Trauma Doulas
Trauma is the third initiatory portal of human life and often accompanies birth and death. It is often defined as an illness. However, it is an indicator of wellness. Trauma only occurs in response to what is real. Simultaneously trauma is both non-linear and multidimensional. Trauma is a highly expansive human experience.
Just like birth and death; trauma takes us to a place of radical transformation and is often the result of a threshold moment that can not be undone. The only thing that we can do once a threshold moment has occurred is to reach for the people, places and practices that transmute trauma to bring wisdom from the pain. Trauma healing takes many formats and each trauma and indeed traumata are unique to the person and communities experiencing them. There is no one size fits all approach for trauma healing and so ultimately it leads trauma experiencers and trauma healers into a process of deep listening. Deep listening to our minds, body and soul. Trauma healing is a soul journey.
We know that a secure attachment is primary to trauma recovery, more than this to heal effectively we must heal in community. Trauma Doula training may be centred around the attainment of trauma-informed skills. However, it is also about undertaking a radical shift in worldview and world-making that reignites the fires of indigenous knowledge systems in our local and digital communities. To become a Trauma Doula is to make a lifelong commitment to the principles of personal sovereignty entwined with the value of community. Trauma Doula work centres trauma as a catalyst for a global consciousness shift where the respectful treatment of the human experience might just change our human ecologies and ensure our collective futures, here on planet Earth.
COURSES
Trauma Doula Preparation Course
Introduction:
I believe that trauma and the impacts that it has on our minds, bodies and souls is one of the greatest challenges of our time. I personally have spent several years navigating public health systems trying to find good therapy that might relieve me of the madness that I felt. In my experience good trauma-informed wellness practitioners are like unicorns and this needs to be rectified. I’ll tell you now the number one ‘cure’ for trauma is a secure attachment having someone you can trust in your life. The big news is that you are not mad. You might be overwhelmed, exhausted, anxious, panicked, depressed and even scared. However, those things don’t make you mad. In my experience uncomfortable emotions are often indicators of the things that aren’t working for us rather than not working within us. For most of us our emotional landscapes are yet to be mapped, it takes an intrepid sort of explorer to want to go into the unfound parts of the world, especially when they are to be found inward.
To be clear this is not a course in learning how to treat or heal trauma, this is a course that allows us to examine where we sit in and with our own trauma. The hope is that reflecting on the trauma in our own lives and the way trauma emerges in others will release us from the unhelpful beliefs that keep us stuck. Trauma is totally healable however as with anything it takes work, a commitment to change and a good support system.
The Course
The Trauma Doula Preparation Course takes place over five days and is a course in deep listening. This course is designed to put in place the support system that you need to take your own personal trauma healing journey to a different space. This is where you can learn to witness in ways that nurture our collective journeys.
Why this course?
This course is designed to help you put in place the functional support system that you need in order for you to do deeper personal trauma work and establish yourself as a safe person to potentially work with trauma experiencers in the future.
You are surrendered to the idea you can’t do this work alone, nor would you want to.
You have access to a support system that is interested in your life and enthusiastic about your life choices.
You have worked with a variety of healing practitioners privately and you are aware of your traumas, triggers and patterns.
Have personal healing techniques and know-how to use them.
You are engaged in some form of bodywork i.e Yoga, Tremor Release Exercises (TRE), Fascia Release, Massage, Dance
If you are having challenges meeting any of these requirements please head over to The Life Doula where you will find help and resources that can help you navigate the trauma healing journey.
Alternatively, you can sign up for the Understanding & Working with Trauma Course instead.
The first thing to comes to terms with is that this is undoubtedly a process, unless of course you are already an advanced trauma practitioner, which you may well be. Undertaking the Trauma Doula Preparation Course is as much a journey through your own trauma as it is an opportunity to be of service to others.
This course will provide emotionally safe spaces for you to process your own trauma and create healthy support systems to further your trauma healing journey.
The real questions that should emerge as you undertake this process are:
Why become a trauma doula?
Am I sufficiently healed to effectively hold space for others?
What kind of personal work might I have to do to continue with this work effectively?
