Webinar Comments
We love to hear your feedback and comments on our
Webinar Series “When Terrible Things Happen: Helping yourself and
your community address trauma and build resilience.”
25 Comments
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Thanks for the great resource! Fantastic content.
Even though I’ve been living with, and hearing about this, for years, it’s nice to see this expressed in such a concise and comprehensive way
I appreciated the mention of epigenetics and importance of meaning making. I’m a trauma informed therapist in training with Dr Janina Fisher and especially interested in taking this out of the consulting room and into the community.
I have learned so much from Dr. Fisher over the years. What a wonderful mentor. And yes, our challenge is finding ways to safely and effectively take it into the community. This effort is not unlike what happened in public health some years back. I wish you the best in your work! Carolyn
I question and learning are in the same category. I have curiosity about how the concept of neuroscience and body release translates cross-culturally. I was encouraged and enlightened by your backgrounds and the possibilities that exist for group/community healing. Additionally, Berceli was a new resource for me. I am a trauma informed therapist interested in working with refugees. I have also done training with Dr Janina Fisher, read Peter Levine’s book and others. Thank you for this presentation.
Great question, Kristine. Generally it translates very well but with a big IF. IF it is introduced in a way that connects with what people already know and do, it is accepted. And IF people know how trauma affects the body/brain, it makes sense, and is accepted. Otherwise, it can seem strange and foreign and is dismissed.
So ask what people already do to reduce stress or when they’re distressed. Especially in non-western societies, most people/groups will give answers that tell you they already have ways to do this. Start there.
In the free bonus download, I give three reasons why I think many people dismiss body/brain tools. Read that for a fuller answer. Carolyn
Dispelling these myths about trauma helps us use our energy more effectively – for healing, for other efforts. I like that pragmatic lens on why it’s valuable to become trauma-informed communities.
Well stated! We—and our world— need our energy for working toward change and healing. Thank you!
Hello, my name is Brian Vaughan; I reside in Fredericksburg VA
Welcome, Brian!
A gentle, easy to comprehend presentation. Thank you! For me it reinforced a few points, so it was more of a reflection. But a very worthwhile one. You said this would be good for colleagues and staff: I think it’d be good for clientele out there who suffer from trauma – a great introduction for those new to the concept. Great start to the webinar.
Yes, also good for clients and trauma-impacted populations in general.
PS I enjoyed hearing about the community that sings and dances to respond to the seemingly unbearable. It makes so much sense individually and collectively. Too bad Westerners don’t feel ‘free’ enough to do such things, without it being in a church setting!
Thank you for a great webinar. I would like to hear more on how to live with ongoing trauma – how to both recognize and process what is happening on a personal and community level AND continue successfully with everyday life. I live temporarily in middle East and I feel this is a big issue here.
Your question gets at the heart of what so many people live with. It’s multi-dimensional: awareness, brain/body tools, community support, and processes of justice, conflict transformation to work at underlying causes and counter feelings of helplessness and powerlessness, etc. etc
The webinar with Dr. Niyonzima from Burundi that starts Jan. 18 is one case example.
It’s an area where some things are known but where as a global community, we also “make the path by walking.”
What have others found helpful?
Hi, I have been working in South Sudan for the last few years, a country where citizens face layers and layers of trauma. For those of us who work there, we also directly experience or hear about other people’s traumas and I began to feel like I couldn’t really be doing my work any longer without understanding more about it. The webinar answered one question – that trauma can be passed down from generations. But can we deal with that in the same way we can deal with direct experiences of trauma? And how do our own traumatic experience affect our work with other trauma sufferers?
So many of us in South Sudan find ourselves working with severly traumatised people and have absolutely no understanding of how to deal with it. Obviously this means we risk doing harm to individuals, communities and project goals. This is my start to learning more. Thanks for a great intro.
You are naming what many development/humanatiarn organizations and workers encounter. Kudos, Hannah, for recognizing the need to start with being trauma informed. We wouldn’t go into an area with Ebola without knowledge/training. Here’s a short article on trauma-sensitive work. https://emu.edu/now/peacebuilder/2013/03/trauma-sensitive-acknowledging-peoples-difficult-experiences-can-help-them-move-forward/
Also Google Barbara Weyermann to find other articles on the topic.
Do others have comments/suggestions for Hannah?
Thank you for the webinar! I appreciated the point about time healing, depending on what you do with that time. I’ve heard of “time heals” as a cop out answer to healing and it’s never satisfied me. I’d love to learn more about how to release trauma/tension from the body in situations like that of El Salvador currently where people are constantly living in a state of hypervigilence and fear.
Check out http://www.capacitar.org for resources that can be used by individuals and communities. Available in Spanish and English.
Thank you for this very informative webinar. This is the first time I have learned about tools we all can use to help ourselves as individuals dealing with trauma. I appreciated hearing about the African people and their ability to listen to what their bodies are telling them as they heal from traumatic events in their lives.
So glad you could join us, Stephanie. Those self-regulation tools are so valuable. You’ll have them all your life. As a STAR training participant from Haiti said, “No one can take it away from us, because it is inside us.”
Thank you for a great conversation. I am excited to hear that RJ is being used with cases of sexual violence and I look forward to reading the little book on RJ with victims of sexual violence. I also appreciated the emphasis on RJ not as a process for forgiveness, necessarily, but as a process to meet victims’ and offenders’ needs that entails accountability and is in many ways much more difficult than incarceration. I also appreciate the mention of how the whole system is set up to avoid accountability. Let’s keep dismantling this system as we create new models for justice.
Always good to listen to Carolyn and Howard. After nine years, still learning new things to put into practice. Thank you so much.
Thank you, David. Blessings on your journey.
Thanks. Very informative and thought provoking. It is tough when the “offender” is not identified as guilty, and has no need or incentive to admit any responsibility. There may be no consensus regarding that the victim was even harmed. Maybe the offender beat the rap and the harmed has no recourse to a process like this. I guess you can just do it own your own, ask yourself those questions, but it seems kind of sad and unsatisfying.