"What a terrible day it is for us to come together, and what a wonderful day it is for us to come together." This is how Reverend Daniel Gregoire, Director of Spiritual Development at the Unitarian Society of Germantown, opened a training on the Community Resilience Model, on Saturday morning, November 14, 2015, hours after the tragic events had unfolded in Paris.'
More than 30 people - church members, teachers, clergy, social workers, yoga and mindfulness instructors, students, and concerned citizens - gathered together to learn how to help themselves and others impacted by trauma heal and find resilience. The group listened attentively to Elaine Miller-Karas, LCSW, executive director and co-founder of the Trauma Resource Institute in Claremont, CA as she walked us through a set of skills designed to "re-set the natural balance of the nervous system." Participants learned and practiced the CRM skills "which help individuals understand their nervous system and learn to read sensations connected to their own well-being, which CRM calls the “Resilient Zone”. CRM’s goal is to help to create “trauma-informed” and “resiliency-focused” communities that share a common understanding of the impact of trauma and chronic stress on the nervous system and how resiliency can be restored or increased using this skills-based approach." CRM has been used around the world and has emerged as a "promising practice" - there is even an app called ichill to help individuals use the CRM skills.
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