I love to be on the road with Reach Global Crisis Response. It feels so useful to be heading toward a crisis, ready to be of practical service to those in need. But lately my primary role has kept me at my desk in Friendswood, Texas. I have spent a lot of time in recent weeks developing a curriculum that will take our trauma care training to a deeper level. Our first course, Trauma Care Basics, is an excellent tool for preparing members of a church or community group to meet the spiritual, emotional, intellectual, and relational needs of people who are facing crisis. More and more, however, we are meeting people who want to take their understanding of trauma care to a deeper level. Taking advantage of the pending arrival of four “Trauma Care Interns” at our response site in Lake Charles, LA, I accepted the challenge of developing a program of training to accomplish that task.
The new training (dubbed Supplemental Trauma Training for the moment) helps participants expand their understanding of the needs of those in crisis and build practical skills as crisis care workers. Using our interns as “guinea pigs”, we jumped into topics like Healing Conversations, Gospel Conversations, The Grief Journey, Lament, Secondary Trauma, and Trauma Care for Children. These components provide a solid knowledge base for those who want to by truly helpful to people who have been wounded by crisis.
With my conversation-based PowerPoint and a collection of stories from my own experiences in hand, I headed to Lake Charles to join my Crisis Response coworker, Eloise Wierzbicki, in spending a week with our interns. These five young women were willing and responsive participants who brought their own personal and educational experiences into our conversations in ways that added depth to the training. After weeks of sitting at my desk, it was a delight to sit with these young women, to learn about their lives, and engage in conversation over these life-changing ideas. I felt privileged to invest in the lives of these fine young women!
We are currently offering our one and two-hour Basic Trauma Training to church or community groups, but we hope to soon offer this Secondary Trauma Training to those who are interested in digging deeper. For more information about the Basic Training, please check out this post: What is Basic Trauma Care Training?
If you would like information about hosting a Basic or Supplemental Trauma Care Training for your church or community based crisis ministry, please contact me at gail.degray@efca.org.
If you would like to contribute to the ministry of Reach Global Crisis Response or to my personal funding, use this link: Giving to DeGray