Joanna Russell

You may have heard the metaphor the walking wounded.  It’s most commonly used in First Aid to refer to the people with minor injuries after an accident; the ones who get up and carry on while the urgent cases are attended to.  But it’s a term also used in Counselling, (although as counsellors we use it in different ways).  Since it’s used differently, I need to explain how I use it. 

When I refer to the walking wounded, I’m talking about us.  We’re walking around managing well; performing our roles; carrying out our jobs.  But we have hidden emotional areas; painful ones.  These are the parts of ourselves, the emotional wounds, we don’...