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Trauma stewardship3/31/2023 ![]() ![]() I am sharing this book with everyone - my family, friends and co-workers. Such a powerful way to meet trauma-informed care and move forward in awareness of self, community and our present and future contributions. We are using this book in an organization book circle. It is loaded with cartoons and humor that wisely drive home important aspects of our lives, thinking and stresses. This book provides several meditation practices. There is now scientific evidence that meditation for at least 8 minutes per day will reverse the freezing effect to our genes and brain cells, and in so doing, reverse trauma. In my profession and others, where compassionate healing of trauma within others and myself, this book is a source of wisdom, understanding and peace. Trauma Stewardship, An Everyday Guide to Caring for Self While Caring for Others by Laura vanDernoot Lipsky is definitely just what it says. Reading this book gave me a framework for identifying, and calling out harmful mindsets as well as arguments to use with other professional when discussing the importance of addressing secondary trauma within an organization. I tend to run up against this set of believes when speaking about building supportive organizational cultures. Unfortunately, many public service leaders are not comfortable with the words ‘secondary trauma,’ nor do they believe that their work with traumatized populations has an effect on them or their coworkers and employees. I was already interested in theories surrounding organizational culture before reading this book. ![]() This section essentially gave the reader permission to take care of themselves in order to continue their work. The second section of the book gave key tools and habits for maintaining longevity in a public service career and also taking control over the choices the reader makes around their career. This approach gave me insight into why I have chosen a career in public serve and allowed me to better frame my thinking around my career choices. She encouraged mindfulness around this from the readers to avoid the risk of burnout and working in an ineffective way. The author explored reasons why people are attracted to public service work. The first part of the book was like ‘looking into a mirror’. After reading Trauma Stewardship I have key skills I need to decompress after working with a client through a traumatizing event, and not carry forward my negative emotions or stress regarding their experience. I love my work and want to be able to keep doing it. This book gave me the basic tools to have staying power in a position working with vulnerable and traumatized populations. As I find myself, to center myself, I can allow myself to help others. It is helping me into realizing all of my aha moment and how I have trauma from the work that I do which, is also bringing up the trauma for my past. It's then that her aha moment hit her, that the trauma of her work has affected her.For me I think about that stuff all the time and this is my aha moment, this book so, as I continue to find my Center this book is helping me. She's thinking about the nearest trauma one Center and how many people have committed suicide here, and as she says some of this out loud her family is looking at her like she's crazy. As she is hiking with her family she comes to a cliff, almost a mountain range. So finally years after they first started telling her that she needed a vacation she went on that vacation. My favorite thing about this book was when she talks about needing a vacation, everyone around her was telling her that she needed a vacation, her family, her friends, her coworkers. As I continued there were a lot of aha moments. When I first started reading this book I wasn't sure what to expect. There are many references to different religions, especially Buddhism, but I feel all the references are explained in a way that show the way behind a process and does not necessarily push for the reader to take up a special religion. By doing the Try This sections, I truly feel that my life can become more centered and I will not become so burned out with my job. With each of these directions there are Try This sections that really help the reader to apply what is being learned. Five different directions were addressed, four are the directions on a compass and how they relate to elements that will help a person to become more centered. I especially liked the last part of the book where the application part came in. Some things were discouraging because it addressed how an administration could support the workers but, many things addressed individuals and what they could do to take care of themselves. When challenged with approaching your job as a martyr, this book has challenged me to believe that I can still do a good job and take care of myself. ![]()
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