Many years ago, I had what I called a self-healing dream.

The background to it is that I was an abused child. My abuser had many tricks to keep me aware of how little I mattered. One of them was to buy a treat for my siblings, while buying none for me, even though I was present.

In my dream, I saw myself as an eight year old straggling behind my abuser (parent) and my siblings, crying because they all had ice cream cones, and I had none.

My adult self walked up to my eight year old self and gathered him in my arms and made a promise that everything would be o.k. I would buy him all the ice cream cones he wanted, and I would keep him safe.

I woke with a great sense of something being finished, finally healed. It was a very physical feeling, and I've never forgotten it.