YOU ARE NOT ALONE--Online Panel Discussion
6:30 pm - 8:00 pm Eastern Time
Zoom Webinar
$5 Donation Requested
Includes replay sent to attendees within 48 hrs.
This April, during Sexual Assault Awareness Month, we will learn how to take steps to build connected communities and enhance our knowledge of sexual assault, harassment, and abuse. In addition, we invite you to explore how to create safe communities where everyone feels safe and supported. We’re asking you to join us in building connected communities that promote equity and respect, as our connections to one another have an impact more significant than just ourselves. We can start here, together.
Wear the color, Teal!!!
Sexual violence happens in every community and affects people of all genders and ages. Sexual violence is any type of unwanted sexual contact. This includes words and actions of a sexual nature against a person’s will and without their consent. A person may use force, threats, manipulation, or coercion to commit sexual violence.
- Consent must be freely given and informed, and a person can change their mind at any time.
- Consent is more than a yes or no. It is a dialogue about desires, needs, and level of comfort with different sexual interactions.
“We Believe you. We Are Here for you. It is Not Your Fault.”
Choosing to violate another person is not about “drinking too much”, “trying to have a good time,” or” getting carried away,” nor is it about the clothes someone was wearing, how they were acting, or what type of relationship they have with the person who abused them. Violating another person is a choice. It is not the choice of the person being harassed or abused.
National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC) https://www.nsvrc.org
In this webinar, YANA panelists will be discussing their personal experiences, path to healing, and resiliency that supported the reframing of the distorted beliefs that may have kept them from knowing they are always welcomed in community and sexual violence is a violent act against another not caused by the victim and chosen by the perpetrator/abuser. We will be sharing personal stories of resilience and growth, and providing resources and tools for individuals to reclaim their lives after trauma. Panel members also share personal stories of survival and holistic techniques to support you in the sacred process of reclaiming yourself in healing. You deserve to be respected and heard!
It can be a lonely journey, but You Are Not Alone.
The format of this event is a group panel that discusses and has conversations around different aspects of healing from trauma. We have anywhere between 4-9 people on the panel and are always open to anyone wanting to join the panel.
We set this event up as a Zoom webinar, not a meeting, to maintain anonymity of our attendees, so you will not be seen unless you request to be. There is a chat room, and you can ask questions and be invited to unmute yourself if you want. Your name will be displayed in the chat, so please feel free to change your name to protect your identity in any way that you see fit.
*** If you feel you are in crisis, please contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, which offers free, 24/7 call, text and chat access to trained crisis counselors. Text or call 988 to be connected to a crisis center nearest to you. If you are in an emergency, call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room. OMA Center for Mind, Body, and Spirit does not offer crisis counseling or emergency services.***
It is critical that our efforts strengthen, so we can begin to heal these invisible wounds. They are crucial in promoting the healthy development of children and adults and healthy behaviors in families, schools and communities, thereby reducing the likelihood of trauma.
$5 Donation Requested. Your gift will be used to help us attain our goal of establishing a community and retreat center for the local community. Your generosity of any amount is greatly appreciated.
If you cannot afford a ticket, we offer scholarship assistance. Click for more information.
All registered attendees will receive a replay within 48 hrs of the original broadcast.
This panel conversation is part of OMA's Trauma Program. YOU ARE NOT ALONE is an OMA Webinar Series featuring a panel conversation on trauma and recovery—We are all connected on this journey of healing, of both self and humanity, from our own individual traumas as well as our collective traumas.
Panelists: Marilyn Carpenter, Deb Carter, Angela Failor, Callie Gropp, Gail Hunter, Laura Kustaborder, Mai Nguyen, Anna Smith, Leza Vivio.
Let’s all drop the pretense that we are either normal, or abnormal…
We are all in the same support group: ordinary people who must deal with the struggles that come with being human. We all carry this heavy weight—a trauma, whether from childhood abuse, childhood adverse experiences (ACE's),domestic violence, gaslighting, bullying, emotional/ verbal abuse and manipulation, medical trauma, and injury. We all at the same time struggle to meet our basic human needs for connection, community, acceptance, and validation among ones who share our culture and language, or not, for authenticity–the capacity to feel what we feel and to be in touch with our bodies and to express what we feel when we need to.
Fundamentally, that is the ultimate trauma, the disconnection from ourselves…
In this webinar series we believe that in the presence of compassion, healing is possible. Only with compassion can we bear our pain. In the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying the author says, whatever you do don’t shut off your pain. Accept your pain and remain vulnerable. –Mai Nguyen, Panelist