Sustaining Ourselves in the Work: Trauma-Informed Approaches, Self-awareness, and Self-care

Hey–want to know something we suck at? Acknowledging and managing our own trauma from this work we do. Everyone I know in this field (including me) could probably do a better job at the whole self-care thing. And if you’re a program manager, you especially need to be concerned about this issue, because it’s critical that we give members of our teams space to talk about how this work impacts our lives and figure out healthy ways to address the trauma.

The problem is it’s hard to get people to the table to formally talk about things like secondary trauma and self-care. But I don’t think I’ve given a talk to clinicians this year where I haven’t discussed it in some fashion. It should be a core tenant in SANE training; it’s most certainly a central theme in sustainability discussions. So I’m thrilled that the National Center on Domestic Violence, Trauma and Mental Health is hosting a webinar on this topic. Sustaining Ourselves in the Work: Trauma-Informed Approaches, Self-Awareness and Self-Care will be held July 17th from 2-3:30 CT. What a good session to listen to as a clinical team. Even if it’s not domestic violence work you do, there will still be some great discussions related to strategy that will undoubtedly apply, no matter your practice area. Information for registration is not available. If you’re interested in attending, I would contact the Center and request to receive the registration info once it becomes available. Looks like they’re archiving their sessions, too, so if the date doesn’t work out for you/your staff, you should be able to check it out at a later date.