Trauma Informed Dharma
MODULE 2 OF THE CONTEMPLATIVE STUDIES IMMERSION
Many serious students of contemplative practice can spend years of earnest effort and not make progress. Likewise, high lamas and spiritual teachers can so egregiously abuse their students. It’s time we all recognize the warning signs of trauma and inform our Dharma practice with the latest findings and empowering methods for its integration.
Training in Trauma
One of Life's Greatest Challenges
- How our fundamental shared trauma as a modern materialist culture is our disconnection from spirit.
- The value and psychological mechanisms underlying rituals and prayers.
- How to cultivate generosity through the ancient Tibetan practice of the water bowl offering.
- The nature of spiritual bypassing and the various unconscious ways we use spirituality to avoid unresolved emotional wounds.
- The limits of scientific reductionism and devaluing nature of nihilism.
- Four defining characteristics of trauma that keep us stuck despite our best intentions, commitment and effort in Dharma practice.
- How the brain and nervous system are impacted by trauma and methods for how we can recover our natural capacity for resilience and wellbeing.
- The latest developments in polyvagal theory, the vagus nerve, and how our nervous system responds to threat and safety.
- The nature of mind from a classic Tibetan Buddhist point of view and how perceptions are impacted by trauma from the point of view of interpersonal neurobiology.
- Attachment theory, the four main attachments styles and how each impacts our ability to regulate emotions.
- How to integrate the new science of trauma with ancient wisdom and contemplative practice.
- What meditation and psychotherapy can learn from one another, and the new synthesis that is emerging.
- How to trauma-inform your Dharma practice to avoid spiritual bypassing, repeated trauma and unnecessary arrests in psychological maturity.
- The Tibetan Water Bowl ritual
- Embodied Mindfulness
- Body Release
- Miles’ unique trauma-informed meditation called "Body Whispering"
- Short Shakyamuni Buddha mantra
- Self-compassion meditation for healing
- Use our Workbook to trace your progress through the course material and build your repertoire of trauma-informed principles and practices.
Workshop: Ritual and the Trauma of Separation from Spirit
Class 1: Spiritual Bypass and Scientific Impasse
Class 2: The Nature of Trauma
Class 3: Trauma and the Brain
Class 4: Trauma and the Mind
Class 5: Trauma and Relationships
Class 6: Healing Trauma
Trauma-Informed Dharma combines a workshop on rituals with a series of six 2-hour classes designed to be a primer on trauma specifically for yogis, meditators, and those on the spiritual path who almost never receive sufficient training on this important subject.
The course synthesizes a vast body of our current clinical understanding of trauma, its impact on mind, brain, relationships and ancestry across generations as well as integrative methods for healing. It is presented in an accessible style for the lay audience and helps students understand why they have been struggling and what they can do to resolve life’s greatest challenges.
COURSE CONTENT
Sixteen Hours of High Quality Video
Meditation Workshop: Ritual | 4 hours
Course: Integration | 6 x 2hr classes
Study Suite & Guided Meditations
Audio Downloads
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Check your Blindspot The Spiritual Bypass
What is spiritual bypassing and how do I know when it's happening?
Learn from the world of psychotherapy and trauma research what we need to be aware of in our spiritual practice.