The Wounded Healer Journey. The pain, gifts and learning that comes from the wounded healer archetype.
Exploring the Wounded Healer Journey from the healers perspective. How our own deepest conscious and unconscious wounding, birth’s the gift to help heal others.
Why the healers’ journey is a lifelong path of self-discovery and self-exploration into our own inner world as much as the clients or patients we are called to help.
What is The Wounded Healer?
The Wounded Healer is a term that comes from the view that the healers is born from the light that enters the wound, the compassion that comes from one’s own suffering. In turn wanting us to help others because of that wounding.
The Wounded Healer concept originated from Greek Mythology;
When Chiron the Centurion was deeply wounded by Hercules’s deadly poisoned arrows. And although he could not heal himself, he used his deepest core wounding to help save another.
And in relation to the story of Asclepius the god of medicine, a Greek doctor who began a sanctuary to help heal others because of his own wounds.
The Light and Shadow Traits Of The Wounded Healer
The wounded healer is generally more conscious that their desire to help others heal is because of what they personally suffered from. But the reality is every physician, health or wellbeing practitioner, therapist or healer has core wounding.
Every person has wounds that cause them pain, suffering, triggers some sort of emotional reaction. That is why a healer who believes they are healed, have very little awareness and self-awareness.
No matter how healed you think you are. We are all a work in progress, all healers, all humans are wounded at some level.
We all have both light and shadow traits that show up as archetypal patterns in everyday life. That is why the healers’ journey is a never ending path of self-discovery and healing of our shadow wounds.
We all have shadow traits that need to be healed and as healers we need to be more self aware about any internal wounding’s or projections we may put onto our clients. So as not to cause more harm, as they say “heal thyself”.
My Own Wounds On The Wounded Healer Journey
As a wounded healer myself who began my own journey into becoming a healer over 30 years ago after facing all sorts of mental, emotional, physical and spiritual wounding. Especially wounding around medical harm and injury, and further wounding from a broken medical and healthcare system, ill equipped healers and therapists.
My own wounds led me to down a long path, a very road less travelled path. Where I met and worked with so many wounded healers. Many compassionate and self aware healers but equally many healers who lacked compassion, awareness or even just proper training. Who were actually inflicting further wounding and harm to their clients, patients and students.
From a therapist and healer’s perspective this made me question so much around the healers role and standardisation from an ethical perspective. Do healers today get enough training, go through a long enough and deep enough apprenticeship to prevent them from really harming others.
Every week I see so many over generalisations or comment by healers, therapist s or coaches that comes from deep lack of awareness, insight and experience. Ideologies that on so many levels can be deeply damaging to the psyche of the vulnerable and suffering client, the naive student.
Common Traits Of The Wounded Healer
Light Traits Of The Wounded Healer
Here are some gifts of the wounded healer.
Awareness and Self Awareness:
Wounded healers naturally have good self-awareness and awareness of others.This is what makes them natural healers as they are more aware of others needs, challenges and themself. They tend to know themself at a deeper level so are more aware of their own shadow which is extremely important in any sort of healing work.
Compassion and Empathy:
The wounded healer has great compassion for others, some have great empathy, that is why many empaths are natural healers and strong caregivers and nurturers who have to heal their own wounding around boundaries.
Deep Calling Or Purpose:
A deep sense of purpose, they just know in the heart and soul their calling is to help or help heal others.
Hero Traits:
Wounded healers can also have an element of the hero archetype where through courage, tenacity and determination through their own suffering they inspire, empower and motivate others. That is why the wounded healers journey is part of the hero’s journey.
Intuitive And Insightful:
The wounded healer is a natural healer, deeply intuitive and aware of things at a deeper level, they can sense beyond the surface of what is going on at the individual and collective level. That is why many wounded healers become energy healers and spiritual healers.
Helper Since Childhood:
Wounded healers tend to have always been life’s little helpers, starting from childhood.
Self Growth:
Have the ability to look at all pain, suffering and learning as an opportunity to grow and evolve.
Shadow Traits Of The Wounded Healer
Here are some dark traits that can show up in the unhealed wounded healer
End up suffering mental, emotional, physical and even spiritual burnout. Due to lack of healthy boundaries, psychic protection.
Destroyer Traits:
Destroys or disables others through their own wounding, their own pain, or egoic desires. Causing direct nor indirect pain to others or those they work with.
Co-dependency and Enabling:
When one constantly enables or rescues others. Provides strength, support and rescuing to others preventing the other take self-responsibility or co-dependent relationships. Or where therapists encourage clients to come to them for years or months and the client is not making huge progress.
Gaslighting:
Where one gaslights their clients, patients or students reality. This can come from narcissistic wounding, or even to control over power the client or patient such as from very biased, fixed ideology about what is going on with the client.