What world views, programmings and beliefs do I have that might be harmful to others?
How are my behaviours, beyond my healing practices, contributing to a traumagenic system?
These big questions should ultimately take you into a deeper sense of connection with yourself, your community and your environment. This process should also underline the importance of sustainable human ecologies within your life and the deep interconnectedness of everything.
The Course Includes:
One complete solar cycle of self-directed study.
A Guidebook with Reading List
Personal Trauma Assessment
One Hour Trauma Consultation
Five Day Training Course
Safe Space
Presencing
Deep Listening
Relational Healing
The delivery of six trauma-informed circles in service of community
The attendance of a six trauma-informed circles in service of community
Support systems
Containment
Final Project
A Graduation Ceremony & Certification
Learning Outcomes:
Support Systems
Comprehensive understanding and insight into your own trauma and how to manage it.
The delivery of twelve trauma-informed circles in service of community –
Circle Training
Commoning
Practical Experience of Presencing while in facilitation
Practical Experience Holding Circle
Community Building
A Guidebook
A Graduation Circle & Certification
Price
£600
Payment Link
https://ko-fi.com/s/943560e313
Payment Plan
Four payments of £150 over four consecutive months.
Payment Plan Link
https://ko-fi.com/s/a802fac078
50% rebate available for South African Residents.
Dates: Trauma Doula Preparation Course
15th – 19th August 2022.
24th – 28th August 2022, Summerstrand, Gqeberha (Formerly Port Elizabeth), South Africa.
10th – 15th October 2022.
Understanding and Working with Trauma Course & Trauma Doula Preparation Combined Courses
5th – 8th & 12th – 17th September 2022 (Combined) London.
14th – 17th & 21st -25th November 2022 (Combined) Edinburgh.
If you require more information regarding trauma doula work and this course please follow me on social media.
The Life Doula Instagram Account
Should you have any administrative questions please contact me here: kimberley@thelifedoula.com
Understanding and Working with Trauma Course
This course is for anybody who is interested in working with Trauma, on both and individual, familial and community level. It will help you to develop the skills, knowledge and understanding to support individuals, families and communities that have been impacted by trauma. It will also encourage reflective practice and self awareness of what the professional brings to that therapeutic relationship.
Cath and Jo are experienced in creating an experiential learning environment, using their extensive knowledge and drawing upon current and past case studies to help support learners in their development.
Duration
This is a 4-day course which consists of 24hours face to face learning. There is also a pre course assignment.
Day 1: Attachment
A sound grounding in attachment theory and research can help professionals understand children, young people and adult’s behaviours better, and offer insights into their experiences of difficult and stressful family relationships. This in turn can equip professionals with additional tools in both assessing and working with the families and individuals.
- Understanding the process of attachment and how secure attachment develops?– including theories on attachment
- What are the 4 types of attachment? (both adaptive and otherwise)
- Why is attachment important?
- Understanding the causes of attachment problems and disorders.
- How attachment disorders can present; What behaviours you might see.
- How attachment styles can impact our adult relationship?
- How our own attachment can impact the therapeutic relationship?
Day 2 and Day 3: Understanding Trauma
Working in a trauma informed way means looking at the whole person taking into account past/current trauma and the resulting coping mechanisms and behaviours in order to be able to better support an individual.
- What is Trauma?
- Understanding the different types of Trauma.
- Trauma in early childhood and the impact on neurological development
- What happens during trauma – physical, psychological, cellular, neurological responses
- Understanding Post Traumatic Responses – dealing with unresolved/unintegrated trauma
- Normal memory vs Traumatic memory
- Triggers and Body Memory Trauma
- Dissociation/Depersonalisation
- The cost of avoidance
- Somatic Responses
- Maladaptive Coping Mechanisms to Trauma
- The Professionals response to Trauma.
Day 4: How to work with Trauma
- Creating a safe space for both
- Grounding techniques
- Keeping the cognitive/rational brain engaged whilst exploring the emotional
- Alternative therapies and Trauma responses – an integrated response
- Self-Care
- Importance of Clinical supervision
- Case study discussion
Cost
£770.00 per person
A deposit of £270.00 will be taken to secure your space and the remainder will be due 6 weeks prior to the course starting
This cost includes 1 Clinical supervision session with either Cath or Jo that is to be taken within 3 months of the course ending and will support you in looking at your learning and how it is being applied in practice as well as offering clinical case supervision if needed.
