Literature is a powerful therapeutic medium. This book discusses a cultural process around epilepsy for a particular Hmong child. I recently asked a client who suffers from epilepsy to read it and it has been miraculous to watch the empathy, insight and understanding arise in my client. Other paralells have arisen in the book (for my Caucasian American client) triggering some PTSD symptomology and we have been able to work through the intense emotional pain, and residual chronic anxiety. The most unique aspect of this is how we came to decide to discuss literature she could read to help here with her traumatic past. I mentioned this book as it does deal with dealing with traumatic events and feeling misunderstood by society. I then mentioned it dealing with epilepsy and my client was like I have epilepsy sense college. It was a beautiful moment and than to have it unfold the way it did reminded me of the power of the written word and identifying through other human experience. I thought it would just be a good read for my client as she likes history and medical stuff. It turned out to be a powerful therapeutic medium to join and egage my client with.
No comments:
Post a Comment