YOU ARE NOT ALONE, 2025—an OMA Program on trauma and recovery. We are all connected on this journey of healing, of both self and humanity, from our individual as well as our collective traumas.
Trauma is perhaps the most avoided, ignored, belittled, denied, misunderstood, and untreated cause of human suffering. In our fast-paced society, where productivity often takes precedence over personal well-being, the silent echoes of trauma can reverberate through generations, affecting not just individuals but entire communities. Recognizing and addressing trauma is not just a personal journey but a societal imperative, as healing can lead to more compassionate and resilient communities.
In the Fall of 2020, OMA brought together a panel of survivors to meet monthly and discuss their own individual traumas and journeys of healing. For four years, our panel covered a variety of topics and evolved into an amazing therapeutic journey for each person that shared their most intimate and vulnerable parts of themselves with the OMA community, hoping to share the message that not only is healing from trauma possible, it is also a profoundly transformative experience.
As we move into this new year, we want to expand the work that has been done under the banner of You Are Not Alone (YANA) by offering trauma-informed trainings, lectures, workshops, and seasonal gatherings. Some of these offerings will come from our panel, but we are also reaching out to others in our community that have something special to offer to the healing discussion.
Healing from trauma is a complex journey, but with the right support and understanding, individuals can find a path to recovery. Trauma affects individuals differently, so the need to offer a wide variety of support is indicated. Our goal is to foster discussions around holistic health, safety, transparency, community, empowerment, choice, and the need for systemic change.
Lectures are currently priced nominally to the public and we offer scholarship assistance to anyone with financial constraints.
Gail Hunter and Leza Vivio are the moderators for the 2025 YANA programming.
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, in today’s terminology. 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…
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
For upcoming webinars in this series, please check Upcoming Events.
See Event Archives for past YOU ARE NOT ALONE webinars.