Collective Trauma Therapy Should Be Required for Elected Officials

Here’s why:

Photo by adrianna geo on Unsplash

I recently finished reading Thomas Hübl’s Healing Collective Trauma, and it immediately joined the ranks of “Books I Think Everyone Should Read.” His more mystical framing of collective trauma may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but the understanding the book lays out of how trauma impacts groups, communities and entire civilizations is invaluable to diagnosing and healing our broken world.

The reality is that, as much as we inevitably want to, we cannot command other people to heal. Just as trauma is something felt viscerally and personally, so too is healing from trauma a process we can only undertake for ourselves. Other people can point out our recurring trauma cycles, our unhelpful thoughts and reactive behaviors, can help us learn tools for self-soothing, emotional regulation and reframing, but all this can only point us in the direction. We, alone, must journey there on our own.

The conundrum of collective trauma is that it is, of course, not merely an individual phenomenon. Collective trauma shows up in individuals’ bodies, patterns, beliefs and emotions, but by definition there are aspects of it that transcend the individual.

The day-to-day traumatizing aspects of our culture, and the reactions to trauma we’ve normalized and…