From elementary schools to psychotherapy offices, mindfulness meditation is an increasingly mainstream practice. At the same time, trauma remains a fact of life: the majority of us will experience a traumatic event in our lifetime, and some will develop post-traumatic stress. While this may appear to be a good thing — trauma is an extreme form of stress, and mindfulness is a proven stress-reduction tool — the reality creates a complex challenge.
Emerging research suggests that mindfulness interventions can help or hinder trauma survivors, raising a crucial question for mindfulness educators everywhere: How can you be prepared to minimize the potential dangers of mindfulness for survivors while leveraging its powerful benefits at the same time?
Designed for wellness professionals, this one-day workshop–led by author and trauma specialist, David Treleaven, PhD–will equip you with the tools you need to offer mindfulness in a safe, effective, trauma-sensitive way.
Through lecture, case study, and experiential practice, you will leave the workshop:
• Understanding why meditation can create dysregulation for people who’ve experienced trauma and specific ways you can prevent this;
• Prepared to recognize symptoms of traumatic stress while offering mindfulness interventions;
• Informed about current empirical research regarding mindfulness and trauma, including evidence-based interventions you can apply immediately to your work;
• Equipped with tools and modifications to help you work skillfully with dysregulated arousal, traumatic flashbacks, and trauma-related dissociation.
• Understanding the relationship between individual and systemic forms of trauma, including responsibilities to educate oneself about power, oppression, and social context.
Whether you’re a beginning or veteran practitioner, anyone engaged in offering contemplative practices will benefit from this workshop, including therapists, coaches, and meditation, classroom, yoga, or religious teachers.
About the Speaker
David Treleaven, PhD, is a writer, educator, and trauma professional whose work focuses on the intersection of trauma and mindfulness. He is author of the book Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness: Practices for Safe and Transformative Healing (W. W. Norton, 2018), which was acclaimed by Rick Hanson as “a rare combination of solid scholarship, clinically useful methods, and passionate advocacy for those who have suffered from trauma.” He’s lectured on trauma-sensitive mindfulness at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and the Omega Institute in New York. Trained in counseling psychology at the University of British Columbia, he received his doctorate in psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies and is currently a visiting scholar at Brown University.