmail.com
www.kateschroederlpc.com