Holistic Trauma Healing Program for Healers Seeking Trauma Healing to Attain Inner Peace Vision To provide a holistic approach towards stress, trauma awareness and healing to leaders in Africa exposed to war and conflict. Mission To provide training and workshops on stress management, trauma healing, improve self awareness, building leadership qualities, psychosocial support, conflict resolution and management, team building as well as one on one counseling services. Core beliefs That leaders in Africa and beyond are exposed to stressful and traumatic events either in their own lives or in the lives of the people they serve. HTH believes that a healthy and balanced leader can facilitate and animate communities and its peoples to be resilient in times of hardship and conflict, war and turmoil. Overall Objective of the 5 Day Training The workshop objectives are to sensitise, heal and transform participants who have experienced war and conflict and thus may have been exposed to overwhelming and/or traumatic events. The workshop is designed to help participants develop insight into how they may have been affected by these events be it mentally, physically, emotionally as well as the affect it may have on ones relationships. The main objective is to bring the participants to a greater awareness of the effects of this conflict on themselves, with the hope that they will be able to come to terms with it and thus develop greater coping skills and strategies. As well as this, that they can take their newly formed skills of stress management and trauma healing to their families and communities as well as work stations. Participants are encouraged to not only talk about the things that may have stressed or traumatised them in the past, but they are also equipped and provided with techniques that will facilitate healing and good health in the future. Participants also are given the opportunity to develop and learn effective coping skills as well as ways of managing and even avoiding stress or trauma that may rise in the future. Program Curriculum Objectives Introductions and Group Therapy A key component of the training is in the introduction of each participant. This process lasts the five full days as each person is invited to present to the group who and how they are as a result of their lives and/or personal experiences. This process often develops into an individual as well as a group counselling session. The individual presentations may stimulate memories of past or present pain either in the individual or the group and thus may trigger various emotions and reactions. It is in this time the facilitator is called to lead and counsel the individual and the group to a safer place of being. The objectives of this methodology are as follows: Each person is able to present themselves through articulating their life s experiences, pains, hurts and traumas in a safe environment whereby they will feel heard, supported and cared for by their fellow participants as well as the group facilitator
Participants are able to explore their inner selves and their experiences in a group setting Participants are able to come to terms with all that they have experienced in the past Participants are able to tell others how they actually feel about whatever they have gone through and this in itself is therapeutic That participants are able to feel healed through their personal sharing of their stories Participants can take their personal sharing further and deeper in the one on one session provided for with the facilitator trauma therapist Belief System Finding Centre and Balance through Developing a Healthy Belief System Participants will learn to understand the effect stress and trauma has had on their belief systems, their faith, their religiosity and so forth They will also get a greater understanding on how loss of balance and centre affects ones thoughts, feelings, physical health, relationships, behaviour, attitudes as well as emotion health Participants will be able to develop a greater understanding of self as well as ways of stimulating their frontal brains such as the parietal lob which enhances positive thinking and boosts immune system Participants will developer greater insight into their own health and will be given appropriate ways to improve it Participants will develop greater coping skills to combat the things that have been stressing or traumatising them either in the present or in the past Participants will be able to adopt healthier belief systems that will enhance good health Defining and Understanding the meanings and differences between stress, distress, trauma, vicarious traumatisation as well as Post Traumatic Stress (Disorder) PTS/PTSD Participants will have a very clear understanding of the differences between what stress is, distress, trauma, post traumatic stress as well as post traumatic stress disorder They will be able to come to an understanding of whether they may stressed, distressed or traumatised as well as assess the symptoms (reactions) that they may have developed as a result of this stress Participants will learn that they need to focus on the symptoms of stress as opposed to what may have stressed or traumatised them in the first place. They will learn to name, claim and tame these symptoms in order to develop a more healthy and balanced life Participants will develop a greater understanding of their life s experiences and exposures to distressful or traumatic events and the effects that it has had on them For the future, participants will be able to identify symptoms of stress or trauma and thus have the ability to proactively deal with them in a more healthy and effective way. Meditation and Reflexology Participants will be introduced to stress reduction exercises that enhance rest and relaxation The participants will learn to relax and be still through meditation and outer body experience techniques Stress levels will be reduced, heart rates and blood pressure should slow down Participants will learn how to give a foot and hand massage to fellow participants Participants will feel tired as opposed to being tense and thus will experience methods that are conducive to good health. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and its Effects Participants will be able to make a self-assessment in this section of the course whether they have high or low levels of stress, distress or trauma. They will be able to check their own levels of stress as well the symptoms that have developed as a result of that stress 2
