Please join us for the ongoing community discussion of A Better Normal, our series in which we envision the future as trauma-informed.
Friday, August 28th, 2020
12pm PT // 1pm MT // 2pm CT // 3pm ET
Hosted by Alison Cebulla and facilitated by Jenna Quinn of ACEs Connection with guest Dr. Jamie Marich, author of the book Trauma and the 12 Steps: An Inclusive Guide to Enhancing Recovery, newly revised, expanded, and released on July 7, 2020, published by North Atlantic Books.
Step 1: You admit that you're powerless over your addiction. Now what?
12-step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous (NA) have helped countless people on the path to recovery. But many still feel that 12-step programs aren't for them: that the spiritual emphasis is too narrow, the modality too old-school, the setting too triggering, or the space too exclusive. Some struggle with an addict label that can eclipse the histories, traumas, and experiences that feed into addiction, or dismisses the effects of adverse experiences like trauma in the first place. Advances in addiction medicine, trauma, neuropsychiatry, social theory, and overall strides in inclusivity need to be integrated into modern-day 12-step programs to reflect the latest research and what it means to live with an addiction today.
Dr. Jamie Marich, an addiction and trauma clinician in recovery herself, builds necessary bridges between the 12-step's core foundations and up-to-date developments in trauma-informed care. Foregrounding the intersections of addiction, trauma, identity, and systems of oppression, Marich's approach treats the whole person--not just the addiction--to foster healing, transformation, and growth.
Written for clinicians, therapists, sponsors, and those in recovery, Marich provides an extensive toolkit of trauma-informed skills that:
• Explains how trauma impacts addiction, recovery, and relapse
• Celebrates communities who may feel excluded from the program, like atheists, agnostics, and LGBTQ+ folks
• Welcomes outside help from the fields of trauma, dissociation, mindfulness, and addiction research
• Explains the differences between being trauma-informed and trauma-sensitive; and
• Discusses spiritual abuse as a legitimate form of trauma that can profoundly impede spirituality-based approaches to healing.
Dr. Jamie Marich describes herself as a facilitator of transformative experiences. A clinical trauma specialist, expressive artist, writer, yogini, performer, short filmmaker, Reiki master, and recovery advocate, she unites all of these elements in her mission to inspire healing in others. She began her career as a humanitarian aid worker in Bosnia-Hercegovina from 2000-2003, primarily teaching English and music while freelancing with other projects. Jamie travels internationally teaching on topics related to trauma, EMDR therapy, expressive arts, mindfulness, and yoga, while maintaining a private practice in her home base of Warren, OH. Jamie is the author of seven books on trauma recovery and healing, with many more projects in the works. Marich is the founder of the Institute for Creative Mindfulness.
Her bibliography currently includes: EMDR Made Simple (2011), Trauma and the Twelve Steps (2012), Creative Mindfulness (2013), and Trauma Made Simple (2014), Dancing Mindfulness: A Creative Path to Healing and Transformation (2015), and EMDR Therapy & Mindfulness for Trauma Focused Care (2018, with Dr. Stephen Dansiger), and Process Not Perfection: Expressive Arts Solutions for Trauma Recovery (2019). She has also written guest chapters and contributions for several other published collections. North Atlantic Books is publishing a second and expanded edition of Trauma and the 12 Steps, due for release in the Summer of 2020.
Jamie was interviewed as a master clinician in the DVD, Trauma Treatment: Psychotherapy for the 21st Century (2012) alongside icons like Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, Dr. Peter Levine, Dr. Robert Scaer, and Belleruth Naparstek. Jamie had the privilege of offering trauma recovery retreats at the Kripalu School for Yoga & Health in the Fall of 2012, at the Esalen Institute in the Spring of 2013 and Winter of 2014. She is a regular guest faculty presenter at the Amrit Yoga Institute in Salt Springs, Florida. In 2015, Marich launched her own EMDRIA-Approved EMDR Therapy training curriculum and now enjoys training a new generation of EMDR clinicians alongside her global team of collaborative faculty members and consultants. The New York Times featured her work with Dancing Mindfulness in 2017 as part of their Meditation for Real Life series.
Jamie seeks to incorporate music and other forms of creative expression into her practice. As her career developed, Marich's love for experience-oriented methods of healing and trauma resolution intensified, prompting her to explore the conscious dance scene and various ways of applying these wonderful, "come as you are" practices into the healing process. Having completed several trainings and experiencing other conscious dance practices at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Massachusetts, Marich was encouraged and inspired to develop her own, unique practice, which now exists in the form of Dancing Mindfulness. To date, Marich has taught conscious dance seminars at various conferences nationally and internationally and has trained more than 400 facilitators in the Dancing Mindfulness practice.
She completed her Reiki Master teacher training in the Usui Shiki Ryoho system of Reiki under Master Valerie Spitaler. Marich is a Registered Expressive Arts Therapist (REAT) through the International Association of Expressive Arts Therapists and offers a full certificate in Expressive Arts Therapy through her Institute for Creative Mindfulness. Jamie is a Certified Integrated Amrit Method (I AM) Yoga Teacher (RYT-500), a Certified Integrated Amrit Method (I AM) Yoga Nidra Facilitator, and has training in several other trauma-informed and recovery yoga approaches. Additionally, Jamie developed the Yoga Unchained approach to trauma-informed yoga with Jessica Sowers. In 2017, she earned her Women Empowered Pink Belt in Gracie Jiu-Jitsu through Gracie University of Jiu-Jitsu.
NALGAP: The Association of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Addiction Professionals and Their Allies awarded Jamie with their prestigious President's Award in 2015 for LGBT advocacy in her writing and training. In 2019, the EMDR International Association granted Jamie their EMDR Advocacy Award for using her public platform in media and in the addiction field to advance the cause of EMDR therapy and to reduce the stigma around mental health and addiction. Jamie serves on the Wisdom Council of the internationally known expressive arts ministry Abbey of the Arts, and is an advisory board member of HealingTREE Non-Profit.
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