Results: Ritual
A First-Person Study on the Effects of Ecotherapy, Ritual and the Witness on Developing Coping Skills for Posttramatic Symptoms
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This is a section from my master’s thesis from 2016. You’ll find the index for the entire thesis here.
Ritual
In Experience
It was so small and simple to walk three times in a circle and greet the elements, but doing so changed the space. It felt as though I had created a third relational being, which was brought into the space by our acknowledgement of it. It was not the element, nor was it myself or Carmen. I find it very difficult to put into words. In the presence of that third being, I experienced a deep trust in the universe.
There are components of this experience which come directly from the invitations accompanying each circle. Designating the space as safe, together with the witness, was a verbal and physical contract between the witness and I, and symbolically between us and the earth. It was a shared commitment toward safe healing. Inviting the element as a relational being was, again, a contract, a commitment to engaging with each other intentionally and with the shared goal of my healing. Inviting the divine was, yet again, a commitment to spiritual connection.
I didn’t have to worry about what Carmen might do or say, because within ritual, we had agreed that her role was to be present when I asked for help or to ask whether or how I’d like her assistance. Otherwise, I knew I was free to move within the space. I also didn’t have to worry about overstepping time limits or emotional boundaries; safety measures were set in place to make sure both were clear. Much as Carmen acted as a boundary keeper in her role of witness, the act of initiating ritual acted as a boundary keeper for my healing. Within the boundary of ritual, a certain type of interaction and healing was expected. This meant that outside of ritual, I was free to practice interacting outside my trauma-informed patterning, knowing my deeper healing was still prioritized in time and space and would definitely happen.
In a similar way, I could rely on nature between rituals in small ways, because the commitment of the elements was more permanent than that of the witness. The witness was present for ritual space, and otherwise was my friend (though in practice, these roles were sometimes difficult to discern); the elements were always in their archetypal roles, which were ensouled in ritual and then continued to embody those roles after ritual. Ritual allowed me to consciously greet them, in order to then continue using them in my healing.
Greeting the divine gave me time and space in which to schedule my spirituality in an embodied practice, addressing one of the fundamental needs my experience of these memories had cut me off from. It provided a template for me to follow in solitary practice, reinvigorating my spirituality without pushing my body past its emotional limits.
In Theory
The first three tasks of ecopsychology (Fisher, 2002) provided a structured, ritualized framework which invited a connection with higher power. It was such an easy thing to do, walking a circle affirming safety and communion between the individual and the Other outside this human body. That small step shifted the mindset from one of just doing an intervention to one of intentional engagement with healing. It stripped actions of their casualness, imbuing everything involved with deeper significance, throwing safety and distortion into sharp relief. In addition, the ancient archetypal relationships between human and nature likewise lent themselves to this highly meaningful investment and interpretation of the work.
The other effect of ritualizing this work was to shift the mindset around what the work was. An intervention has the stigma of mental illness. As Whitehouse, the creator of Authentic Movement, commented, “The overtones of the words ‘dance therapy’ in this country mean mental disturbance, emotional limitations, hospital setting, doing something to people. What I am interested in is a process that furthers personal growth” (Pallaro, 1999, p. 24). This is true of any therapy. Culturally, it is experienced as an indication of something wrong. In a ritual, one moves toward wellness, toward healing, toward communion, and toward the divine. However one individually conceives of the divine, the cultural connotation is still one of positivity and growth. Ritualizing the work cannot be underestimated in the success of this method.
How do you mark the threshold between the ordinary and the sacred? What happens when you do? Share your reflections in the comments or the subscriber chat. This reading still sometimes touches something tender in me. If it does for you, too, know you're not alone.
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