The Blessings of Wounded Healers

When I started ministerial school, I was apprehensive. As much as I wanted to go through the degree program, I didn’t feel worthy of it. At any moment, I expected someone would point their finger at me and say loudly, “She’s too broken. Surely, she can’t minister to others when she needs so much help herself.”

Feeling like an imposter while working is a prevalent emotion. According to the Journal of Behavioral Science, research in 2018 indicated that 70% of working people experience?Impostor Syndrome?(IS) at some time in their career, but perhaps no more so than in the healing professions. These individuals often share the traits of:

·??????Extreme competitiveness

·??????Perfectionism, the need to be the very best

·??????Strong fear of failure?

Many successful professionals are driven to prove themselves because internally, they feel broken and unlovable, not acceptable to some ghost of the past’s belief. Most of these emotions developed early in childhood. Interestingly, we who suffer from imposter syndrome have a long history of accomplishments that easily refute the irrational concept of not being qualified.

I wanted to be a minister to help those who felt pain, confusion, self-doubt, and indecisiveness. I later became a certified transformational life coach to continue the same work but with a more secular approach. I did overcome my crippling imposter syndrome way of thinking, but it took a refresher course on Carl Jung’s archetype of The Wounded Healer to embrace myself, imperfections, and all.

Carl Jung’s first reference to this archetype dates to 1951 when he first coined the phrase the wounded healer. He believed that analysts were compelled to treat patients because the analysts themselves were wounded.??It seems to ring true when we consider the passion of healers. Their choice of profession is often based on tremendous compassion for suffering, most often understood because the healer has first-hand experience with the trauma in the first place.

The notion of the wounded healer dates to Plato. Considered the father of Western philosophy, he stated that the most skillful physicians, rather than being models of good health, are those who have suffered from all sorts of illnesses. Those physicians?became eloquent examples of “the wounded healer.”??

An NIH white paper by Serge Daneault indicates,?“The Greek myth of Chiron, the centaur from whose name?chirurgie?is derived in French and?surgery?is derived in English, can help us to understand. The Greek gods Apollo and Artemis taught medicine to Chiron. Chiron was wounded by an arrow from Heracles’ bow. He did not die (because gods are immortal); instead, he suffered excruciating pain for the rest of his eternal days. It was because of his grievous wound that Chiron became known as a legendary healer in ancient Greece. Chiron later took an orphaned child, Esculapius, into his care. The son of Apollo and a mortal, Coronis, Esculapius had been spared certain death when Apollo snatched him from his dead mother’s breast just as she was about to burst into flames. The orphan was entrusted to Chiron, who taught him everything he knew about the healing arts. It was thus that Esculapius became one of the two founding fathers of Western medicine.”

Jumping from Greek mythology to early philosophers to some of the best-known teachers and healers in modern psychology, we watch as the wounded healer appears in a realm of healing methods, as clinically proven data supports the success of such healers and encourages those compelled to follow the desire to heal others fall into successful careers.

This past year, I served as the interim Executive Director for The Peer and Family Career Academy. This nonprofit offers advanced training to Peer Support Specialists. I knew nothing about the profession when I started the job but was well experienced in nonprofit administration. I quickly learned that individuals struggling to recover from disabling mental health issues and/or drug abuse were helped most effectively by others who had experienced similar challenges.?

After losing both of my parents in less than a year’s time, the most helpful moments in my grief journey have been speaking to others who have experienced the same loss. I’ve found them in bereavement support groups and accidental acquaintances. A behavioral therapist has augmented my healing by teaching me techniques to handle my emotional pain when it surfaces. I would identify these individuals, if not by profession, peer support “specialists.”

The late Henri Nouwen, a Catholic priest, prolific author, and a spiritual trailblazer akin to the Trappist monk Thomas Merton, believed that Jesus Christ was the epitome of the wounded healer. In Nouwen’s words, “Jesus is God’s wounded healer: through his wounds we are healed. Jesus’ suffering and death brought joy and life. His humiliation brought glory; his rejection brought a community of love. As followers of Jesus, we can also allow our wounds to bring healing to others.”

In other spiritual practices and faiths, the wounded healer paradigm is played out through finding meaning amid suffering. There is, many believe, an inner healing made possible simply through discovering gains through suffering.?

In their article “The Wounded Healer as Cultural Archetype” Galia Benziman, Ruth Kannai, and Ayesha Ahmad discuss the topos of the wounded healer. They examine representations of the archetype in diverse cultures and demonstrate how a reading of its various narratives may enrich our theoretical and practical understanding of the importance of empathy and mutuality in the healing process. The archetype of the wounded healer is valuable in acknowledging cultural diversity, as well as universal parallels between healing practices in African, Christian, Jewish, and Moslem versions of the archetype.?

Are you a wounded healer? Are you yet able to guide others to a stage of personal growth while owning their wounds and finding the beauty in them? Yes, beauty. There is a Japanese art called Kintsugi. It requires the use of gold to put pieces of broken pottery back together. The practice is built on the idea that in embracing flaws and imperfections, you can create an even stronger, more beautiful piece of art. The metaphor of Kintsugi is most apt to the wounded healer.

At my mother’s funeral this past year, I compared my stepfather to the gold that had brought together all her broken pieces and made her whole again. He later told me that she was the one who had put back together all?his?broken pieces. I had never viewed him as broken, but as I write today, I see the subtle serendipity between that event and my desire to write about the wounder healer.

For a fact, I have likened myself to a kaleidoscope--many different colorful glass transparencies that change constantly as you view them but remain steadfast in their awesome beauty. This is so like the beauty of gold veins running through a piece of pottery.

I encourage you to commend your own efforts to heal others—be it through art, conversation, medicine, energy reconstruction, physical touch, or any modem of support. If you have been held back from your soul’s true path because you imagined the same voices, as I once did, telling you that you were too broken to heal others, remove those perceived shackles.

Know this truth: there is a wounded soul out there that needs your wounded soul. The universe is bringing you together through its own Divine purpose—and when you meet that moment, you will see its magnificence.

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BIO: Susan Kavanaugh is a transformational life coach with a popular education and coaching program called "Ignite Hope." Her adopted professional nomen is Hope Goddess.

Kavanaugh is also a published author, nationally acclaimed inspirational and educational public speaker, a trained hypnotherapist, and an advocate for solopreneurs. Susan's recent book,?The Heart of Profit, rose to the top of Amazon's Best Seller charts in business in 2020.

Currently,?a licensed minister, journalist, and fundraising strategist partner with?multiple organizations,?Kavanaugh has taught education workshops at Arizona State University and other schools of higher education.?

Her monthly newsletter,?The Mindful Entrepreneur Journal,?has a rapidly growing readership and features articles from local and national thought leaders about mindfulness, prosperity, and passion.?Sign up here.

Visit?kavcomcc.com,?TheHeartofProfit.com, or email?[email protected].