God or Saviour Tendencies:
Where the physician or healer projects on to the patient or person that they are the one doing the healing, the one saving them. Implying at some level they are their god or saviour.
Martyr Traits:
Will sacrifice their own wellbeing and life for others, for their work.
Illusion And Manipulation:
One of the strong archetypal traits in many healers is the alchemist and magician. The dark magician will often use illusion or trickery to manipulate, control or seduce the client or patient. For example making implications or promises they cannot guarantee, misrepresent information or knowledge for their own gain or from naivety.
Prostitute Traits:
Where one sells their soul, their spiritual integrity and gifts to the highest bidder for material or financial gain. This has become a big problem in world where spirituality and healing vocations has become inverted, over commercialised, seduced by glammer, populism and even celebrity status. Than what is at the heart of the true healers journey.
The Healers Journey
What I came to realise as a wounded healer on my own healing journey, was that as healers we need to constantly evolve and grow in our own healing, consciousness and awareness. What I believed 30 years ago as a healer is very different on what I believe know.
In a polarised world where we have so many light and shadow aspects to us and the collective. It is important to remind ourself that the healers path is painted with pain, gifts, especially of privilege and honour to the people we get to help and support. Because in that process we heal ourselves through the shadow aspects of another.
About Eileen Burns
Eileen is a highly compassionate and dedicated healer, therapist, soul empowerment coach and mentor. Who is passionate about helping awakened healers and lightworkers step more fully in their life and soul purpose with strength and ease. She provides a wide range of self study courses, meditations, one to one inner child, archetypal and spiritual business support sessions. More about Eileen’s Expertise and Qualifications Click Here.
The Wounded Healer Podcast
Wounded Healer To Hero Podcast is a brand new video podcast with Eileen and healer friends as co-hosts.
10 Things That Lower A Healers Energy, Frequency And Vibration. The 10 things healers should avoid, eliminate or reduce in your life and work if you want to be a master healer.
A Healers Role
A healers role is a sacred role, a healers energy is something that should never be taken lightly. If you are an energy healer or spiritual healer it is vital that you are taking care of your own body and life force.
A healers energy needs to be honoured and respected so you can truly fulfill your mission in the healthiest ways for your clients.
Although every type of healing channel and modality is different, any therapist or healer who is working in any shape or form with someone else’s mind, emotions or energy field.
Your vibes, your energy field can have the power to influence and manipulate the person’s energy field.
Especially when the client is on some level energetically vulnerable when they come to you for help or support.
Your clients are coming to you because they feel disempowered in one or more area of their life or wellbeing. So the last thing a client or students needs is a healer who has has mucky energy; especially attachments, entities, who is highly toxic.
Healers Attachments
You maybe surprised how many healers carry attachments and don’t know. It is one of the reason I know so many very experienced healers treat other healers who have attachments daily. And why they no longer practice certain types of healing modalities they used to use before.
It is one of the reasons I am very specific about who I get healing from and what types of healing people do on me. Why I no longer get certain types of healing, because the reality is some types of channeling, healing and healers are more open to this problem.
And most healers are not master healers, they are often taught their type of healing modality is a completely pure channel or that their tools will eliminate or clear any negative or low form of energy.
When the reality is most true master healers see daily the evidence of why this is not true.
Healing Without Permission Or Request
My opinions on many healing modalities has changed dramatically over the years. And is one of the reasons why I find it quite invasive when people assume that its okay to send anyone healing without permission or request.
As someone who has studied healing and spirituality for over 30 years, I do think this is bad spiritual practice for so many reasons. It actually goes against lots of natural spiritual laws especially modalities that use certain types of symbols or spiritual beliefs than just sending someone love or positive intention.
This can be an unconscious trait of the wounded healer, who believes they are here to heal everyone or save everyone,
Spiritual Attacks And Healers Energy
Today more than ever healers are spiritually exposed to all sorts of spiritual attacks, psychic attacks, curses and spells. We are living in a time of spiritual war where it is vital for healers to protect their energy, purify and increase their vibration.
10 Things That Can Lower A Healers Energy And Vibration
Alcohol
Alcohol doesn’t just lower your energy, trigger self-destructive patterns and behaviours. But alcohol also makes you more vulnerable to nefarious energetic attachments and entities. It is one of the reasons why those with alcohol addictions and other drug addictions can end up in a very dark place. Can spiral onto a dark path. And it is one of the reasons why all masters healers and spiritual teachers avoid alcohol.
Caffeine
Caffeine blocks the third eye, it is extremely stimulating on the central nervous system, which can keep many people in a low-level fight or flight state. One of the reasons highly sensitive people and highly sensitive empaths should avoid or reduce their caffeine intake. Just be careful of many decaffeinated versions that have been washed in highly toxic substances.
