Overview
A Trauma Symposium for the Healing of All Generations is a three-day conference planned for the near future. This symposium is a city-wide call to action to address trauma and abuse as a public health issue. We seek to address the collective arena of trauma and its effects throughout the generations to break cycles of silence and harm. We aim to address, prevent, and mitigate adverse experiences, trauma, and abuse and hold space for all people to be a part of a city-wide transformation to support the wellbeing and health of all. Through collaboration with local and national individuals and organizations, we hope to show the possibilities for healing that emerge when communities come together to provide all people with access to holistic, trauma-informed care. We believe that when we heal ourselves in the present, we heal the generations to come.
Over the course of three days, this symposium will bring together many stake-holders. Firstly, individuals in need of trauma care, information, and resources will come together in the same room, hearing one another’s stories, gathering resources for healing and resiliency, and experiencing the reality that we are not alone: trauma affects everyone and seeing our shared struggle can deepen our capacity for healing.
Second, the symposium will bring those individuals into direct connection with practitioners of holistic trauma care for immediate, on-site intervention and longer-term treatment.
Third, the symposium will bring holistic practitioners into contact with traditional mental health organizations/clinicians, deepening the possibilities for referral along many pathways. Fourth, the symposium will bring policy makers and advocates into direct connection with individuals experiencing trauma–hearing their stories and listening to their insights–as well as with practitioners of holistic trauma care so that holistic practices can be better understood and more deeply incorporated into mental health public policy.