I totally believe it takes a village to heal just as it takes a village to raise a child. I know I've done my best healing in the villages on my journey. This is a great topic and chew. I think it's important to find the right village though.

Yep, my bus travels of late are both exhausting and helpful....just enough interaction with a bus driver, short trips have given me a little confidence to want more...after I rest my aches/arthritis. I tend to go in these cycles of isolate, until I get sick of isolating, and then try again...the farther I get from home, the more anxious I can get, now that I'm letting someone else drive we'll see where it takes me! My guard is still up, just not so hyper so far! Good topic to chew on! Hugs

The cliche is, indeed, the same one used in child-rearing. I first met it from a social worker who was working with street teens in Detroit as, "It takes a village to hold a healthy life."

In my own strictly personals, the search for "The Right Village" is one of the justifications for my remaining an outsider. When one or three people in the village trigger a PTSD episode, my hyper-vigilance sees the entire village as corrupt and off I go on another flight to wherever/whatever is next. Many, many villages later, I have come to believe there is no place on Earth that is trigger-free for my brand of PTSD.

Kinda wondering if "The Right Village"

Ooops. The digi-goblins truncated me again. . .

Kinda wondering if "The Right Village" is made more often than it is found.

Funny, Arfie, you are the one who has conjured images of villagers with stones and torches or something like that, and that is definitely my gut reaction to the "village".

I have benefited enormously from the kindness of others, and that was true even in my first job, for the most part - meaning, a non-therapeutic setting.

I still feel, though, that it's better to keep a healthy distance and maintain self-consciousness because as soon as I relax and let my guard down I will unknowingly do something to bring down the torches and pitchforks upon me and end up stoned in the village square. I don't know if there's any benefit in me saying this out loud, but I'll do it anyway.

No ida, Arfie, if it takes a village, but it certainly takes more than the individual in my case. I do a lot of work, but require support and encouragement and guidance. Hmm.

For some reason this suddenly reminded me of this story:

https://sites.middlebury.edu/individualandthesociety/files/2010/09/jackson_lottery.pdf
Shirley Jackson's story, "The Lottery."
Read that with caution, it's quite chilling.

Healing takes...support. But not a village. It takes a relatively calm, safe environment and supportive people.

I do, indeed, get nightmare images of villagers with pitchforks and torches. I am pretty sure my first set came directly from the 1931 Frankenstein movie. They have done allot of creative morphing since. Especially during my agoraphobic phases. . .

Those images might be reason I feel the need to keep working on it? I am still not entirely free of them. It is no fun being held hostage by images of neighbor's taking up pitchforks and torches. Preventative maintenance?

I hear you about the neighbors with pitchforks and torches!! I got a christmas card from someone where I live, and because of the tumult that went on last year, I actually thought "Someone's messing with me"...see how on guard I am that it couldn't be just a nice gesture, there must be a "hidden agenda"....OY....I don't know this person well, so I asked her...it was just a holiday gesture....but do you think I believe that...not yet!!! My ever trusting people again is going to take a village and then some!!!

arf i think it takes a village to get much of anything accomplished in isolation every living thing withers