If you haven't heard of @Emily Read Daniels yet, my guess is that you will sooner rather than later. Emily is one of a kind in that her professional background in education and systems change has naturally evolved into training others to not only understand the impact of trauma, but to be able to use the knowledge to revolutionize the way we care for, educate, support, and serve trauma survivors.
In her most recent article "Place Matters," she speaks to the power of the environment in which we are all working to have safe change and recovery occur. The connection we are trying to make with those we serve can be only as effective as the level of safety one feels within the space we are doing the work. I get that now more than ever since reading Emily's latest post.
"For survival purposes, our bodies are primed to react to surroundings, circumstances, and other humans based on perceived threat or safety. Neuroception is a term Porges coined to describe the unconscious body phenomenon that occurs when scanning the environment for safety or threat. The threat center of the brain may over develop in individuals that have an abundance of childhood adversity or have experienced acute trauma. Place and aesthetics can play a part in an individual’s perception of threat and conversely, safety." ~Emily Read Daniels
As someone who is spearheading a non-for-profit community agency's mission to become a trauma-informed provider, I attended Emily's Here This Now workshop on Trauma-Informed Systems at the beautiful Hancock Inn in New Hampshire. I can tell you that Emily's choice to conduct her workshops in such a beautiful, psychologically safe space made for a training like I have never attended (and I've been to A LOT of trainings). I am conducting my own trainings now and the space in which I do it is a priority decision that involves way more thought than I ever imagined. Emily's workshop gave me that gift, and many more tools that I use in both my personal and professional life.
Emily's business model of "bottom-up" (body based) change is revolutionizing classrooms and human service agencies through-out the New England area, and now she is about to make her mark on the west coast.
To learn more about Emily and her boutique consulting firm Here This Now, check out her website at: http://herethisnow.org/
And don't miss Emily's latest post Place Matters!
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