Dates and Venues 2022
July 25th, 26th 27th 28th – Bristol
August 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th – Cardiff
October – 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th – Dublin
Understanding and Working with Trauma & Trauma Doula Prep Combined Course
5th – 8th & 12th – 17th September 2022 (Combined) London
14th – 17th & 21st -25th November 2022 (Combined) Edinburgh
Price
£1295
CJ Training & Consultancy
Cath and Jo have over 25 years’ experience of working with Chronic and Complex Trauma in various clinical settings within the community. They have experience of working therapeutically with children, young people and adults who have experienced or lived with abuse, and also managing high risk complex clients.
Both Cath and Jo are dedicated to providing good quality training to professionals across topics that they are both knowledgeable and passionate about; Attachment; Domestic Abuse, Understanding and Working with Trauma, The Impacts of Abuse on Children, Child Sexual Exploitation, and Compassion Fatigue. They both have their own private practice and use current and past cases to bring their training alive and ensure that it is experiential for all attendees. They also provide Clinical and Case Supervision to a wide range of frontline agencies and professionals across the South West.
Contact
cjtrainingandconsultancy@outlook.com
https://www.cjtrainingandconsultancy.com
COURSE FACILITATORS
Trauma Doula Preparation Course
Kimberley K. Stone
I became a doula when I was named as one before I had ever heard of a doula or had any real sense of what I was actually doing with my time. Signed off for five years on the sick with undiagnosed Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD) and Premenstrual Syndrome (and yes the two are connected) my life was a shit show filled with self-harm, self-medicating (that’s the self-harm) and a whole host of other survival mechanisms.
As the automatic bomb of CPTSD ripped through my life I made myself useful by making cups of tea for the equally distraught all on my boat and then in a wee house. It’s amazing what can come to you when the only resource you have is time. If love is all we need, time is a key component to love’s actionability.
It was during this time that I remembered how to circle and the value of commoning in community life. By listening deeply to myself and to others I realised that Iistening and hearing clearly are and remain powerful tools for transformation. If there is one thing that I know about trauma is that we have to be heard to heal. One way or another I’ve been working with trauma all my life. My own personal trauma healing journey is my qualification, my long term therapist says so.
While trauma has been teaching me there is a multiverse in my mind, body and spirit. The portals of birth and death and how we approach them in modern society taught me that there was something far more sinister going on in our collective human experience than we were ready to admit. 2019 brought some meta-breakthroughs when I realised that trauma is systemic and I could finally niche my business as The Life Doula. In 2020 I started training with The Red Tent Doulas in both birth and death. Through that process I have learned that I am a Trauma Doula. This revelation is the inspiration for the course. I am also a Sangoma, a Zulu traditional healer and Human Ecologist. I have a masters from the University of Glasgow in Human Geography; Spaces, Politics and Ecologies
Understanding and Working with Trauma Course
Cath Hanarahan
Cath began her professional career as a child protection Social worker in Cornwall and went on to specialize in working with families who had been impacted by Domestic Abuse, and supporting high risk victims as an IDVA (Independent Dometic Violence Advocate) for a number of years. She is passionate about working with children and young people and has managed specialist Child Sexual Exploitation Teams, and also helped to develop a Healthy Relationship Programme that was delivered county wide across all secondary and primary schools.. She has been a Chair of Governors for a local school for a number of years and is also a trustee for a local charity working with young parents with mental health issues.
Jo Stone
Jo is a qualified counsellor with over 15 years experience. She has been managing a free counseling programme (Waves) for victims of Abuse aged 16 or over for over 10 years and is passionate about ensuring that individuals and families receive good quality therapeutic intervention regardless of their ages, gender, sexuality, income, disability, ethnicity or psychological status. WAVES was recently awarded the National Diversity Community Award for Gender (2021) for their work in this field.