I grew up with parents who often took their frustrations out on me. My father would occasionally yell at me, but my mother’s anger, blame, or irritation was a daily occurrence. As a very sensitive little girl, I was terrified of her. When she was irritated with me, I would start to shake and then freeze, as children often do when they’re being traumatized. They feel helpless. If you are able to speak about it, do so with an openness to learning about both of you. Learning can bring about healing and change. It takes much practice of these five steps to heal old trauma. If you find you can’t manage to do this yourself, then I encourage you to reach out for trauma therapy, such as EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique), TRE (Trauma Release Exercises), EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), and/or SE (Somatic Experiencing). If you don’t know what these are, you can easily look them up on the Internet. They are very helpful in releasing old trauma from the body so that you can stay centered in the face of another’s anger. Related reads: