In this video, Russell discusses the importance of letting go of shame when dealing with trauma and abuse. He talks about how shame can contribute to vulnerability and make it difficult to form healthy connections, and how exploiters and traffickers take advantage of this vulnerability. He also shares how shame affected his self-image and inhibited his ability to heal, and emphasizes the importance of examining and confronting this shame in order to move forward and begin the healing process. Wilson notes that letting go of shame was a crucial step in his journey towards healing and living his best life.
I think, you know, one of the most important parts of my journey when it came to coming to terms with being trafficked and abused sexually from such an early age was the shame that came with that. It made me feel less than anybody else, that constantly made me feel othered in a way that really got in the way of my ability to form strong, healthy bonds and connections. Um, it certainly contributed to my vulnerability, because it was the shame the exploiters and traffickers were taking advantage of. They knew that they could use that shame to their advantage. And I think that that was the largest, most difficult barrier in my process of healing and really beginning to have a healthy relationship with the trauma that I had experienced as a child, and letting go of that shame - the shame that I might become an abuser or the shame that I was less than a man because for some reason I must have allowed these things to happen to me that I didn't try to stop. And that shame really contributed to my self-image and how I viewed myself and what value I had in this world.
And so, because of that, I ended up living in this space of shame and trauma and unworthiness. And so, it really inhibited my ability to see myself outside of that reality. And I think it wasn't until I really hit a place of rock bottom where I couldn't stand living in that space anymore, that I started to really examine that. And when I started that journey and that process, and started to change that view and that shame that I felt, is when my healing really began to be a reality for me. And I started to see that I was going to be able to live my best life.
