Self-Splitting Trauma Response

Experiencing trauma at a young age can force one to select things a pathway for their life that feels safer. One of the potential responses to childhood trauma is protective self-splitting.

Simply put, this is the mind’s attempt, regardless of law or reason, to ensure that I am never hurt again. The easiest way to achieve that is to move into a protective space where I am never vulnerable, as vulnerability brings the potential risk of being hurt again. In sexual intimacy, this protectionism shows itself as turning intimacy into a transaction.

The exercise here is to consider your relationship with intimacy; is it based in vulnerability or transaction?