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Showing up skillfully and healing in community

This community journey is for:

~ contemplative teachers including coaches, counsellors, therapists, bodyworkers, yoga instructors, meditation teachers,

~ anyone living from a heart-centered place who wants to feel more confident showing up for themselves and others in a trauma-informed way,

~ anyone wanting to dive more deeply into the Somatic Self-Compassion material.

Please note: This program is not a complete teacher training program in that it will not offer a certification or qualification to teach. Is it designed as an accessible way for those interested in teaching and learning to enhance their understanding and skills as they travel the contemplative path. Participants are welcome to include Somatic Self-Compassion material in their own programs, but there will not be a “Qualified Somatic Self-Compassion Teacher” designation offered (we just don’t have the resources to support the infrastructure for this kind of undertaking 😉).

You do not need to be a teacher or helping professional to join us – if the topics below resonate for you, we’d love to see you!

How we’ll explore…

The weekly components of the program are:

a one-hour online community gathering to explore the pre-recorded material from each week, held by Kristy Arbon (these gatherings will be recorded for the benefit of those participants who can’t make it to the gathering);

approximately 1-2 hours of pre-recorded topic talks and guided practices by Kristy Arbon that you can watch in your own time;

a library of audio meditations that model the principles being taught;

the Somatic Self-Compassion Companion Notes (covering all topic material from the SSC program) and the Somatic Self-Compassion Meditation Scripts books: “works-in-progress” PDF downloadable books;

guided personal study of curated online articles, videos, and other material;

the opportunity to connect, reflect, and explore with the rest of the group via an online discussion board;

the opportunity to practice leading contemplative practices and offering educational material to a group.

This material builds on the Somatic Self-Compassion Weekly Practice Cycle material. You do not need to have done the Weekly Practice Cycle program to enroll in SSCTLC, but you will be asked to cover material from that program as part of your learning journey.

What we’ll explore…

The nine topics we’ll explore are:

Boundaries – how do we keep ourselves and each other safe within the community and where can we ground our awareness when we need to tend to our stress.

Strengths and Values – what motivates me to want to contribute to a trauma-informed society and what personal strengths can I leverage to make the journey more easeful?

Education – what do I know about trauma in my community and what insight can I gain through being more trauma-informed?

Interoception – getting in touch with my internal body experience so that I can keep myself company and show up more sustainably and compassionately for others.

Polyvagal Theory – understanding, validating, and normalizing the stress response cycle in service of opening a shame-less dialogue about stress and trauma in our communities.

Intuition – tapping into my wellspring resource of body wisdom in service of transparent, trust-filled social exchanges.

Deep Listening and Compassionate Dialogue – exploring the power of emergent dialogue, and how feeling seen and heard can be a remedy for attachment wounds, shame, and post-traumatic/pervasive-traumatic stress.

A Pedagogy of Kindness – learning how to scaffold conceptual material within a compassion-centered program, as well as how and when to talk about concepts within a group.

Guiding Practices – learning scaffolded components of a guided contemplative practice and using experiential learning time to explore each of our individual voices. This topic will invite each of us, if we choose, to facilitate SSC or our own practices within the SSCTLC community.

These topics will take us approximately 2 months to cover, and then we’ll have extra weeks to continue practicing the skills of guiding practices and talking about concepts in a group.

Trauma-Informed

This training implements the trauma-informed approach outlined by the US National Center for Trauma-Informed Care in that it is designed with five guiding principles in mind. It aims to help us:

Realize the widespread impact of trauma;
Recognize the signs and symptoms of trauma in community members;
Understand potential roads for recovery;
Respond by fully integrating knowledge about trauma into policies, procedures, and practices; and
Seek to actively resist re-traumatization.

Our methodology for gathering and holding space for this program is designed to model how we might each do that for ourselves and others within our own community’s trauma-informed context.

Embodiment training

The program is designed to be a community exploration focussed on developing personal self-awareness, safe embodiment, and self-compassion in response to our own trauma and stress responses, so that we can show up more fully and informed for others experiencing stress and trauma responses. It is complementary to David Treleaven’s Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness training, and does not repeat the material from that program. A number of participants have completed both trainings to deepen their trauma-informed professional development.

Who you’ll work with…

Kristy Arbon will facilitate our explorations. Kristy teaches self-compassion – with an emphasis on trauma-sensitivity – online and in person; mentors individuals and professionals in their trauma-informed teaching and self-compassion practice; trains meditation teachers in trauma-informed skills; and writes articles to support the study and practice of kind trauma response, mindfulness and self-compassion. Coming from her own story of trauma, she is passionate about being a part of changing our culture toward being more kind, accepting and trauma-informed.

Kristy has created many online and in person training programs, and supports/is supported by a global community of self-compassion practitioners through her business, HeartWorks. The flagship program, Somatic Self-Compassion, is in its fifth year and has been offered online and at in-person gatherings.

Kristy is a certified Mindful Self-Compassion teacher who has a Bachelor of Psychology, a post-graduate Bachelor of Social Work and a Certificate in Mindfulness and Psychotherapy. She has completed Internal Family Systems Level 1 training, Somatic Experiencing Level 1 (Beginning) training, Singing Over the Bones archetype facilitator training, Sensory Modulation & Trauma Informed Care: An Introduction and Advanced Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness training.

Our online resources…

Our journey will be supported by an online home in PowerSchool Learning where we’ll keep videos, articles, links, video recordings of our gatherings, and a discussion board.

Our 1-hour-long gatherings will be held in Zoom each week. Gatherings will be recorded, so you can watch them at your leisure if you can’t make it to the gatherings at the time they are occurring. You can also ask questions and contribute to the discussion board in your own time so that you can connect with community members.

When we’ll meet…

In order to make the program accessible for as many folks in our global community as possible, there will be two possible times to join the group for the 1 hour gatherings (you are welcome to come to both gatherings in the week if you wish). These times will change throughout the program, based on Kristy’s geographical location:

May:

US Central Time (Chicago): Mondays 6:30-7:30pm (we will not meet on Monday May 30) and Fridays 2:00-3:00am

Central European Time (Paris): Tuesdays 1:30-2:30am and Fridays 9:00-10:00am

Central Australian Time (Adelaide): Tuesdays 9:00-10:00am and Fridays 4:30-5:30pm

June:

US Central Time (Chicago): Mondays 5:30-6:30pm and Fridays 9:00-10:00am

Central European Time (Paris): Tuesdays 12:30am-1:30am and Fridays 4:00-5:00pm

Central Australian Time (Adelaide): Tuesdays 8:00-9:00am and Fridays 11:30pm-12:30am

July and beyond:

Depending on the needs of the group, we can continue with practice sessions into July and beyond. Dates and times to be determined by the group.

Questions?

Please don’t hesitate to email kristy@heartworks.training if you have any questions.

Program rates:

This is a subscription-based program. Participants can choose their level of monthly subscription between $60 and $200 per month, in PayPal. Please contact Kristy if you wish to offer a different rate than those suggested.

The formal material for the program will be covered in May and June, and there is the option to continue on with the program after this time for those wishing to practice and hone their facilitation skills, and remain in community as they develop their craft and deepen their understanding.

Click here to register for this program