Why Clients Smile When Talking About Trauma — Part 1

What are the reasons for this confusing phenomenon?

By Lisa Ferentz LCSW-C, DAPA

Posted September 4, 2015

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/healing-trauma-s-wounds/201509/why-clients-smile-when-talking-about-trauma-part-1#:~:text=Smiling%20or%20laughing%20when%20disclosing,indicator%20of%20embarrassment%20or%20shame.&text=Some%20trauma%20survivors%20hold%20deeply,they%20played%20in%20their%2

Men Need To Talk About Their Sexual Abuse | Seth Shelley | TEDxUNBC

December 13, 2017

TEDx Talks

Pastor Seth Shelley takes us on an emotional and at times difficult journey about male sexual violence. He brings forward his own story of sexual assault to ask men to open up about their personal stories too. Recorded at TEDxUNBC in Prince George, BC. Seth speaks to an issue common around the world, sexual assault. However, it is men who also need to share their stories of abuse. Far too many men are silent about their own stories of trauma and eventual healing. It is our society’s ideas around masculinity which prevent men from opening up, and steal their narratives from them. Only through sharing with friends and family do we reclaim our stories for ourselves. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx Graduating from Summit Pacific Bible College in 2012 with a BA in Religion, Seth has pastored in Western Canada for the past 5 years. Currently he is the Associate Pastor at Timbers Community Church in Prince George, BC where his role is to provide counselling services, preform weddings and funerals, organize events for the community and a variety of other things. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies

By Resmaa Menakem, MSW, LICSW (2017)

From Amazon.com: “A NEW YORK TIMES AND WASHINGTON POST BESTSELLER

My Grandmother’s Hands will change the direction of the movement for racial justice.”— Robin DiAngelo, New York Times bestselling author of White Fragility

In this groundbreaking book, therapist Resmaa Menakem examines the damage caused by racism in America from the perspective of trauma and body-centered psychology.

The body is where our instincts reside and where we fight, flee, or freeze, and it endures the trauma inflicted by the ills that plague society. Menakem argues this destruction will continue until Americans learn to heal the generational anguish of white supremacy, which is deeply embedded in all our bodies. Our collective agony doesn’t just affect African Americans. White Americans suffer their own secondary trauma as well. So do blue Americans—our police.

My Grandmother’s Hands is a call to action for all of us to recognize that racism is not only about the head, but about the body, and introduces an alternative view of what we can do to grow beyond our entrenched racialized divide.

  • Paves the way for a new, body-centered understanding of white supremacy—how it is literally in our blood and our nervous system.
  • Offers a step-by-step healing process based on the latest neuroscience and somatic healing methods, in addition to incisive social commentary.

Resmaa Menakem, MSW, LICSW, is a therapist with decades of experience currently in private practice in Minneapolis, MN, specializing in trauma, body-centered psychotherapy, and violence prevention. He has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show and Dr. Phil as an expert on conflict and violence. Menakem has studied with bestselling authors Dr. David Schnarch (Passionate Marriage) and Dr. Bessel van der Kolk (The Body Keeps the Score). He also trained at Peter Levine’s Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute.”