In “The Future of Healing: Shifting From Trauma Informed Care to Healing Centered Engagement” by Shawn Ginwright, he discusses a new strategy that is aimed at building more "resilient youth," thus, transitioning out of the prior approach of Trauma-Informed Care. That approach "guides and directs how we view the impact of severe harm on young people’s mental, physical, and emotional health." In and out of a school setting, this typically involves therapy and counseling. However, some of the primary concerns includes this care is sometimes being rooted in treating the symptoms of trauma and hurt, rather than strengthening the whole person and focusing on all of their experiences, and their prosperity. Healing Centered Engagement, instead, concentrates on “what’s right with you” rather than “what happened to you.” It is more holistic and humanistic, as well as collective, considering trauma is commonly not a solely individual experience, and it is one that takes into account numerous contexts. This means that this engagement is more broad-- looking at social justice issues as a gateway towards social action, equality, and advocacy of proper policies, including those regarding mental health. Cultural contexts also play a role, both in terms of the trauma and the healing. For example, discrimination of races and ethnicities are frequent, in addition to intergenerational trauma. Furthermore, different cultures may have different healing principles, such as African drumming circles. Analyzing trauma, and how to remedy, and mend it, is not an easy task, and viewing the "bigger picture" allows for more and more people to benefit from these new strategies.
Comment/Point of Discussion: The statement, "Everyone wants to be happy, not just have less misery" really stuck out to me, not just as a good comprehensive line of the concept of Healing Centered Engagement, but also as a motto to live by. A journey to joy and contentment should not just involve the 'bare minimum,' as that does not heal anything. I think that this also can connect to not having the mindset of "destination happiness," which is the idea of thinking things like "when I go on that vacation, I'll be happy," or "if I lose ten pounds, I'll be happy." Focusing on the present moment can be a tool is fostering well-being.
I agree that "everyone wants to be happy , not just have less misery" stuck out to me too and how it should be a motto to live by
ReplyDeleteI like your summary of the article and how the author discussed a new strategy that is aimed at building a more "resilient youth".
ReplyDeleteI like you acknowledging the cultural aspect and benefits of this new method as well.
ReplyDeleteI like your idea of trauma and how it is not an individual experience but there is a lot of context that goes into it
ReplyDeleteI agree that is a good quote to remember and live by.
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