Certainly what Baseball says - finding the rage and the shames and the losses that we first experienced as children is what helped me turn an important corner. And I didn't even have a dysfunctional childhood! It's just a function of being human.
But this is why I like the SEP as the starting point for most people who are new at all of this (including myself back when) - the SEP is all about the writing exercises, starting with suggested topics for list-making, and introducting different types of writing.