Introduction
There is an epidemic of developmental trauma in our world today. I guess that has always been true, but sometimes in some places it seemed like things were ok for some people.
I’m creating this video course as part of my contribution toward easing and reversing the trend toward more and more trauma in individuals and the culture.
The ideal scenario for navigating through the effects of developmental trauma toward ease, pleasure, connection and emotional stability would be to have regular interaction with safe and accepting community and to also have regular meetings with a personal guide who might be a therapist, coach, or spiritual counselor.
However, some of the same societal elements that contribute to the vast incidence of developmental trauma also lead to many people being in situations in their lives where safe community is unavailable and/or where personal trauma healing guidance is unaffordable.
I would love for this video course to be just as effective as working one on one with a skilled personal guide in a supportive community. I will grant that that seems an unlikely outcome. But I am not creating this course as an adjunct to coaching, counsling or therapy. Of course, I intend for the course to be a helpful resource to accompany coaching, counseling or therapy. But I am creating the course as a standalone resource that can provide invaluable benefit to people who don’t have access to personal support. And I am going to assert right here that it is possible to successfully navigate through the chaotic and confusing effects of developmental trauma on your own if you do not have access to community and personal guidance. Some of the lecture content will explain my basis for making that claim.
Having said all of that, I am not suggesting that anyone who does have access to effective personal support abandon that support to go it alone. The pull that many of us have to be ruggedly independent is an element of the developmental trauma disruption that we are seeking to adjust. Conversely I am not insisting that you stick with the support that you have if it’s really not working for you. Because another developmental trauma pattern is settling for “not really good enough” in our lives because we believe or “know” that what we really need is simply unavailable.
So it’s a bit sticky and tricky and we each make the best decisions we can along the way as we gain increasing insight into and connection with who we really are under all of it.
How to use this course
The course consists of a series of modules. The content for each module is on a separate page, and links to each page are below. The content for a module is built on the content from previous modules, both in terms of cognitive understanding and also in terms of your personal practices in working with your inner experience. Because of that, my suggestion is that you traverse the modules in order, listening to the lectures and trying out the practices, before moving to the next module. In fact, my recommendation is that you do each practice in a module at least a dozen times before moving to the next module, but skipping any practices that clearly don’t work for you or that may even make things worse in you. If things become difficult in any later module, I encourage dropping back and doing the practices from the earlier modules for at least several days, possibly longer, before again moving ahead.
And having said that, obviously you can bounce around and watch or listen to whatever calls your attention, in any order.
And regardless of whether you traverse the content in order or whether you bounce around, engaging with this content may be triggering or destabilizing. When we have significant developmental trauma, our systems can be highly sensitive to anything that shifts the balance of power and control in our unconscious management systems. I am creating this course with the intention to be incremental and gentle and conscious of the fragility or reactivity of the nervous systems of those who arrive here. But I can’t promise that things in you will not get stirred up. I can’t promise that you will not become destabilized. Module 1 is all about stabilization, support and resource. If even that content is triggering for you, this course might not be the right place for you to be right now. If the Module 1 content is triggering and you don’t feel you have any place else to turn, then I encourage you to go really slowly. See if you can find one practice (or partial practice) or one piece of lecture that feels safe enough and friendly enough and just do that practice or watch that piece, once a day or even once every three days. Gently observe yourself to see if there is any shift. Use your own sense about when to go further, leaning toward slower, not faster.