Want a Sneak Peak to the Healing Trauma Conference?

The third annual Healing Trauma Conference: Come to the Table: Nourish your Body, Mind, and Spirit, Because No One Heals Alone takes place April 30-May 2, sponsored by Haelan House of Bend, OR -- Healing the Root Causes and Effects of Trauma.

My bit is Sunday morning's keynote address:

Suicidal Thoughts as Trauma:

Taking Charge of My Own Recovery.

Description: Trauma can be both the cause and the consequence of suicidal thoughts. Suicidal ideation is considered a symptom of a mental illness. The mental illness model (what's wrong with you? instead of what happened to you?) suggests that if the illness is treated, then the symptoms resolve. But often, while the thoughts themselves go away, the trauma can go unrecognized, untreated, and underground.

I approach trauma from the perspective of having been suicidal and experiencing lingering effects even after no longer actively thinking about killing myself. This talk will use the lens of suicide prevention to offer tools that helped me recover from my trauma and regain a sense of mastery by offering options and encouraging flexibility.

There is more than one way to do trauma work. When one path proves unhelpful, choose another.

So, that's a trip. A trip down some dark and gloomy spots in my life, looking for that promised but oh, so elusive, post-traumatic growth.

And oddly enough, finding some.

The conference will be live and online. Haelan House will make the presentation available to conference attendees for one year, so you can watch at your leisure. Early bird pricing before April 15th is $50, with further discount for students, seniors, and veterans. Register here. 

Meanwhile, here's that sneak peak:

My three take aways are:

If you can name it, you can tame it;

There's more than one trick up your sleeve; and

Power to the people!

And one of several videos:

Aaah...