Caroline Atkinson & Judy Atkinson presentation

An Educaring approach to generational trauma
A Paradigm shift
Trauma Informed Care & Practice: Meeting the Challenge Conference 2011
Mental Health Coordinating Council NSW
Dr Caroline Atkinson Southern Cross University
Emeritus Professor Judy Atkinson ATSIHF

World Wide Colonisations
Australia - a prison colony.
The subjugation of Indigenous peoples.
The creation of culturally unsafe learning and living environments.
Fracturing of families and communities.
Abuse – removal of children.
Incarceration of young people.
Building more prisons in the creation of cultures of violence and poverty.
Art work Christopher Edwards Haines

Generational traumatisation
,
GenerationalHistoric - Social - Cultural Trauma
The physical violence of the Frontier - epidemics - starvations – massacres
The structural violence of the state - reserves - removals -legislation

Psycho-Social Dominance: Cultural and Spiritual genocide

Childhood trauma
Childhood trauma including abuse and neglect, is probably the single most important public health challenge … a challenge that has the potential to be largely resolved by appropriate prevention and intervention.
Van de Kolk, B (2007) Developmental impact of Childhood Trauma, Understanding Trauma, integrating biological, clinical and cultural perspectives, Kirmayer, L. Lemelson, R, Barad, M. Cambridge University Press p 224.

Outcomes of trauma are: -
Violation of child’s sense of safety and trust, of self worth, with a loss of a coherent sense of self,
Emotional distress, shame, grief, self and other destructive,
Unmodulated aggression, difficulty negotiating relationships with caregivers peers and marital partners,
Clear link between suicide, alcoholism and other drug misuse, sexual promiscuity, physical inactivity, smoking, obesity,
More likely to develop heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, skeletal fractures, and liver disease,
People with childhood histories of trauma make up almost our entire criminal justice population. (van de Kolk ibid)

Dadirri – Listening to one Another
Ngangikurungkurr - dadirri - listening to one anotherincontemplative - reciprocalrelationships.
Pitjantjatjara - kulini (listening), or pulgkarakulintjugku (really (deep) listening, and wanting to listen).
Bundjalung - gan’na hearing, listening, feeling, thinking, understanding.
Gunmbayngirr - junga-ngarraangamiinggi - hearing, learning, understanding, knowing from the heart.
Artwork: Chris Edwards Haines. 2004
Artwork: Christopher Edwards Haines 2004

What the men said
The story - being heard and believed
Reclaiming culture as a source of strength and identity
Art and music allows me to feel and heal.
Increasing employment opportunities
Alcohol and other drug education
Incorporating traditional justice processes in the legal system
Breaking the Cycle starts with me! (C. Atkinson 2007)

Educaring - in Healing Trauma
1. Creating culturally safe places
2. Finding and telling our stories
3. Making sense of our stories
4. Feeling the feelings
6. Reclaiming Our lives –
Spirituality creativity.
5. Moving through layers of loss
and grief .. ownership … choices.

Creating safe places

Finding and telling our stories

Making sense of the stories CBT

Feeling feelings

Moving through the layers of loss and grief …
to acceptance and commitment to work towards healing
Under anger is always grief…

Edu-caring(to rear up - to nurture - to watch over the children – to draw out from - to lead - to show the way)
Where there is hurt there has to be a healing.
In healing, people’s trauma stories become the centerpiece for social action, where the storyteller is the teacher and the listener is the student (or learner). So it is with care workers, psychologists, educators, researchers etc.

Generational Healing what we have learnt, is what we can teach.
What’s the difference between historical trauma, social trauma and cultural trauma …
… about the differences between loss/grief, victimisation, & traumatisation?

Stages of Healing
As an awakening
Healing as Community Support
Rebuilding a sense of family and community in healing
Healing as an ever deepening sense of self knowledge
The Use of Ceremony in Healing
Strengthening Cultural and Spiritual Identity in healing
Healing as Transformation and Transcendence

Healing Invisible WoundsPaths to Hope and Recovery in a Violent
These stories are historical because the storyteller believes that the story is not just about herself, but also her culture and society.
Traumatized people voice the same request for help with self-healing.
The healer has to place him/herself as close as possible to the pain and suffering of the traumatized person in order to take in the revealed truth. This process becomes the foundation of all healing actions.
Richard Mollica, (2006) Healing Invisible Wounds – Paths to Hope and Recovery in a Violent World. Vanderbilt Uni Press.

A Paradigm Shift
If we are to be serious about trauma informed care, we need to be prepared to work towards a paradigm shift that reflects the philosophy that there is an innate capacity within all of us, to restore our physical, mental and spiritual selves to a state of full productivity and quality of life, no matter how severe the initial damage. Mollica calls this the biological, psychological, and social power of self-healing.
Are you as a worker able to place the person’s – groups trauma story as the centre of your work? Can you sit with Stories of great pain and listen

Respect Rights Responsibilities Reciprocity Relatedness
caroline.atkinson@scu.edu.au

Caroline Atkinson & Judy Atkinson presentation

by mhcc on Jul 27, 2011

Accessibility

Categories

Upload Details

Usage Rights

Statistics

Caroline Atkinson & Judy Atkinson presentation — Presentation Transcript