Trauma is the third initiatory portal of human life and often accompanies birth and death. It is often defined as an illness. However, it is an indicator of wellness. Trauma only occurs in response to what is real. Simultaneously trauma is both non-linear and multidimensional, deeply personal, systemic and planetary. Trauma can be a highly expansive human experience and often heralds a sangomic awakening. 

Just like birth and death; trauma takes us to a place of radical transformation and is often the result of a threshold moment that can not be undone. The only thing that we can do once a threshold moment has occurred is to reach for the people, places and practices that transmute trauma to bring wisdom from the pain. Trauma recovery takes many formats and each trauma and indeed traumata are unique to the person and communities experiencing them. There is no one-size-fits-all all approach for trauma healing and so ultimately it leads trauma experiencers and trauma workers into a process of deep listening. Deep listening to our minds, body and soul. Trauma recovery is a soul journey.

We know that a secure attachment is primary to trauma recovery, more than this to heal effectively we must heal in community. Trauma Doula training may be centred around the attainment of trauma-informed skills. However, it is also about undertaking a radical shift in worldview and world-making that reignites the fires of indigenous knowledge systems in our local and digital communities. To become a Trauma Doula is to make a lifelong commitment to the principles of personal sovereignty entwined with the value of community. Trauma Doula work centres trauma as a catalyst for a global consciousness shift where the respectful treatment of the human experience might just change our human ecologies and ensure our collective futures, here on our home planet.

Trauma Doula Preparation Course

Introduction:

I believe that trauma and the impacts that it has on our minds, bodies and souls is one of the greatest challenges of our time. I personally have spent several years navigating public health systems trying to find good therapy that might relieve me of the madness that I felt. In my experience good trauma-informed wellness practitioners are like unicorns and this needs to be rectified. I’ll tell you now the number one ‘cure’ for trauma is a secure attachment having someone you can trust in your life. The big news is that you are not mad. You might be overwhelmed, exhausted, anxious, panicked, depressed and even scared. However, those things don’t make you mad. In my experience uncomfortable emotions are often indicators of the things that aren’t working for us rather than not working within us. For most of us our emotional landscapes are yet to be mapped, it takes an intrepid sort of explorer to want to go into the unfound parts of the world, especially when they are to be found inward.

To be clear this is not a course in learning how to treat or heal trauma, this is a course that allows us to examine where we sit in and with our own trauma. The hope is that reflecting on the trauma in our own lives and the way trauma emerges in others will release us from the unhelpful beliefs that keep us stuck. Trauma is healable however as with anything it takes work, a commitment to change and a good support system. 

The concept of having both a secure attachment (or teacher) and a community to support you through both trauma and shadow work is intrinsic to most indigenous knowledge systems and is prevalent within Zulu culture. It is representative of indigenous systems thinking. 

This course offers indigenous systemic practices as processes to distenangle systemic trauma within ourselves and the communities that we serve and empathises the relationship between personal trauma and it’s systemic manifestations and vice versa

The Course

The Trauma Doula Preparation offers a radical, decolonial, nurturing, emergent, experiential, embodied, circular, cyclical, embedded, matriarchal, indigenous learning space that brings indigenous systems thinking to trauma work. 

This training is indigenous systemic constellation circle work led by a Sangoma; a traditional Zulu witch doctor. Our trauma doula training is imbued with some of the oldest human wisdom streams in the world and is ceremonially integrated with two of Africa’s wisdom trees. The training encourages an instinctual, intuitive, fluid and holistic approach to trauma work. 

Constellation work is one element of the ceremonial work that Twasas (Sangoma students) undertake when they are training to be a Sangoma. The training to be a trauma doula much like the process of twasa invites us to face our shadow selves and accept our ancestral inheritances.

In my experience emotional trauma manifests itself often as the shadow of the shadow of what is happening in our psyches.

We can only meet people as deeply as we have met ourselves

This course is designed to put in place the support system that you need to take your own personal trauma healing journey to a different space. This is where you can learn to witness in ways that nurture our collective journeys.

To be clear at the end of this training you will be neither a Sangoma or a constellator.

Why this course?

This course is designed to help you put in place the functional support system that you need in order for you to do deeper personal trauma work and establish yourself as a safe person to potentially work with trauma experiencers in the future.

Course Requirements

You are surrendered to the idea you can’t do trauma work alone, nor would you want to. 

You have access to a support system that is interested in your life and enthusiastic about your life choices. 

You have worked with a variety of healing practitioners privately and you are aware of your traumas, triggers and patterns. 

