Last week, I posted a blog about the content John and I have posted in 2022 on The Carrolup Story blog relating to the story of the Aboriginal child artists of Carrolup. I’ve also been posting on our Healing blog, posts related to trauma, healing, addiction, and related matters. Here is a summary of those blogs and links to them.
In the past eight years or so, I have learnt a great deal about trauma and healing of, or recovery from, trauma. I launched the Sharing Culture website, an educational initiative to help Indigenous peoples heal from historical trauma and its consequences (e.g. mental health problems, addiction), as well as the impact of other adversities, e.g. social and economic disadvantage, experiences of paternalism and racism, and ongoing grief. Although I stopped posting on this website in November 2018, when the present website was launched, I have kept the website ‘live’ so that people can access resources.
I’ve posted 113 posts on this Healing blog on The Carrolup Story since it was launched in November 2018. I’ve added 17 of those posts in the past year. One post focuses on the work of leading trauma expert Bruce Perry and links to 12 posts I have uploaded, including posts about two of his books and a series of films for educators about stress, trauma and the brain.
Another of my posts in the past year links to 11 of my previous Healing blog posts about trauma, resilience and healing that are particularly relevant to events at Carrolup.
I also had blog posts relating to important books written by trauma experts James Gordon and Gabor Maté, as well as by Johann Hari. I have also posted about James Gordon’s excellent trauma self-care resources that are available on The Center for Mind-Body Medicine website.
A number of this year’s Healing posts relate to the Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) approach:
> The ABCD Approach: Some Resources
> Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD), Part 1
> Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD), Part 2
> What is Distinctive About an ABCD Process – Four Essential Elements
John Stanton and I are acting as external ‘Guides’ for a project in Kojonup, the town closest to Carrolup, that uses an ABCD approach and which aims to enhance the social and emotional wellbeing of the community, with an emphasis on empowering and connecting local young people. The project has been set up by Lisa Martello-Hart, an Australiana Artist and Children’s Book Author. You can read about how this project developed here. A special page of resources for this project has been developed on our website.
One of the most powerful pieces of film I viewed on YouTube this year was that by Fritzi Horstman. Fritzi is Founder and Executive Director of the Compassion Prison Project, which has the mission of creating trauma-informed prisons and communities, through trauma-awareness education and programming. You can see the film on my blog Step Inside the Circle. It is well worth watching.
My blog post The Politics of Personal Distress is based on an article by UK clinical psychologist Sanah Ahsan, entitled I’m a psychologist – and I believe we’ve been told devastating lies about mental health, which appeared in The Guardian recently. This article resonated deeply with me.
Here are the remaining posts that I have uploaded to our Healing blog:
> Why I Train Grandmothers to Treat Depression: Dixon Chibanda
> Focus on the Needs of Children: Bessel van Der Kolk
> Michael’s 44th Sober Anniversary, and an Update
> Film Clips of My Conversation With Huseyin Djemil About Addiction Recovery
> ‘Healing is in Our Stories’ by Deron Drumm RIP
I hope you enjoy reading my Healing blog posts of 2022. I wish you the very best for 2023.