Trauma and Resistance: Innovative Responses to Oppression, Violence and Suffering
March 4, 2019 @ 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM AEDT
ParkRoyal, Parramatta Australia – 30 Phillip St
In this experiential workshop, Vikki offers an alternative approach to work with ‘trauma’, from a decolonising anti-oppression stance which focuses on the resistance of victims of violence and oppression as opposed to attending primarily to the details of the trauma, which can be retraumatizing for both the person and the front-line worker. Resisting the neutral and medicalized language of “trauma”, we will name systemic contexts of social injustice that are often hidden in individualised talk.
Honouring the wisdom of the people we work alongside in their responses to trauma brings forward their agency and wisdom. Locating sites of resistance and witnessing the resistance capacities of the people we work alongside, can create identities of knowledge, autonomy and strength, as opposed to victim/survivor identities, or other spoiled identities.
Special LEAD Members only Event
Cost: $180+GST. Morning tea and lunch provided. Please advise of special dietary needs, or other needs when you register online.
Resisting Vicarious Trauma with Collective Care
March 5, 2019 @ 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM AEDT
Panthers Penrith, Mulgoa Road
Workers responding to people struggling with substance use, poverty, violence and oppression are often told that they will ‘burn out’, and that it is the connection to the client’s pain that ‘traumatizes’ them; that is one perspective. Vikki offers another; she believes that “clients don’t harm us, nor does their suffering, it is the spiritual ethical pain that follows when we are unable to work in ways that are ethical, dignified and structurally supported. When we stay with connection, resist disconnection and enmeshment we are able to do ‘collective care’ as opposed to self-care.
We shoulder each other up by working in line with our collective ethics and enacting what is at the heart of our work. Bringing hope is an ethical response to despair, and we’ll consider how to keep a finger-hold on a believed-in-hope amidst the darkness of tragic death and mean-spirited politics. And that leads us to the ‘Zone of Fabulousness’, where the people we are here to serve are at the centre, and we are ‘walking our talk’ collectively.
Members: $200+ GST; Non-Members: $250+GST. Morning tea and lunch provided. Please advise of special dietary needs, or other needs when you register online.
More Information
Jagvir Singh, ph 9620 6172 or email jagvirs@leadpda.org.au
Justice-Doing, Collective Ethics and “The Zone of Fabulousness”
12 Mar 2019
9:30am – 4:30pm
8 Gardiner St, Brunswick VIC 3056
Cost: 1 day price $210.00(GST NA)
This will be an interactive workshop, informed by a spirit of solidarity and social justice activism, and will address:
- Collective Ethics and creating Cultures of Critique
- Critiquing ourselves from an ethical stance of Justice-doing
- Collective Care & the “Zone of Fabulousness”
- Solidarity Teams & Living Supervision
- “Leaning in” as allies in A Supervision of Solidarity
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this workshop, participants will be able to:
- Understand the concept of collective ethics and envision this in practice
- Consider what it means for each of us to work within the “Zone of Fabulousness”
- Develop ideas for sustaining ourselves in our work through solidarity and collective care
- Reflect on how supervision can optimise its capacity to build solidarity and a culture of critique
Who Should Attend
Individuals or teams involved in community work, counsellors, therapists, volunteers, supervisors from within the helping professions, and anyone with an interest in an ethical, values-based approach which holds our clients at the centre of our thinking and doing.
Registration
Workshop with Vikki Reynolds for Family Violence Practitioners
Date: 14 March 2019
Time: 9:30am to 4pm
Location: Queen Victoria Women’s Centre, 210 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne
Cost: $120 – Lunch and tea breaks provided.
About the workshop
Domestic Violence Victoria presents a rare opportunity to join Vikki Reynolds in a dynamic and experiential workshop in Melbourne!
As the reforms from the Royal Commission into Family Violence continue to re-shape the service system in Victoria, family violence practitioners are called upon to examine and develop their everyday practices with victim survivors from a range of backgrounds and communities, many of whom face multiple, intersecting forms of oppression.
This workshop will explore what it means to work in solidarity with people experiencing family violence and intersecting oppressions, such as sexism, ableism, racism, classism, ageism, homophobia/biphobia, transphobia, etc.
Vikki will challenge us to explore how we address power, centre our ethics, and ‘walk our talk’ when working with victim survivors and within an evolving family violence service system.
DV Vic would also like to utilise this workshop as a listening exercise to see what practitioners think about incorporating these ideas into our new Code of Practice for Specialist Family Violence Services.
Who is the workshop for?
Are you a specialist family violence practitioner working directly with victim survivors?
Are you looking for new ways to bring intersectional feminism and anti-oppressive thinking into your everyday practice?
This workshop is for you!
Essential Foundations for Sexual Assault Workers
Trauma and Resistance: Innovative Responses to Oppression, Violence and Suffering
Monday, 18th March 2019
9.30am – 4.30pm
Queen Victoria Women’s Centre
210 Lonsdale St
Melbourne, Australia
In this experiential workshop, Vikki offers an alternative approach to work with ‘trauma’, from a decolonising anti-oppression stance which focuses on the resistance of victims of violence and oppression. Honouring the wisdom of the people we work alongside with in their responses to trauma brings forward their agency and wisdom.
