[ Contents | Search | Post | Reply | Next | Previous | Up ]
From: Ellen-Marie Silverman
Date: 15 Oct 2008
Time: 09:06:40 -0500
Remote Name: 205.188.117.14
Jenaliegh, thank you for sharing what you have learned and are continuing to glean from your near death experience. Such learning brings a mixture of feelings, i.e., joy, fear, anger, and so on. Take time to sort it all out, and you will most assuredly be even more deeply enriched by the experience. >>> From your experience responding to the emotions you perceived expressed in one way or another by adults with stuttering problems at Council meetings, I think you may share a characteristic shared with many clinicians, i.e., empathy. You may even be what is called an empath, someone highly sensitive to others' feelings, sometimes to the point of feeling overwhelmed by them. Several years ago, I discovered a book by psychiatrist Judith Orloff entitled, Positive Energy. She discovered she was an empath as a young person. In Positive Energy, she describes how she learned to successfully manage that ability so she could conduct a psychiatric practice without being overcome by the negative feelings she encountered. In the book, she offers the reader very practical advice for safely developing this most useful gift. Positive Energy might be a good resource for you. It was for me. >>> You asked what made me increasingly confident. Doing what I needed to do no matter how frightened or repelled I was at the prospect; Learning I was not alone; and Treating myself kindly. It was a process, a process that continues to this day, as it seems to be for everyone. So patience and endurance are needed as well as honesty and courage. All best wishes, Ellen-Marie Silverman