In the healing arts, we often meet people at the edge of themselves. In the places where words have failed them, sensation feels like a distant memory, and the body has learned to survive by dimming its light. Trauma convinces people they are alone in the dark. It narrows the world, quiets the body, and pulls the nervous system inward, as if curling around a small, protected flame that must not be seen or touched.
It tells a story of isolation. It whispers that you are undeserving, that no one can see you, and no one would understand you even if they tried.
In the healing arts, we do not rush to pull someone out of that darkness. We learn instead how to sit with it. How to be a witness. How to stay present without fixing, without forcing, without demanding anything before the body is ready to remember it. Sometimes the most profound act of care is simply staying steady and grounded while someone finds their way back to themselves.
I have learned that healing does not always begin with the client finding their own light. Sometimes it starts because someone else is willing to share theirs. Not in a way that overwhelms, but in a way that gently warms. Like the quiet fire of an oil lamp on a long night. The soft glow that says, “I am here. You are not alone.”
When trauma has taught the body to brace, to dim, to disappear, it is not because the light was lost. It was being protected, held deep within, just waiting for conditions that felt safe enough to let it breathe again. With gentleness, consistency, and compassion, we allow the nervous system to soften its grip and remember how to rest.
In my work, I often see the moment when something shifts. Their breath will deepen, their jaw will relax, or their hands may uncurl. It is subtle, almost imperceptible, yet unmistakable. The body is not being fixed; it is being reminded. Reminded of warmth. Reminded of rhythm and reminded that it does not have to navigate the dark alone.
I share my own light in small ways. The steady cadence of my hands or the warmth of my oil. The quiet assurance that stars still exist even when clouds have hidden them for far too long. I will sit with you in the dark as long as you need, but I will also remind you how good the sunlight feels on your skin.
Healing is not about becoming someone new. It is about reconnecting with something that no trauma, no experience, and no person can ever take away from you. That light inside you, it may brighten and dim, but it is never truly gone.
