Training & Outreach
“How you stand here is important. How you listen for the next thing to happen. How you breathe…”
~ William Stafford, from his poem “Being a Person”
Events & Upcoming Webinars
Programs
We work directly with communities that have experienced the trauma and heartbreak of war, armed conflict, natural disasters, and human rights violations. We develop and implement culturally sensitive trauma recovery, resiliency, and leadership training curricula for mental health counselors, humanitarian aid/health workers, first responders, community leaders, and school systems in communities suffering from psychological trauma.
Our mindfulness-based, compassion-focused, neuroscience-informed integrative training protocols are designed in collaboration with our “partners on the ground” locally, nationally, and internationally to intervene on the risk of multi-generational trauma, enabling sustainability for individuals, families, and communities.
Our online trauma education series, currently under development, will showcase the building blocks of our protocol, grounded in the most current neuroscience research to help caregivers best understand, treat and prevent Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome and build resiliency.
Our documentary film series, Tibetan Stories, helps us to raise global awareness about the many faces of the refugee experience and to honor the suffering and resilience of ordinary people who, facing great hardship, have found it necessary to flee their homeland in the hope of building a better life.
Our advocacy initiatives, at the intersection of mental health and human rights, exist to support the compassionate awareness, treatment, and prevention of Post Traumatic Stress in wounded communities vulnerable to multi-generational trauma, helping to ensure a more secure and sustainable future.
Schedule a Conversation
We begin by being “in conversation.” We meet via Skype, phone, or in person with key members of your team to explore your existing resources and strategies for working with stress and psychological trauma. We listen. We ask questions. We gain an understanding of your needs, your strengths, and your vulnerabilities. We then develop unique training for your organization or group. The possibilities may range in scope from a simple day-long workshop format to a more far-reaching multi-faceted approach.
Some organizations may elect to work primarily with our online educational series currently in development. In all of our training programs, we tailor the program to the specific needs of your community. We honor the existing culturally based resiliency strategies that are already in place. We deeply believe that the training program and process is a collaborative learning experience.
We would love to work with you.
Schedule A Conversation
Ongoing Consultation
After our initial contact and assessment, we develop a curriculum and implement a pilot training program to meet the needs of your community. After implementing the training program, we offer the option of remaining available in an ongoing consultancy capacity. Through our ongoing consultation program, your organization will have access to our clinical team for case consultation, ongoing integrative mental health education, and advanced training as needed.
In-service Training
The building blocks of our curricula better equip our partners to understand, treat and prevent psychological trauma and post-traumatic stress. We teach a comprehensive understanding of the mind/body/brain, providing a new paradigm in the face of trauma, accessible to any level of educational training. We adapt each training to the unique cultural framework of healing within the community. For example, one of our global programs, the Dukar Project developed for the Tibetan Health Ministry in exile, integrates Buddhist contemplative practice, Tibetan traditional medicine, Western neuroscience, and community-based psycho-social support. We offer additional resiliency and healing resources to strategies already in place within the given culture or community.
Our training focuses on teaching simple, effective skills and strategies for self-regulation and neural integration through mindfulness-based, compassion-focused intervention essential during and in the aftermath of a crisis. We co-create an in-service training for your organization or community and then offer ongoing consultation as a supportive follow-up to ensure quality implementation. We invite you to look at our listed programs, the Dukar Project and the Community Response Network. You can review the materials and together we can discuss how we might best serve your training needs.
Care for the Care-giver
Research points to the importance of “caring for the care-giver” in order to prevent burnout or what has become known as secondary traumatic stress or STS. Our mission includes the support of humanitarian aid workers, health workers, teachers, counselors, community leaders, and all of those who compassionately work on the front lines.
Cutting-edge neuroscience research suggests that the intentional cultivation of compassion skills ( CCARE ), strategies for self-regulation ( SSR ), therapeutic writing and contemplative-based resiliency training ( CBRT ) prevent the risk of burn-out for those working in the trauma field. We incorporate these and other pathways to resilience in our Care for the Care-Giver Program. Our faculty is certified to teach the compassion cultivation training program developed by The Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford University.
Trauma Education Series
Our online trauma education series, currently under development, will showcase the building blocks of our protocol, grounded in the most current neuroscience research, to help caregivers best understand, treat and prevent Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Having a video training archive will allow care-givers to review and share important trauma education with those in the field and those facing adversity locally, nationally, and globally. Our intention is to translate the series into a variety of languages, to meet global needs.
Advocacy
We create initiatives at the intersection of international human rights and mental health. One such initiative is our Refugee Rights Initiative which focuses on the legal and moral responsibility of countries of refuge and or asylum to provide PTSS screening and simple calming strategies for incoming refugees, particularly children or those who have endured the prolonged stress of religious, ethnic and political persecution or torture to intervene on the risk of multi-generational trauma.
This initiative is an integral part of our larger trauma prevention campaign, strengthening resiliency against the debilitating and long-lasting impacts of unresolved trauma in refugee communities globally.
Stay tuned for our upcoming Refugee Rights Initiative Petition and please share it throughout your network. We are hoping to get 1,000,000 signatures! Be part of the Change!
David Edwards, Ph.D., Professor of International Relations at the University of Texas at Austin welcomes Tsering Choedup, ICMHHR Fellow, to discuss Tibetan refugee conditions and human rights.
Help Us Heal Wounded Communities