Participants will be able to identify the effects their past life/stressful experiences has had on them as well as focus on solving them They will be able to fully understand what PTSD is and how and when it develops Indicators of Psych-Emotional Stress Participants will have a comprehensive understanding of how stress, trauma and severe trauma (war trauma) affects people emotionally and psychologically Participants will be able to come to a self-awareness of the symptoms of stress/trauma in themselves and thus take greater control of them Participants will be able to not only develop a greater understanding of the consequences of unresolved stress or trauma in themselves, but they will also be equipped to identify it in others This section of the course will help participants support others who are suffering due to the symptoms of stress and trauma. The Biological Response to Stress and Trauma Participants will now fully understand the connection between stress and the hormones it produces such as cortisol, adrenalin and serotonin They will also have a greater understanding of how these hormones affect their physical and emotional responses in times of threat, fear and danger Participants will be able to clearly identify the negative effects of long term use of stress hormones in their own bodies Participates will be able to understand the concept of what TRIGGERS them to get stressed and produce the various stress hormones Long Term Symptoms of Stress and Trauma In this section of the course participants come to the realisation that much of their current and historical sicknesses have been a direct result of their stresses Participants will be able to come to the realisation of the cravings their bodies require such as sugar, adrenalin and the like due to long term stress or trauma Participants will now be able to fully understand the consequences as well as dangers of untreated stress in their physical and mental health Participants will develop a greater insight and understanding into the lives of those they live and work with as they will be able to identify if sickness or fight or flight responses are stress induced or not? Participants are able to find ways of self healing through switching off stress hormones and thus develop greater and more effective coping strategies Bioenergetics Participants will learn a unique way to induce shaking in their lower limbs that will help in reducing stress levels Muscle tension in participants will decrease greatly and this in turn will reduce emotional tension Participants will learn how repressed emotions are transformed into muscle tension and rigidity Participants will be equated with how animals get rid of stress through stimulating shaking from the ears down through the lower brain stem and down to the lower spine and thus expels tension from the body. Bioenergetics follows a similar pattern Participants will learn how when faced with extreme stress and trauma the PSOAS muscle in the human body gets misplaced and requires realignment through shaking 3
Male Response to Traumatic Threat, Fear or Danger (Hyper Arousal Continuum) Participants will learn about the fight or flight response whereby humans and animals respond when faced with a real or perceived threat Participants will learn about the various hormonal changes that takes place in the human body in order to assist a person under threat to escape or fight in order to survive The objective is also to assist participants to understand how this response is very different from the female and child response Participants should learn to take greater control of their responses to real or perceived threats and thus develop a more rationale approach as opposed to an instinctual one. Female Child Response to Threat, Fear or Danger (Dissociation Continuum) Participants will learn that when a women or a child is faced with threat, if they are unable to run (flight) they tend to freeze or submit. They will learn to understand in detail the defeat or surrender response They will learn to appreciate how men, women and children are different and react accordingly to real or perceived dangers Participants will learn how hormones are triggered in the male and female that influences the way the person responds to stressful or traumatic events Participants will learn that fight, flight or freeze are instinctual responses that help a person survive threats, fears and dangers Participants will learn how women and children but at times also men dissociate from the reality of danger in order to remain alive. The Human Brain Instinctual, Emotional and Intellectual Brain Participants will come to a greater knowledge and appreciation of the human brain through understanding the 3 key features of the way the instinctual, emotional and intellectual brain operate They will learn about the normal functioning of the human brain as opposed to how trauma affects this functioning Participants will learn how to process trauma through stimulating the frontal brain (the neo orbital frontal cortex) as well as developing positive thoughts and attitudes to whatever may have happened to them in the past Participants will come to the appreciation that they can actually control the key aspects of their thoughts with controlling the way they feel, think and react Participants should be able to develop more rationale thought as well as develop greater coping skills and strategies in stress management Forgiveness The Greatest Healer of All This session compliments the training on the brain as participants will learn how forgiveness is a key way of stimulating the frontal brain and thus assisting to overcome stressful or traumatic events Participants will be assisted to forgive all those people who may have hurt them in the past (a process of letting go of the memory or the pain) Participants will learn what happens to their own physical, psychological and emotional health if they hold onto past memories and pain Participants will learn how to understand the connection as well as the differences between forgiveness (unconditional) and reconciliation (conditional) Participants will learn how to change their previous thoughts about events or people and thus transform them into positive thoughts, positive ways of living as well as a positive ways of being. 4
Positive and Negative Thinking (Changing the way you think) Participants will be taught that a common consequence of stress and trauma, is that it affects ones thoughts processes from being positive to negative Participants will learn to receive criticism or even insults from colleagues and this will not affect them in any way as they have developed control over the way they think, feel and react Participants will develop a greater understanding of the power of a negative thought as it can grow and develop into negative and destructive thoughts, attitudes, behaviours and the like In contrast the participants will be encouraged to control their thoughts and actions through adopting positive thinking and behaviour that will result in constructive actions This course will help participants become more balanced and centred in their lives Methods of Tackling Stress Participants will learn 10 key skills that they can develop which will facilitate better stress management At this stage of the workshop participants should already be in a more healthy state of mind and thus are able to pick the various skills and tools that will assist them to manage healthier and happier lives in the future Participants will learn that stress needs to be controlled though various healthy means which are connected to mind, body, soul and emotion Participants will be able to plan/design ways and means of managing their stress levels as well as overcome any traumatic events they may have been exposed to in the past. Counselling Tips and Skills Participants will learn numerous counselling tips that will equip them to work more effectively with clients, colleagues, family or friends They will be able to adopt counselling tips and skills which will enhance their listening and therapeutic skills Participants will come to the realisation of the importance of their own mental, physical and emotional health as a means to help and heal others Participants will learn basic counselling skills which will enhance their ability to foster a good relationship with potential clients and thus become effective counsellors Participants will be equipped to listen more to what is going on within themselves (insight) as well as develop the capacity to listen intuitively to what is going on in others (foresight). Paul Boyle 5