In April 2024, I spent six days in North Wales visiting North Wales Recovery Communities (NWRC) in Bangor and Eternal Media in Wrexham. I also spent a good part of a day in the mountains with Sober Snowdonia. I had such a wonderful time and met some truly inspiring people.
On Thursday, 25 April 2024, I visited Penrhyn House, the residential part of NWRC, where I gave a workshop in the afternoon on trauma, resilience and healing, and the Story of the Aboriginal Child Artists of Carrolup, to the residents and staff. I was told that the presentations went down really well, and people were very grateful for what I talked about. Amongst of things, it helped them understand some of their personal experiences relating to trauma.
Some time later, James Deakin, the Founder of NWRC, asked if I would be willing to give these talks several times a year over Zoom. I immediately agreed. We had a first session on 10 January, which was my debut in giving a talk over Zoom. My talk ‘Trauma, Resilience, and Healing’ lasted nearly two hours, including a break in the middle and questions at the end. Sadly, I forgot to turn on the video, so we had no recording of the session.
Early this month, I gave two talks, each lasting around 50 minutes, to members of NWRC in Penrhyn House, as well as some others. And I remembered to hit the <Record> button! My first talk, and the first half of the second talk, were primarily based on information provided in the excellent book What Happened To You? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing by renowned trauma expert Dr. Bruce D. Perry and well-known personality Oprah Winfrey. In my opinion, this book is a classic. The information provided in the book needs to get out there far and wide. And I will continue to do my little bit.
In the second half of my second talk, I highlight the importance of community for healing, and use quotes from NWRC members that highlight some of the key factors that facilitate recovery from addiction. The quotes come from interviews I had with these members for the book I am writing about NWRC, and from short Recovery Stories written by NWRC members for the same book. I finished the talk by introducing Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) and outlining some of its key principles.
Below, you can find films of both talks, as well as pdfs of the slides I used for the talks. I hope these are of use. Please tell your work colleagues and friends, and anyone else you think might be interested. Thank you.
>0BangorZoomTraumaTalk2_v1.01_Draft_DC_290525
> 01BangorZoomHealingTalk2_v1.02_Draft_DC_300525