Empathy Grows As We Learn.

We Are Still Barely Conscious Of How Harmful It Is To Treat Children In A Degrading Manner. Treating Them With Respect And Recognizing The Consequences Of Their Being Humiliated Are By No Means Intellectual Matters; Otherwise, Their Importance Would Long Since Have Been Generally Recognized.

If We Do Not Work On All Three Levels -- Body, Feeling, Mind -- The Symptoms Of Our Distress Will Keep Returning, As The Body Goes On Repeating The Story Stored In Its Cells Until It Is Finally Listened To And Understood.

Where There Had Been Only Fearful Emptiness Or Equally Frightening Grandiose Fan­tasies, An Unexpected Wealth Of Vitality Is Now Discovered. This Is Not A Homecoming, Since This Home Has Never Before Existed. It Is The Creation Of Home.

The Knowledge That You Were Beaten And That This, As Your Parents Tell You, Was For Your Own Good May Well Be Retained (although Not Always), But The Suffering Caused By The Way You Were Mistreated Will Remain Unconscious And Will Later Prevent You From Empathizing With Others. This Is Why Battered Children Grow Up To Be Mothers And Fathers Who Beat Their Offspring

The Results Of Any Traumatic Experience, Such As Abuse, Can Only Be Resolved By Experiencing, Articulating, And Judging Every Facet Of The Original Experience Within A Process Of Careful Therapeutic Disclosure.