Shamanic Healing

Why do you recommend that young people not recap?

The recapitulation is not recommended for most young people, young being defined as teens and younger.  However, there are specific situations where it can be helpful, even for a teen.

Those situations generally revolve around severe trauma in their young lives.  If there has been a history that involves trauma, abuse, addiction, molestation, then a teen can be encouraged to recapitulate their energy out of those events and people involved specifically, breaking the energetic ties that are having a negative impact on their ability to develop as adults.

There is a danger of it making them morbid.  On the other hand, work with what they have been given and encourage them to deal with it constructively.  There is a breaking point for the recap.  It happens at different ages for different people, but children are not formed yet and need the time to assemble the world in a way that will help serve as an anchor for them later on.

What makes you morbid when you recap and you're too young?

The reason young people don't need to recap is they need time to finish.  Their energy isn't complete and all their predilections formed, usually until the early twenties.

(This advice was given to a mother of a 14-year-old girl who had suffered some pretty severe trauma by a specific perpetrator, regarding whether or not she could recap)

I have recommended the recap for younger people only when there were specific traumatic events which were in the process of creating patterns that would come back to haunt them.  As long as she just sticks to these and any corollary issues, she'll be okay.

Watch for depression, obviously, and also watch for changes in personality which can seem to be part of a de-maturation process.  Sometimes, especially with young people, they have to back up somewhat before they are able to move forward again emotionally.  This is not usually a long process - a couple of weeks, at most a month - but it can be a little unsettling.  She may revert to likes she had as a child, before the events especially and come forward with rapid changes as she makes the adjustment to not having those ties anymore.  In this case, because I know the particulars, I would also suggest she especially recap the individual totally out of her energy, every interaction, not just the painful ones.  She can afford to do this at her age without any real problems since she is still creating herself moving towards adulthood.

This may have some unseen effects on your relationship with her - it could get better, could get worse for a while.  That part is hard to say.  But as long as you realize you're the adult and the one who can make allowances and adjustments while she goes through this process, you should both come out stronger in the end.

Alternative Recap Exercises

This may be appropriate for young people dealing with the diffuse effects of past trauma, who cannot face detailed re-visiting of particular life events.

Sit in a quiet, undisturbed place.  Set the intent to bring your lost energy back to you and cleanse your own energy of the negative effects of hurtful people and events associated with them.  You are focusing on the resulting patterns in your life where your energy has been damaged or you have been hurt - but in a general way.

Breathe deeply and regularly as you relax into a peaceful state of mind.  Begin to envision a landscape before you.  This landscape is the terrain of your life.  Across the landscape is a thick fog or mist.  The mist represents those things that have affected you in a way that clouds your vision of your life or that impact you in a non-productive way.  Begin to breathe in and out, deeply and slowly, as if you are breathing in the mist and breathing out clear air.  Filter the mist through the intent to heal that is within you.  Keep working with the picture until the landscape reveals itself clearly and the mist has all been removed.  Do this as often as you feel necessary to help achieve clarity of focus and healing in your energy.

Alternatively, for a young person who wants to try working with the actual recap exercise, advise them to only recap the traumatic events themselves and their connections to any of the people involved.  Those are generally safe to do and yield productive results without causing them to lose their anchors to the world.  Advise the young person at the end of their recap sessions to formulate a healing command to themselves - something that will help fill the void left by recapping the negative event.  This will help direct their retrieved energy to reintegrate in a healthy way and give new focus to the intent to heal.  Simple statements to reinforce new intent like, - I am empowered, healthy, whole - I will now be able to do X  - I am not a victim, I am a creator - I will not allow the past to control my future - I release the pain - I choose to live my life in an empowered way, etc.  Have them spend some time at the end of the exercise, envisioning themselves living in contrast to their previous state, no longer burdened by whatever results the events they need to recap have been manifesting in their lives.  Have them be as specific as possible.  Make simple plans to implement in their daily lives that counter the previous patterns and help them to enforce the new as they face their old fears and begin to mold themselves unburdened by the previous damage.  (Replacing the old with something new in a real way.)

Recapping too early in life can be non-productive if it interferes with a person's ability to become anchored in a balanced way to reality.  Many young people are anxious to try recapping these days.  With the exception of specific life events, it is not recommended before the early twenties in general; however, each person is unique and the determination of an appropriate age must be made on an individual basis.