Beyond trauma lies a quieter, more confronting layer of healing—where we face not only what was done to us, but what we may have done to others.
In over a decade of healing work, almost all I’ve encountered has centred on helping people process trauma experienced as victims. Whether physical, mental, or emotional, these wounds may have been inflicted by others, or arisen through illness, loss, or disease.
Very few of my clients’ struggles have seemed to stem from harm they themselves have caused.
For a long time, I assumed that those who had done “wrong” simply didn’t seek healing—or perhaps that I was not yet able to perceive that layer of their journey.
But recently, something has shifted.
With some of my more complex cases—those carrying significant trauma across many lifetimes—we’ve reached a deeper threshold in the healing process.
Beyond the layers of inflicted pain, a new phase has emerged: one of karmic balancing.
Atonement. Reconciliation with the past.
In one case, a deeply gentle young woman became aware of the anger of those she had harmed in a lifetime as a military commander long ago.
In another, a typically stoic client wept as she faced the emotional harm she had caused her daughters across previous lifetimes.
Another began to sense the lingering imprint of a life once lived in violence—“raping and pillaging,” as she described it—echoing into the present.
In each instance, there was a profound sense of relief as this process of karmic balancing unfolded.
What stands out most is this: each of these individuals is, in this life, kind, caring, and committed to growth. They are on a path of healing and awakening—becoming more loving, more conscious.
Perhaps the phrase, “we are all a perpetrator in someone’s story,” carries a deeper truth than we realise.
At some point in our healing journey, we may be called not only to tend to the wounds we’ve received—but also to acknowledge the harm we may have caused.
We may already be living with the consequences, without fully understanding their origin.
And perhaps, as enough of us engage in this process of individual karmic balancing, we begin to touch something even greater:
The collective karma that is asking—perhaps even demanding—to be seen, felt, and healed.