WOMEN ABUSED AS CHILDREN AND PARTICIPATORY DREAMING: A STUDY OF UNITARY HEALING

There is an extremely high percentage of American women who have experienced abuse as children. The consequences of these experiences are pervasive and severe including lifelong patterns of wounding. Research on the health of these women suggests that they are socially isolated, have significant health problems, are socially and economically at-risk, and are particularly vulnerable to further abuse in intimate relationships and with healthcare providers. There is a dearth of literature which addresses healing and the potential for healing as a global construct in the life patterns of these women. This was a descriptive, exploratory study to examine the potential of participatory dreaming (a group facilitated waking dream process using imagery and art) on unitary healing in women abused as children. A qualitative unitary appreciative inquiry was done with a purposive sample of 12 women recruited from two metropolitan areas of North Carolina. The findings suggested that participatory dreaming was an effective and powerful method of illuminating healing as a process and offering the possibilities for change and transformation in the lives of these women who experienced abuse as children. The patterning focus of this study demonstrated that healing from childhood abuse is a unitary phenomenon which may be appreciated in the context of the wholeness inherent in the lives of these women