Serenity Online Therapy offers SSL encryption protocol to insure privacy in online counseling. Serenity Online Therapy offers secure Video, Phone, and Chat Therapy and Email Counseling with Carl Benedict, a licensed professional counselor.

THERAPY

begin therapy

contact me

TOPICS
depression
anxiety/panic attacks
cope with flashbacks
anxiety & depression
anger management
blame-o-holics
addiction
dual diagnosis
grief & loss
grief suggestions
codependency 1
codependency 2
 coda recovery
childhood trauma
on being a therapist

RESOURCES
Carl's Videos
Johari window
my child within
shame & guilt
fear of intimacy
reparent WC
shattered
serenity prayer
control/responsibility
empathy
taming the mind
mindfulness
stress management
spam of the mind
self-care
healthy conflict
assertiveness
healthy boundaries
meditation
mistaken beliefs
IQ vs. EQ
maturity/immaturity
happiness habits
Pollyanna thinking
basic human rights
helpful quotations
helpful books
helpful movies


Carl Benedict offers online counseling on his web site Serenity Online Therapy.
HomeMy Credentials / Counseling Philosophy / Online Therapy Risks & Benefits  / Services & Fees / ConfidentialityBegin Therapy / In Crisis Now? / Contact Me / Carl's YouTube Videos / Sitemap

Shattered: A Poem About Emotional Healing

Shattered is a poem that describes the pain of grieving losses from childhood trauma as defenses and illusions melt away. It expresses what the great psychotherapist Fritz Perls meant when he wrote: "To suffer one's death and be reborn is not easy."

Shattered

It is lying all around me,
Shattered into useless pieces of glass
That could now rip my unprotected feet.
It was the glass castle in which I lived
As fairy princess and heroine in shining armor,
Ready and able to rescue all in need.
It was my fragile fantasy,
Designed to protect me from the searing pain
Of having never been rescued
From my own unspeakable distress.
But an invited guest came
And rammed my castle doors, besieged my walls
And shattered my glass defense.
And so, what I once thought of as my castle grand
Is now nothing more than unrecognizable jagged pieces,
And here I stand, exposed and stunned.
It is mine now, not to gather,
But to leave these shattered remains.
It is mine to find a way to live without this illusion.
It is mine to learn to be the peasant child that I am,
Bereft of shining armor and magic wand.
But all I can see at this moment
Are the broken pieces of my shattered castle walls,
And all I can do is weep.
                                                                                   author unknown

Healing requires letting go of illusions created to protect us from childhood  pain. Photo by Carl Benedict.

Traumatized children need adult intervention to heal and grow. When no such support is available, immature children must fend on their own as best they can. In the process, they will devise defenses, including illusions and mistaken beliefs, to cope with the trauma. These defenses frequently create problems in the long run. Therapy helps clients let go of these defenses and illusions in a safe and manageable setting - the therapeutic relationship - so healing from childhood trauma can progress.

Click below to watch my 5-minute YouTube video of this page - Inner Child Work: Letting Go of Childhood Illusions

 

To subscribe to my YouTube channel, click on the button:


To follow my posts on Facebook, please click the Like and/or Share buttons below:

 


Click on the photo below to request online therapy.
.

Click here to request online therapy with Carl Benedict, LCPC, founder of Serenity Online Therapy.

for a new beginning...

HomeMy Credentials / Counseling Philosophy / Online Therapy Risks & Benefits  / Services & Fees / ConfidentialityBegin Therapy /  In Crisis Now? / Contact Me / Carl's YouTube Videos / Sitemap

Copyright 2005-2022 Serenity Online Therapy
All Text and many photos by Carl Benedict

"Our very life depends on everything's recurring till we answer from within."  Robert Frost