Why is listening so important?
Stopping and taking the time to listen to someone’s case history and the way they describe it, is crucial to the success of the treatment and larger process.
We do not learn much about the body at school and how to look after it.
The words you choose, the way the events unfolded and the quality and location of the pain can tell us so much about what is happening.
They tell us if it is a nerve, muscle, tendon, joint, ligament or some combination of all of these.
They tell us if what you are experiencing is chronic (it is still presenting past the physical healing timeline) or acute pain.
They tell us whether there is an aspect of trauma involved. This one step informs all the steps that follow.
But most of all the act of listening is the first step.
Chronic pain does not happen in a vacuum. Horribly, often these cases could have been avoided if the circumstances and reactions to it were really taken on and optimised from the beginning. Imagine if how someone felt was listened to and not gaslit instead.
The act of being listened to and hearing back your own story aloud.
This is a powerful first step to acknowledging the road you have been on, sometimes for a very long time.
Realising that yes, of course it is now painful.
That the pain is real and you are 100% valid in your lived experience.
Knowing that you will be heard without judgment. That you can take however much time you need to express the whole of your experience. Most importantly that this process sets the tone for everything that follows.
When we know we will be witnessed, without time pressures and with true presence, this starts the wonderful process of letting go.
Anxiety, fear, anger, sadness, disbelief and all the ways an injury has affected you, are met here and now. In that meeting the first layer of their power and charge can be released.
This is a powerful first part of the healing process and is the bedrock and grounding from which all other steps in the process take place.
Listening is interwoven into every step we take. whether it is in words, in listening touch or in our respect for the integrity of your being, body and mind.
If we do not listen, I believe we can do real damage to a person. This could be emotional, psychological, physical or spiritual damage.
You deserve to be heard and respected.
Do you want to know more about your journey through chronic pain?
As ever thank you for reading,
Carmen Makepeace
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