MINDFUL CONNECTIONS FOR TRAUMA SENSITIVE PRACTICES

This trauma informed mindfulness curriculum recognizes that understanding the mechanisms of trauma and the role of meditation/mindfulness practices to either promote or heal trauma are the keys to preventing harm.* This course is designed for those who have done our MC4E/HP introductory program or already have a deep practice.

Mindfulness meditation for trauma healing can promote personal healing and support recovery. At the same time, being still and noticing our thoughts, physical sensations and emotions can give rise to memories of traumatic events. When a traumatic event occurs in our life, our brain stores it incorrectly, often without a “time and place stamp”. Thus, simply recalling the event can feel as if it’s happening all over again, which can be re-traumatizing. It’s extremely important that we notice when a mindfulness practice is prompting intrusive thoughts or traumatic memories and guide practice in ways that don’t cause emotional or physical dysregulation or harm.

MC4TSP will teach ways to hold space, provide support, and give meditation instructions that take into consideration the fact that people in our community have experienced trauma in their lives and reduce potential harm.

The MC4TSP curriculum is a twelve-hour program consisting of eight 1.5 hour sessions. You will learn:

• What is trauma? How prevalent is it really?
• How does trauma intersect with marginalized identities?
• Meditation and trauma: healing or harming?
• How to give meditation instruction in a trauma-sensitive way
• What is a trauma response? (Body & brain)
• Having our own good, healthy physical and emotional boundaries
• Nourishing safer spaces
• Techniques to engage the parasympathetic nervous system
• How would you notice if someone is dysregulated during meditation? What would you do?
• Understanding social contexts: The relationship between social oppression and trauma

* “In the United States, 61 percent of men and 51 percent of women report exposure to at least one lifetime traumatic event, and 90 percent of clients in public behavioral health care settings have experienced trauma” (retrieved from: https://www.integration.samhsa.gov/clinical-practice/trauma). People often seek out meditation practices and communities to help support them with difficult events in their lives. Therefore there is a likelihood that people seeking support from our sangha have experienced trauma greater than the national average. In addition, people with marginalized identities experience more trauma because of bias and historic/systemic oppression: We know that a person’s race, gender, disability, immigrant status, etc. intersect to disproportionately affect the likelihood for higher outcomes of trauma (Treleaven, 2018). At the same time, trauma in any body, left unresolved and not integrated, will cause challenges to relationships, community ties, sense of isolation, behaviors that are most appropriately supported in therapeutic contexts.

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