Two Kinds of Emptiness: Trauma, Healing, and the Architecture of Inner Space

In trauma work, emptiness is often misunderstood. But as Peter Levine writes, the healing process can become “a portal opening to emotional and genuine spiritual transformation.” This piece explores the difference between the emptiness that follows trauma - and the kind that quietly emerges as we begin to reclaim our psychic space.

“I believe not only that trauma is curable, but that the healing process can be a catalyst for profound awakening - a portal opening to emotional and genuine spiritual transformation.” - Peter Levine

This feels like a quiet revolution. Because often what precedes that transformation - what comes first - is emptiness.

But not all emptiness is the same.

There’s the kind that trauma leaves behind: numbness, disconnection, a blankness where feeling should be. A survival state. The kind of emptiness that makes you question if there’s anything real inside.

And then there’s another kind. One that opens when you begin to heal. When you start to clear your field - unwind the roles you shaped yourself around, the projections you carried, the psychic entanglements you didn’t consent to but internalised anyway.

That kind of emptiness is not absence. It’s possibility. Psycho-spiritual boundary work. A sacred kind of housekeeping. A return to the architecture of your own inner space.

And in that space - when it’s yours again - something true can begin to emerge.