Singapore, 3-day Trauma-Informed Mindfulness Teaching

At Shan You Counselling Centre

What is Trauma-Informed Mindfulness Teaching?

Trauma-Informed Mindfulness Teaching (TIMT) is a program developed by Kristy Arbon to address the growing awareness of how important it is for teachers of mindfulness, self-compassion and other contemplative practices to be more trauma-informed. TIMT helps skill up contemplative teachers so that they can support their community members through the principles of a trauma-informed approach, as identified by The US National Center for Trauma-Informed Care.

Realizing the widespread impact of trauma

TIMT content is based on research about the widespread impact of trauma. Trauma affects individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities. In the US, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (ACE Study) showed that childhood trauma was common amongst all groups of people in American society – two thirds of the 17,000 people in the ACE Study had experienced at least one kind of trauma in their childhood.

Recognizing the signs and symptoms of trauma in community members

TIMT helps us to recognize the physical, social and behavioral signs and symptoms of trauma in community members. Given the widespread nature of trauma and our individual traumatic stress adaptations, many of us are not even aware that we are responding from a protective place because of stress from our past. TIMT helps to normalize these responses in service of healing.

Understanding potential roads of recovery

The TIMT approach helps us understand potential roads of recovery for our community members. Recovery happens through learning to skillfully and safely connect with ourselves and with others so that we have resources to support our healing and our ongoing emotional resiliency.

Responding by fully integrating knowledge about trauma into policies, procedures, and practices

TIMT helps us to respond to the effects of trauma by integrating knowledge about the prevalence of trauma, signs and symptoms of trauma, and potential roads of recovery into policies, procedures, and practices in our individual work and in the work of our institutions.

Seeking to actively resist re-traumatization

Programs cannot guarantee participants won’t be triggered, but we can endeavor to set a container that offers as much protection as we can, while at the same time allowing participants to move within their optimal zone of learning and growth. TIMT offers guidelines on how to implement new organizational behaviors in response to learning from instances of triggering or re-traumatization within community members. TIMT also helps us learn how to respond swiftly to address a stressful situation in the moment and into the future.

Topics and practices to be covered

Below are the topics we’ll explore in the TIMT program:

• Connecting safely in community through setting community agreements, identifying how it feels to be in and out of our emotional learning zone, creating ways to communicate about stress, and setting boundaries to support a safe learning environment.
• Exploring the widespread impact of trauma through education on the prevalence of trauma in the community and ways this is a barrier to the effectiveness of interventions and programs. We’ll also distinguish between when mindfulness is a useful tool and when it could be harmful and explore the difference between a trauma-informed approach and trauma-focused interventions.
• Recognizing signs and symptoms of trauma through defining trauma and the window of tolerance, learning about the Polyvagal Theory approach to tending to traumatic stress, and knowing what to look for in identifying if a participant is out of their window of tolerance.
• Safely getting in touch with the body through learning about and developing interoception (the ability to notice what is happening in our body and respond skillfully) and sensory modulation (tending to the body through the senses). We’ll also explore how it feels for a teacher when they sense someone is out of their window of tolerance.
• Understanding power dynamics and trauma through exploring dynamics in childhood and adulthood that lead to traumatic stress and re-traumatization. We’ll learn how to approach teaching cognizant of power dynamics using resources of Deep Listening and Compassionate Dialogue.
• Exploring potential paths for recovery through defining trauma-informed mindfulness and exploring trauma-informed adaptations of mindfulness practices.
• Integrating knowledge about trauma into policies, procedures, and practices through learning about the competencies required to support folks in a trauma-informed mindfulness setting, collecting external resources and research, and learning how to set guidelines for developing trauma-informed policies, procedures and practices.
• Learning strategies for actively resisting re-traumatization through developing teacher self-care, learning trauma-informed language, being trauma-informed in social media and online, and speaking skillfully about potential re-traumatization in the workplace in service of creating more trauma-informed environments.

Who might benefit from this program

This community journey is for contemplative teachers including coaches, therapists, bodyworkers, yoga instructors, meditation teachers, and anyone teaching or living from a heart-centered place who wants to feel more confident showing up in a trauma-informed way and being a part of collective healing in community.

Presenter

Kristy Arbon will facilitate our explorations. Kristy teaches self-compassion and mindfulness – 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 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 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 training, Singing Over the Bones archetypal facilitator training and Sensory Modulation & Trauma Informed Care: An Introduction training. She is a member of the Dedicated Practitioner Program in David Treleaven’s Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness training and UCSD’s Mindfulness Based Professional Training Institute.

Bibliography for the course

• Babbel, S. (2018) Heal the Body Heal the Mind: A Somatic Approach to Moving Beyond Trauma
• Champagne, T. (2011) Sensory Modulation and Environment: Essential Elements of Occupation
• Feldman, C. & Kuyken, W. (2019) Mindfulness: Ancient Wisdom Meets Modern Psychology
• Follette, V.M., Briere, J., Rozelle, D., Hopper, J.W., and Rome, D.I. (eds) (2015) Mindfulness-Oriented Interventions for Trauma: Integrating Contemplative Practices
• Forner, C.C. (2017) Dissociation, Mindfulness, and Creative Meditations: Trauma-Informed Practices to Facilitate Growth
• Germer, C. & Neff, K. (2019) Teaching the Mindful Self-Compassion Program: A Guide for Professionals
• Harris, N.B. (2018) The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity
• Leving, P.A. (2008) Healing Trauma: A Pioneering Program for Restoring the Wisdom of Your Body
• Levine, P.A. (2015) Trauma and Memory: Brain and Body in a Search for the Living Past
• Mahler, K. (2015) Interoception: The Eighth Sensory System
• McCown, D., Reibel, D. & Micozzi, M.S. (eds) (2016) Resources for Teaching Mindfulness: An International Handbook
• Raja, S. (2012) Overcoming Trauma and PTSD: A Workbook Integrating Skills from ACT, DBT, and CBT
• Rosenberg, S. (2017) Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve: Self-Help Exercises for Anxiety, Depression, Trauma, and Autism
• Rothschild, R. (2010) 8 Keys to Safe Trauma Recovery: Take-Charge Strategies to Empower Your Healing
• Treleaven, D. (2018) Trauma Sensitive Mindfulness: Practices for Safe and Transformative Healing
• Van der Kolk, B. (2014) The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

Email kristy@heartworks.training if you’d like to be added to the notification list for this training.