Trauma Stewardship - An Everyday Guide to Caring for Self While Caring for Others

Informationen zum Autor Laura van Dernoot Lipsky is a trauma social worker and educator. Connie Burk is the executive director of the Northwest Network of Bisexual, Trans, Lesbian and Gay Survivors of Abuse. Klappentext Working to make the world a more hopeful and sustainable place often means having to confront pain, suffering, crisis, and trauma head-on, day in and day out. Over months and years this takes an enormous emotional, psychological, and physical toll, one that we're often not even fully aware of until the day we feel like we just can't go on anymore. And our well-being and the work we're doing are too important to risk that happening. This book is for all those who notice that they are not the people they once were or who are being told that by their families, friends, colleagues, or pets. Laura van Dernoot Lipsky takes a deep and sympathetic look at the many ways the stress of dealing with trauma manifests itself: feelings of helplessness and hopelessness, diminished creativity, chronic exhaustion, cynicism, and a dozen more. To keep from being overwhelmed, we need to respond to suffering in a thoughtful, intentional way not by hardening our hearts or by internalizing others' struggles as our own but by developing a quality of compassionate presence. This is trauma stewardship. To help achieve this, Lipsky offers a variety of simple and profound practices, drawn from modern psychology and a range of spiritual traditions, that enable us to look carefully at our reactions and motivations and discover new sources of energy and renewal. She includes interviews with successful trauma stewards and even uses New Yorker cartoons to illustrate her points. Leseprobe On the Cliff of Awakening “Are you sure all this trauma work hasn’t gotten to you?” he asked. We were visiting our relatives in the Caribbean. We had hiked to the top of some cliffs on a small island, and for a moment the entire family stood quietly together, marveling, looking out at the sea. It was an exquisite sight. There was turquoise water as far as you could see, a vast, cloudless sky, and air that felt incredible to breathe. As we reached the edge of the cliffs, my first thought was, “This is unbelievably beautiful.” My second thought was,“I wonder how many people have killed themselves by jumping off these cliffs.” Assuming that everyone around me would be having exactly the same thought, I posed my question out loud. My stepfather-in-law turned to me slowly and asked his question with such sincerity that I finally understood: My work had gotten to me. I didn’t even tell him the rest of what I was thinking: “Where will the helicopter land? Where is the closest Level 1 trauma center? Can they transport from this island to a hospital? How long will that take? Does all of the Caribbean share a trauma center?” It was quite a list. I had always considered myself a self-aware person, but this was the first time I truly comprehended the degree to which my work had transformed the way that I engaged with the world. That was in 1997. I had already spent more than a decade working, by choice, for social change. My jobs had brought me into intimate contact with people who were living close to or actually experiencing different types of acute trauma: homelessness, child abuse, domestic violence, substance abuse, community tragedies, natural disasters. As I continued on this path, my roles had grown and shifted. I had been an emergency room social worker, a community organizer, an immigrant and refugee advocate, an educator. I had been a front-line worker and a manager. I had worked days, evenings, and graveyard shifts. I had worked in my local community, elsewhere in the United States, and internationally. Over time, there had been a number of people—friends, family, even clients—urging me to “take some time off,” “think about some other work,” or “stop taking it all so...

Product details

• Authors: Connie Burk, Laura van Dernoot Lipsky, Laura Van Dernoot Lipsky, Laura van Dernoot Lipsky
• Publisher: Berrett Koehler Publishers
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 04.05.2009
• EAN: 9781576759448
• ISBN: 978-1-57675-944-8
• No. of pages: 288
• Dimensions: 154 mm x 229 mm x 20 mm
• Series: BK Life; BK Life
• Subject: Social sciences, law, business > Business