Advanced workshop for those working in DHHS funded sexual assault support services. If there are vacancies, non-sexual assault workers can attend for a fee please contact the training co ordinator Sarah McGregor sarah.mcgregor@monashhealth.org or phone 99288741 Mon- Wed
For more information about this workshop please contact
Sarah McGregor, Training Co-ordinator,
Statewide Sexual Assault Workforce Development
email sarah.mcgregor@monashhealth.org or phone 99288741 Mon- Wed
Keynote Address: 2nd Australia New Zealand
Refugee Trauma Recovery In Resettlement Conference
The conference theme, Healing in Exile – Current and Future Challenges, will explore the most innovative and successful ways to support people from refugee backgrounds as they recover from trauma and resettle in their new context. International keynote speakers will address global perspectives and prominent national identities will tackle some of the most pressing challenges here in Australia.
27-29 March 2019 | Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre
Justice-Doing, Collective Ethics and the “Zone of Fabulousness”
April 2, 2019 | 9:30 – 4PM | Cost: $160 (lunch included)
Vikki will invite & challenge us to consider the intersections,tensions & affinities between community work practice & social justice activism. In this workshop we will address:
- Collective Ethics & creating Cultures of Critique
- Critique ourselves from an ethical stance of Justice-doing
- Collective Care & the “Zone of Fabulousness”
- Solidarity Teams & Living Supervision
- “Leaning in” as allies in A Supervision of Solidarity
Venue: Brisbane Quaker Meeting House
10 Hampson St , Kelvin Grove Brisbane, Australia
Limited spaces. RSVP to Michelle Dang
healingandjustice@gmail.com | 0424 162 213
Alternative Approaches to Work with Trauma: Justice-Doing and Witnessing Resistance
Date: May 3, 2019
Time: 9am to 4pm
Location: Central YMCA, 20 Grosvenor Street, Toronto ON M4Y 1C2
Registration Rates:
Special low early rate $145.00 +$18.85 HST until January 11, 2018
Early rate $170 + $22.10 HST until April 1, 2019
Regular rate of $195.00 + $25.35 HST after April 1, 2019
This workshop presents an alternative ‘trauma’ approach to work with people who have experienced oppression and violence, from a decolonizing anti-oppression stance, which focuses on the resistance of victims of violence and oppression. Resisting the neutral and medicalized language of psychology, we will name systemic contexts of social injustice that are often hidden in individualized psychology talk. Honouring the wisdom of the people we work alongside in their responses to oppression, exploitation and violence brings forward their agency and wisdom. Locating sites of resistance, and witnessing the resistance capacities of the people we work alongside, can create identities of knowledge, autonomy and strength, as opposed to victim/survivor identities, or other spoiled identities. We will also address our duty as witnesses to resist the politics of professional objectivity and neutrality, and use our access to power to work towards a just society, and to change the social contexts in which these horrors occur.
Registration inquiries can be made at contact@narrativetherapycentre.com or by calling (905) 427-8239
41st Annual Meeting and Open Conference
Rupture and repair: Remaking relationships in families and communities
June 20- June 22, 2019
Oakland Marriott City Center
Oakland, CA
Keynote: Justice-Doing with each other: Doing Dignity and Respect amidst the darkness of our work
Vikki’s work bridges the worlds of social justice activism and community work, bringing teachings from communities of struggle with histories of solidarity and ‘shouldering each other up’ in dark times. These communities are under attack from structural oppressions, mean spirited and cruel politics.
She will consider these reflexive questions: How can we hold onto respect and dignity for each other when we’re struggling? How can we hold on to our solidarity and our fabulous and painful histories of joint struggle against multiple oppressions including colonialism, white supremacy, legislated poverty, hetero-patriarchy, capitalism and the prison industrial complex? How do we stay in dialogue, with respect, across time, without getting caught up in using power-over practices or re-enacting the abuses of power we are fighting against? How do we enact the analysis and justice-doing we want to create more of? How can we nurture ‘Cultures of Critique’, embrace hopeful scepticism, build solidarity and enact our collective ethics as social justice movements? When resisting powers that work to divide us, how can we enact collective accountability, embrace groundless solidarity and infinite responsibility, and manifest an ethical stance of believed-in hope?
Trauma & Resistance: Innovative Responses to Oppression, Violence and Suffering
January 30 & 31, 2019
Windz Institute At ROCK Reach Out Centre for Kids Centre of Learning
504 Iroquois Shore Rd., Unit 12A, Oakville, ON
In this experiential workshop, Vikki offers an alternative approach to work with ‘trauma’, from a decolonising anti-oppression stance which focuses on the resistance of victims of violence and oppression. Honouring the wisdom of the people we work alongside with in their responses to trauma brings forward their agency and wisdom. Vikki will illustrate a witnessing approach to therapy using practice examples and structuring safety as the foundation of the work. She will share alternative understandings of ‘trauma’ that resist psychology and the helping professions’ normalizing practice of re-framing oppression, harm and suffering as personal deficit and disguising acts of resistance as trauma and pathology symptoms.
