10 Powerful Quotes on Healing Trauma

It’s one thing to work through trauma with a trusted a therapist. It’s quite another to share your story with the world. The Writing Cycle has rounded up ten powerful quotes on healing trauma to offer insight and inspiration as you engage in writing your trauma narrative.

Which resonates with your experience writing trauma? Would you add other words of wisdom to this list? Contribute your favorite in the comments below.

Top Quotes on Trauma Healing for Writers

1. “Your survival response is not a moral failing. An abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behavior.”  — Viktor Frankel
   
   
2. “Our brain is organized to act and feel before we think. Our brain likewise develops sequentially, from the bottom up. This means the earliest experiences have the biggest impact because that is when the brain is growing most rapidly. And all sensory input must first travel from the brain stem up until it reaches the part of the brain that can tell time. Not only is, ‘What happened to you?’ the key question to ask if you wish to understand someone, it is the key question if you want to understand the brain.”  — Bruce Perry & Oprah Winfrey 
   
   
3. “Cannabis isn’t a gateway drug. Alcohol isn’t a gateway drug. Nicotine isn’t a gateway drug. Childhood trauma is the gateway. Abuse is the gateway. Molestation is the gateway. Neglect is the gateway. Drug abuse and self-harm are often symptoms of much bigger issues. And it almost always stems from a childhood filled with trauma. ” — Russell Brand
   
   
4. “Trauma decontextualized in a person can look like personality. Trauma decontextualized in a family can look like family traits. And trauma decontextualized in a people can look like culture.”  — Resmaa Menakem
   
   
5. “The history you share with your family begins before you are even conceived. In your earliest biological form, as an unfertilized egg, you shared a cellular environment with your mother and grandmother. Likewise, the precursor cells of the sperm you developed from were present in your father when he was a fetus in his mother’s womb. Three generations share the same biological environment.”  — Mark Wolynn 
   
   
6. “Why bother (telling your story)? Because right now there is someone out there with a wound in the exact shape of your words.”  — Sean Thomas Dougherty
   
   
7. “You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should’ve behaved better.” —  Anne Lamott
   
   
8. “The victim who is able to articulate the situation of the victim has ceased to be a victim: he or she has become a threat.” — James Baldwin
   
   
9. “You’re breaking generational curses. That’s why this doesn’t come easy for you. You’re who your bloodline has been waiting for.” — Unknown
   
   
10. “If you bring forth what is within you, what is within you will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what is within you will destroy you.” — The Gospel of Thomas
    
    
    

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Looking for a new way to tell a trauma story?
Or seeking insight into the origins of complex, collective, and generational trauma that shape who we are—and how we heal?

If so, sign up for The Writing Cycle’s Quarterly newsletter here or on the Hone page and not only receive inspiration and information on FREE live Zoom writing workshops, but also get immediate access to my Healing Trauma Narratives webinar + workbook.

Designed for Arizona State University and the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing’s 2021 Desert Night, Rising Stars Writers’ Conference, the webinar offers writers and trauma survivors inspiration and self-acceptance. The new accompanying workbook builds upon this with exercises and prompts designed to empower you to dig deeper.


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