Writing is Healing
What You'll Get From "Writing is Healing"
Writing is Healing
Writing is Healing is a course for everyone designed to inspire the use of words as a means to heal. Find guidance and encouragement no matter your past experience.
What You'll Get From "Writing is Healing"
As a student, you'll get a few great benefits from being here:
- Time for yourself: We've designed Writing is Healing to encourage and inspire you on a time schedule that fits your life.
- Freedom to try new things: As you dive into the course content, we hope you'll feel free to explore and try out different techniques to find new ways to heal through writing.
- Encouragement to look inward: We know self-discoveries can change the way we live in the world and interact with others. Spend the time you need to look inward, and everyone in your world benefits.
- Virtual support: Find and share encouragement and support with fellow students during our once-a-month live Zoom calls! We'll check in on your progress and breakthroughs.
Why DNA Family Discoveries Lead to a Need for Healing
Who Is Affected?
DNA surprise discoveries have ripples throughout a family. Those who are immediately involved in the discovery (the person who learns that their father is not biologically related to them, for example) see the biggest upset to their understanding of their past and self. Your identity is based on the past, and what you have taken for granted about your life and truth. When a DNA discovery upsets the truth and forces a change in the way you perceive yourself and others, emotional reactions are normal and expected. Pain, anger, clarity, relief — all of these are common reactions. The degree to which you feel different emotions is unique to you, and the emotions you have will change over time. Siblings, discovered biological fathers, spouses, children, friends, and even genealogists and search angels involved in making shocking discoveries find it hard to make an adjustment back to life as it was "before" an unexpected discovery.
Unexpectedly Becoming the Support Person
When it is the other person in your marriage, partnership, or relationship whose world is rocked, it can be hard to know how to help. If you are a person who likes to take action and fix things when something goes wrong, it can be upsetting to not know how to fix the situation.
Before anything can be done to "fix" a situation, we have to step back and realize what is happening. Let's do that now!
First, let's understand what family discoveries and DNA surprises CAN do with the understanding that every situation and every person is different.
Impacts of family DNA discoveries
DNA surprises can:
- disrupt your idea of the past
- make you question something you held as the "truth"
- make you question everything you held as the "truth"
- change your image of a person (whether living or deceased)
- disrupt your everyday life and thoughts
- can overtake your thoughts without your permission
- create complexity where simplicity once existed
- create strains in relationships
- lead to hurt feelings
- lead to confusion about the behaviors or words of someone else
- reveal difficult decisions that have to be made
- lead to conversations that until now you were able to avoid
- lead you to reassess your personal values and how your values align with a spouse, child, sibling, and other people in your life
- can come at a time when you are the least ready to respond to it (other existing family situations and stressors making it hard to prioritize)
Some people describe feeling "on edge" or scared of what could come next. Will the phone ring unexpectedly? Could there be a knock at the door? Will another surprise come to light after this first one?
Everyone reacts to surprise discoveries in different ways, and some people may not have a need to heal. Sometimes discoveries hold joy and relief. Every story and every situation is unique, and everyone has needs that are important to notice and address.
After a life-altering event, step back and take stock of your life and what has happened. Realize adjusting to change takes time, and that's okay. Give yourself the time and space you need to find some stability before reacting.
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