Mona Johnson, MA, CDP & Christopher Knaus, PhD Presentation at 2016 Science of HOPE Description: This interactive workshop is designed for a range of education and health practitioners concerned with the impacts of trauma on children. As professionals committed to improving well-being, our ability to navigate stress, secondary trauma, and systems of oppression that negatively impact vulnerable populations requires continual reflective practice. In a variety of settings, we have the opportunity – and indeed, responsibility – to teach and model healthy navigation through daily and cumulative trauma. Such navigation requires personal commitments to reflective practice in our own lives, and a capacity to model – for children and adults – multiple methods of healthy survival. In this workshop, participants engage in narrative building strategies to courageously give voice to the trauma that has shaped us as professionals, and engage in practical strategies to foster critical voices in the youth, families and other adults we serve.

1. HEALING TRAUMA
THROUGH NARRATIVE
Mona Johnson, MA, CDP
Office of Superintendent of Public
Instruction
Mona.Johnson@k12.wa.us
Christopher Knaus, Ph.D.
University ofWashingtonTacoma
educate@uw.edu

2. “Not many happy things happen ‘round here”
“Most of the adults we see aint know how to talk
through difficult shit”
- Pedro (11th grader at the time; now 24,
part-time landscaper)

3. “Around the anniversary date, I called my doctor one day because it put
me – well in anxiety mode. I guess I told her “Oh my gosh” I told the
nurse…This is the same phone call I gave her when I had breast cancer,
and I thought I was going to crack. But now I’m on an even higher wall
than I was even back then, and I’m like Humpty Dumpty, and I’m going to
fall. And I really don’t know how to put “me” back together again.”
- School Administrator

4. “ Here’s how trauma changes us. So I tell kids to take a piece of paper.
What I want you to do with the piece of paper – I want you to crumple it as
hard as you can. And then I say now I want you to put it back where it
originally was. Right? So when you do this, I can never put this back to
what it originally was. And so, I think that is what you go through in these
situations, it changes my views of the world. I wholeheartedly believe that
we are in a good society, but there are times I question that, based on
some of the trauma that I have seen that will never go away.
- School Administrator

5. Introductions
• Who is in the room?

6. Trauma-
Filled Voice
- Maricela’s trip to the abortion clinic
- What’s your response?

7. Grounding
Principles
• Presence is fundamental to
recognizing each other
• Who we are impacts how we move
and is core to any healing work

8. Definitions
finding
common
ground
• Trauma (historical, individual &
collective)
• Coping and Adaptation
• Resilience
• PostTraumatic Growth
• Voice

9. Defining
Voice
• Voice is a concise capturing of the author’s
reality, responding to the author’s
culture(s), language(s), race(s), gender(s),
sexuality(ies), ability(ies), religion(s),
spirituality(ies), and class-based
experiences
• Voice captures and exudes passion, moving
audiences to feel a depth of emotion that
reflects the speaker’s life
• You know it when you hear it!

10. Components
of Voice
Narrative
1. Self-Recognition and Examination
2. Reflection on Context
3. Personal Responses to our Context
4.Translation of Experience intoVoice
5. Critical Expression

11. Freewriting
Voice
Self
Recognition
• Capture a trauma that impacted you
• Partner/Small Group Sharing
• Large Group Debrief

12. Components
of Voice:
Self
Recognition
Positionality
1) How you see yourself
• Who I am (race, sexuality, class, gender, religion,
languages, ability, ethnicity, skin tone)
2) How others see us
• What I am seen as (how others presume and
position me)
Types ofWriting Prompts (identity-focused; I am
from poem; self-descriptions/analysis; wounds )

13. Writing
Framework,
Strategies &
Tips
AVoice-Purposed Education:
1) Learners leave with something to say
2) Learners model transformation through personal and
professional voice
Workplace Strategies andTips
1) Foster opportunities to express
2) Foster opportunities to listen
3) Model expression for others
4) Voice is everywhere: Digital, face-to-face, in classes, on
the street, in building design, in how we eat, hang out, be
ourselves

14. Freewriting
Voice
Self
Recognition
• Capture how you cope(d) with the
trauma you experienced
• Partner/Small Group Sharing
• Large Group Debrief

15. Integrating all
of yourself
into
classrooms,
workspaces,
and public
spaces
Educators are models of voice
• If we don’t voice, don’t expect others to
• If we don’t model multicultural
democracy in professional work, don’t
expect others to
• Integrate voice throughout your
professional context

16. Self-Care
& Modeling
Voice
• Compassion Fatigue / SecondaryTraumatic
Stress
• Self-Care (physical, emotional, mental, social,
occupational, spiritual)
• Boundaries
• Balance
• Support
• Know thyself!

17. Freewriting
Voice
Translation of
Experience to
Voice
• Capture how you see yourself putting
narrative & expression into action
• Partner/Small Group Share
• Large Group Debrief

18. What Are
Benefits of
Modeling
Voice?
• Group brainstorm and discussion

19. Final
Comments,
Questions
Thoughts
• Thank you for participating!