Self-Managed Healing

Self-Managed Healing is the practice of guiding your own recovery and growth after trauma. It does not mean healing alone or without support, rather it means taking an active role in choosing what practices, boundaries, and resources work best for you. Self-managed healing respects the survivor’s agency, allowing healing to move at a pace and in a direction that feels safe, sustainable, and authentic.

Why It Matters

Traditional therapy can be valuable, but it is not always accessible or tolerable for everyone. Survivors often find that therapy, when not trauma-informed, can even feel triggering or regressive. Self-managed healing offers another path, one where you remain in charge of what you explore, when you explore it, and how far you go.

This approach honors the wisdom you already carry. Your body and mind have survived profound difficulty, and that survival reflects resilience and intelligence. Self-managed healing trusts that you know your needs better than anyone else and that with the right tools and mindset, you can shape a path forward.

Core Principles

At its heart, self-managed healing is built on several guiding principles. Safety comes first: any practice must feel tolerable, not overwhelming, and should help you stabilize before going deeper. Agency is equally important: you are in control of when, how, and whether to engage in a healing practice. Over time, purpose begins to grow out of this care, moving from basic self-protection to a broader sense of meaning and direction.

Self-managed healing is also flexible. It allows you to adapt as your needs shift. Some days may call for reflection, others for rest, others for reaching out. There is no single formula, but rather a framework that supports experimentation, choice, and self-compassion.