A beautiful composition that speaks with heart to the lasting impact of childhood neglect, and the courage of one woman to create change.
For the Invisible Ones by Aven Harper
“Emotional and relational absence in childhood takes many forms and has a wide range of impacts. This short film describes the singular experience of being an ‘ignored child’.
There is a great deal more to emotional neglect than is shown in this video. It comes in multiple flavours and has many causes.
The ‘helps’ I have described are just a few things that helped me survive into adulthood, but true healing from neglect may take a lifetime, and require different therapies and approaches for each individual.
So many of us wonder what is wrong with us, and why we are suffering so much. We tend to focus on the more obvious, commonly-held notions of ‘traumas’ in our lives and attribute the cause of all our suffering to these.
But I believe that lying underneath and out of sight is another story. I would even dare to say, a hidden epidemic. And until we learn to see what ‘cannot be seen’, and find ways to heal from it, our deep suffering will continue unabated and will also affect everyone around us in profound ways.
This film is my small attempt to bring more attention to the much-neglected and very real developmental trauma of childhood emotional neglect.”