Have personal healing techniques and know-how to use them. 

You are engaged in some form of bodywork i.e Yoga, Tremor Release Exercises (TRE), Fascia Release, Massage, Dance

If you are having challenges meeting any of these requirements please head over to Healing Humans circling group where we can resource you. Healing Humans is a free trauma informed circle that runs every Tuesday night and is hosted by the Trauma Doula School. 

If you are looking for private and individualised trauma doula care please go to  The Life Doula Ko-fi page where I offer doulaship services and offerings as well as singular sessions.  

Course Content

During this course you will gain – 

• A safe container that can hold emotional release.
• A safe container that can hold trauma release.
• A reflective space in which to identify unconscious patterns and beliefs
• An emotional support system
• The information you require to evaluate your own trauma
• Trauma-Informed Community
• Certification

During this course you will learn –

• Self-Inquiry
• Basic trauma-informed knowledge
• Emotional Literacy 
• Somatic Literacy
• Trauma Literacy
• Basic trauma-informed skills of self-evaluation –
  • Presencing
  • Capacity 
  • Aptitude
  • Safety
  • Personal Safety 
  • Collective Safety
• How to embody trauma-informed approaches –
  • Consent 
  • Boundaries
  • Equity 
  • Contracting
  • Listening
  • Sharing
  • Relating
  • Reflecting
• To become trauma-aware and accept how your trauma interacts with other peoples trauma.
• How to be in a trauma-informed community as a result of becoming trauma-aware. 
• If you are safe and prepared to take on trauma work in an informal, semi-professional or professional way. 
• How to create trauma-informed spaces for people experiencing shock and trauma
• How to host trauma-informed circles.

Course Process

The first thing to come to terms with is that this is undoubtedly a process, unless of course you are already an advanced trauma practitioner, which you may well be. Undertaking the Trauma Doula Preparation Course is as much a journey through your own trauma as it is an opportunity to be of service to others.

This course will provide emotionally safe spaces for you to process your own trauma and create healthy support systems to further your trauma healing journey.  

The real questions that should emerge as you undertake this process are:

Why become a trauma doula? 

Am I sufficiently healed to effectively hold space for others? 

What kind of personal work might I have to do to continue with this work effectively? 

What worldviews, programmings and beliefs do I have that might be harmful to others? 

How are my behaviours, beyond my healing practices, contributing to a traumagenic system?

These big questions should ultimately take you into a deeper sense of connection with yourself, your community and your environment. This process should also underline the importance of sustainable human ecologies within your life and the deep interconnectedness of everything.

Course Content

During this course you will gain – 

• A safe container that can hold emotional release.
• A safe container that can hold trauma release.
• A reflective space in which to identify unconscious patterns and beliefs
• An emotional support system
• The information you require to evaluate your own trauma
• Trauma-Informed Community
• Certification

During this course you will learn –

• Self-Inquiry
• Basic trauma-informed knowledge
• Emotional Literacy 
• Somatic Literacy
• Trauma Literacy
• Basic trauma-informed skills of self-evaluation –
  • Presencing
  • Capacity 
  • Aptitude
  • Safety
  • Personal Safety 
  • Collective Safety
• How to embody trauma-informed approaches –
  • Consent 
  • Boundaries
  • Equity 
  • Contracting
  • Listening
  • Sharing
  • Relating
  • Reflecting
• To become trauma-aware and accept how your trauma interacts with other peoples trauma.
• How to be in a trauma-informed community as a result of becoming trauma-aware. 
• If you are safe and prepared to take on trauma work in an informal, semi-professional or professional way. 
• How to create trauma-informed spaces for people experiencing shock and trauma
• How to host trauma-informed circles.

Continued Learning 

The Red Tent Trauma Doula School also offers drop in Trauma Geek Circles each Thursday morning where you can bring any questions you have relating to trauma. 

One completion of the course you will have the opportunity to move into a mentorship programme where you gain more practical experience with trauma work and facilitation. 

Apply for Trauma Doula Preparation below. 

Trauma Doula Preparation Form

Price 

£1200

Payment Link

Trauma Doula Preparation Payment Link

Payment Plan

Four payments of £300 over four consecutive months. Final payment needs to be paid before the commencement of the five days intensive training. 

Trauma Doula Preparation Payment  Plan Link

Accessibility Options

Price should never be a barrier to participation please apply to learn more aboout our accessibility options.

We offer a 50% discount to those who are systemically marginalised as well as other support options