Processed Foods
Sadly so many processed foods are not just slightly processed but more and more are full of manmade substitutes or seriously genetically modified plants or substances. They lack any natural life vital force that we tend to get from fresh organic and natural produce. What is even more disturbing, is completely manmade foods like artificial meat which is made from stem cells and other crazy approaches by people trying to play god.
Sugar and Artificial Sweeteners
Processed sugar is widely recognized by many scientists as cancer-causing, sugar feeds bacteria, mold, and viruses and causes all sorts of inflammatory responses to the immune system, our organs, and energy field.
Sugar is one of the lowest vibrational foods that causes anxiety, depression, diabetes and moodiness.You just need to try out some basic muscle techniques to see how much it weakens our body and the aura. And how it can contribute to brain fog, poor intuition and lower the healers energy and protection.
Electro Magnetic Frequencies
EMFs are widely known to impact our energetic field even though we have seen a dramatic increase in the roll-out of things like 5G in every place imagine and the general increasing in technology we have around us at home and in work. A healers energy should protected from EMF’s as much as possible. There is so many wearable EMF protectors and things you can use on your technology and in your home today.
Energy Practices That Don’t Resonate
One of the things that we need to practice as a healer is good discernment, removing yourself from any energy practices, teachings or energy modalities that don’t feel aligned with your heart and soul is so important.
This can change as we evolve and grow and things change in the collective. So many healers never questions the tools, techniques or form of channeling they are using.
As a healer of 30 years who has worked with hundreds of healers on a personal level as well as professional, I am far more discerning now to what types of healing practices I align with. And who I allow in my energetic field.
As a highly sensitive intuitive and empath I am very aware how spiritually and psychically unaware most healers are to what they are practising and what is in their energy field.Things that can trigger a lot of anxiety, depression, anger, rage, personality changes and so much more.
Heavy Metals
Heavy metals should not be in our bodies, our organs, or brains. “Heavy metals attach to your cells and prevent them from performing their functions, which causes symptoms that could be life threatening without treatment.” Cleveland Clinic.
Heavy metals are in our food, water, cosmetics and in medical procedures such as injections, amalgam fillings and sometimes put in the body for joint and bone repairs. Most people would be surprised at what heavy metal toxicity can do to our energy field.
As energy healers it is important to do what we can to reduce and eliminate heavy metals from our bodies. Such as filtrating the water we drink, avoiding highly toxic medical procedures and treatments when possible.
Synthetic and Toxic Fabrics
Toxic and synthetic fabrics like rayon, polyester, acrylic, or nylon are extremely low vibration. While fabrics like linen, wool, and organic cotton are of high vibration and are great at increasing the light and a healers energy.
As a highly sensitive child I could never tolerate manmade fabrics. I have always been naturally attracted to organic cashmere, organic cotton, linen and wool even silk. But would be energetically repelled by toxic and synthetic fabrics.
Toxic Skincare and Toxic Cosmetics
Avoid cosmetics and skincare products that are made from highly toxic and manmade ingredients. Skincare not made from natural ingredients are not just toxic for the skin but for the body and our mood.
It’s interesting how as a society we can get so focused on the aesthetics of things but have not awareness or interest in how toxic the clothes or cosmetics we are wearing every day have on our body and skin.
Or what they are using as a deodorant and apply to their lymphatic glands. One ingredient that I realised many years ago can seriously lower your energy was isopropyl alcohol which is many cosmetics and nail products. This is a product I was asked to carry to college when I was studying music, it was used to clean some of the recording equipment. Even though I didn’t know at the time it was highly toxic although many times I felt really unwell when I was in the studios.
Unhealthy Boundaries and Lack Of Energy Protection
Lack of boundaries and lack of energy protection opens us up to all sorts of energy, emotions, thoughts, beliefs, attachments. Many of us who are empaths have to really work at setting healthier boundaries with the world around us. And its doing it in a way that is not coming from a fearful space but a healthy space.
A Healers Energy Needs To Be Protected And Honoured
A healers energy has to be honoured and protected on a daily basis. A healers energy needs to be crystal clear.
A lot of healers and lightworkers become like empaths or sensitives, they become more finely tuned to their clients energy and they world around them. Especially spiritual healers and energy healers who work with hundreds or thousands of clients.
When we don’t protect our energy and life force throughout the day, we open the door and allow in lower vibrational energies, toxins and imprints into your field. Or becomes more easily energetically hi-jacked, conditioned or programmed by 3d illusions and deceptions.
Like brushing your teeth, a healer needs to learn how to deep clean their energy field throughout their day. And like a dentist with more microscopic or refined tools. The more you raise your consciousness levels the more finely tuned your awareness becomes and you realise how dirty your energy really is.
Soul Empowerment Coaching and Healing Sessions With Eileen
If you would love some support in your own spiritual growth and soul connection as a healer, therapist or coach. Book a free taster session with Eileen.
