Our focus as an organisation is providing access to education for all children everywhere. The partners and teachers we work with are doing amazing work across the globe. We are trialling ways to share some of this learning so it’s available to an ever-widening audience. Introducing the Life Long Learning Webinar Series.
Our Life Long Learning Webinar Series starts on the 9th September with
A short introduction to Trauma-informed Practice with Will Thomas
We are living in the strangest of times, some of our coping mechanisms have been tested to the limits over the last few months. As educators, parents, students and just human beings, we have adjusted, mostly we have found our own rhythm and a new way of embracing life but what about the trauma brought about by COVID19?
How do we feel? Who do we talk to?
What is trauma?
Trauma is the response to a deeply distressing or disturbing event that overwhelms an individual’s ability to cope, causes feelings of helplessness, diminishes their sense of self and their ability to feel the full range of emotions and experiences. It does not discriminate and it is pervasive throughout the world.
While there are no objective criteria to evaluate which events will cause post-trauma symptoms, circumstances typically involve the loss of control, betrayal, abuse of power, helplessness, pain, confusion and/or loss. The event need not rise to the level of war, natural disaster, nor personal assault to affect a person profoundly and alter their experiences. Traumatic situations that cause post-trauma symptoms vary quite dramatically from person to person. Indeed, it is very subjective and it is important to bear in mind that it is defined more by its response than its trigger.
During this time of the COVID19 pandemic one thing that we can be certain of is that trauma is affecting many people across the globe. Will Thomas with his experience of working in the UK and Internationally has put together some tips that may help us all to cope with these challenging times.
A short introduction to Trauma-informed Practice
Aimed primarily at practitioners who work with people who have experienced emotional trauma, this short introduction covers some of the basics and may also be of benefit to those dealing with personal trauma.
There has been a groundswell of understanding about how the human nervous system responds to abuse, neglect and traumatising experiences, in recent years. The result is a very strong evidence base for understanding how trauma is created and how it can be treated and supported. This short webinar will help you understand something of the nature of trauma, how it can be treated using somatic-psychotherapeutic approaches and what can practically be done in non-clinical settings to support people with trauma.
Register Here:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/trauma-informed-coaching-life-long-learning-webinar-series-tickets-118660754511
At the Foundation we have been talking about ways in which we can support each other to cope with this everchanging environment and we have been sharing ideas with our colleagues, partners, parents and students too.
We think this is a timely and important webinar to start off our Life Long Learning Webinar Series and we hope you do too.
In the meantime, here are some articles we hope maybe of interest to you:
Eight ways to help children prepare
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/aug/28/how-parents-can-prepare-their-children-for-going-back-to-school
Listening grandmothers
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I recently followed up a BBC World Service programmme that a friend heard in the middle of the night on 'Listening grandmothers' - very interesting. A bit on the model of the Chinese 'Barefoot Doctor' but less medical, this is a means developed in Zimbabwe to help people with depression who have few alternative sources of help. Amid successive traumas, Zimbabwe's 16m people have only 12 psychiatrists. The scheme is called 'The Friendship Bench', is free, and involves some 400 grandmothers in talk therapy with depressed people. The therapy is 'rooted in evidence-based therapy but equally rooted in indigenous concepts'. Proved to be effective though a randomised controlled trial, the concept is translatable to other settings, and there are Friendship Benches in deprived areas of New York. If you are interested, here is an account of it:
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20181015-how-one-bench-and-a-team-of-grandmothers-can-beat-depression
Cultivating Girls resilience by Dr Kathy Weston
Read the article on page 8 of the latest edition of Engage.
https://www.stevesinnottfoundation.org.uk/engage
