Day One – Reflection

8:30: Opening Remarks

Welcoming, housekeeping, grounding exercise and introduction to event supports.

9:00-10:30 Trauma Fragments and Fractures

Trauma fragments and fractures individuals, communities, and workplaces. It results in strategies and responses which often masquerade as our personalities. This session will identify trauma and its impacts on individual attention, learning and memory as well as how trauma responses make us vulnerable to dysregulation, dissociation, and disconnection.

 10:30-10:45 BREAK 

 10:45-12:00 The Soul Wound

Apache/Tewa/Lakota psychologist Eduardo Duran refers to intergenerational trauma as a soul wound. This session will provide an overview of epigenetics, historical trauma, and the effects of direct and intergenerational trauma on our communications, behaviours, relationships, and overall well-being.

12:00-1:00 LUNCH   

1:00-2:30 Safety and Survival in the Workplace

Some work environments demand that Indigenous employees uphold institutions that are patriarchal and contrary to Indigenous laws, customs, and world views which can result in the pressure to suppress Indigenous authenticity in exchange for acceptance. This session will identify survival practices such as conforming and code-switching to obtain approval, acceptance and create a sense of safety in workplaces which do not reflect Indigenous cultures or race.

2:30-2:45 BREAK 

2:45-4:00 Creating Safer Spaces for Authenticity

Undertaking a solid self-regulation practice can help us stay focused, clear-headed and rationale even in the most dysregulating environments. This session will explore communication and behavioural strategies which help us widen our window of tolerance while also exploring empowering practices for taking up space and allowing our authenticity to be seen and heard in the face of power, privilege, inequity, and injustice.

 Day Two – Reconnection

8:30: Opening Remarks

Welcoming, housekeeping, grounding exercise and introduction to event supports.

9:00-10:30 No Is a Full Sentence

Without boundaries, we are susceptible to experiencing resentment, bitterness, and burnout. This session will identify common boundaries and our relationship to the word “no” as well as the risk and indicators for burnout for those who work in environments which do not respect or permit boundaries.

10:30-10:45 BREAK

10:30-12:00 Where Does My Trauma End and Yours Begin?

Oftentimes, we are harmed or rendered hopeless/helpless by the work we do simply because we are on the frontlines of human suffering. When we serve our own people, the risk of direct traumatization and vicarious traumatization is ever present. This session will explain the difference between personal trauma triggered, new traumatization and vicarious trauma while exploring healthy strategies for generating resilience in the workplace.

12:00-1:00 LUNCH

 1:00-2:30 Self-Compassion and Escaping the Trap of Superficial Self-Care

Self-compassion as a form of self-care is necessary to release the shame and guilt we carry. Self-compassion asks that we overcome our self-limiting beliefs and harsh judgements about ourselves while real self-care asks us to do the work of identifying and prioritizing our needs (and values) over the demands of the others. This session will identify the trap of superficial self-care v. real self-care and explore our responsibility to practice self-compassion and engage in community care practices.

2:30-2:45 BREAK 

2:45-4:00 Negotiating Our Survival Through Ceremony  

Protection and preservation strategies are an imperative when returning to work environments that don’t always hold us up in a good way. This session will explore how our cultural practices, ceremonies and individual rituals can help us heal and recover from trauma via reconnection to our own authenticity and sources of personal (and collective) resilience.