This workshop is fully booked. Please feel free to register for the waiting list by emailing Mel Gunn at ourvisionarywell@gmail.com.

What is Trauma-Informed Plant Medicine Facilitation?

Working with the sacred plant medicines (PM) can present with enormous psycho-spiritual challenges. Many come to heal and process traumatic experiences through the plant medicines, however, very few plant medicine facilitators, support workers, and integration therapists have training in the foundation and neuroscience of trauma approaches, and most do not know how to respond effectively to the various trauma imprints that arise before, during and after the ceremonial space. 

Plant medicines have an enormous power to activate body, psyche, and spirit, releasing that which has been trapped in the unconscious into the light of awareness. However, this often happens ceremonial space in a way which happens too fast or too intensely, and repercussions could be re-traumatising and even damaging. It requires a great deal of courage, experience and bravery to navigate skillfully through the process, and, unfortunately, many are trauma survivors who do not have the inner resilience or the skills to do so. 

Similarly, PM facilitators can also feel overwhelmed with a lack of resources and a grounded understanding of what to do when various trauma imprints arise, which could be harmful and neglectful to participants.

As PM facilitators, we have an ethical duty of both responsibility and care to the participants health and wellbeing, both before, during and after the ceremonial experience. In doing so, it is fundamental to upskill our understanding of trauma and the nervous system, and learning the best practices to respond effectively to the signs and symptoms of trauma when it arises. 

This 3-day specialised workshop, led by trauma specialist Atira Tan, you will learn:

• Overview of Trauma and the Nervous System, and Polyvagal theory.
• Different types of Trauma which show up frequently: Physical, emotional & sexual abuse and violence, perinatal/ birth trauma, attachment trauma, developmental trauma and medical trauma.
• Identifying the signs of different types of trauma.
• Tools on how to respond effectively to each category of trauma.
• The body is key: How to listen and support the intelligence of the body to resolve trauma in ceremonial space.
• Self-Regulation and Co-regulation.
• Safety, Resourcing and Grounding.
• Trauma-Informed Language, tone and body language.
• Using Touch as a resource:: Consent and Boundaries, different forms of touch, 3 areas of the body for touch work. External touch work. 
• Your role as facilitator: Before, During and After.
• Useful tips for supporting the integration process.

Where: Mullumbimby, Byron Bay (details will be provided after registration)

Dates: April 17th, 18th, 19th 2020 (Friday arrival time 12 pm, Sunday departure time: 6 pm)

Full Cost: $595. Early Bird before the 15th of Jan: $545

Please note that deposits are non-refundable and tickets are non-transferable.

AYA Healing Retreats: 

AYA Healing Retreats offer sacred plant medicine and teacher plan retreats with Peruvian shamans in the heart of the Amazon jungle. We are passionate about fusing indigenous wisdom with contemporary approaches of healing trauma to create safer and more integrated spaces of healing for each person. For more information, please visit: www.ayahealingretreats.com

Your Facilitator, Atira Tan: 

Atira is a powerful agent of transformation and change. She has touched the lives of thousands of women, men and children around the world, supporting them through her 15 years of experience in various somatic and creative trauma recovery approaches. Passionate about creating safer spaces for everybody, and bringing healing and awareness in the “shadowy” arenas of life, Atira has worked as a trauma-informed integration specialist in retreats centres such as the Temple of the Way of Light and is currently the head of integration at AYA Healing Retreats. 

Atira has mapped the trauma recovery of hundreds of PM participants in her private practice as an integration specialist and facilitates Trauma-informed and Somatic Experiencing Plant Medicine retreats and dietas in Peru. She possesses an MA in Art Therapy, has a background in Transpersonal Art Therapy and Holistic Counselling, and is a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, amongst decades of training in many trauma-informed approaches such as EMDR. Atira has also worked for over a decade internationally in community organisations and international development as a consultant, clinician and supervisor, as well as an educator in community settings.

The CEO and Founder of two Australian charities, Atira has also initiated international women’s health, art therapy and trauma-informed programs for women and girls who have experienced sex slavery and exploitation internationally for the past 15 years. In 2018, Atira was instrumental in co-creating and delivering the first and only Somatic Experiencing and Counselling Fundamentals Program for Sex Trafficked Survivors, endorsed by the Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute (SETI). 

Atira teaches workshops, retreats & teacher trainings in 4 continents around the globe including Australia, Europe, Asia and South America. She specialises in supporting women, men and children, particularly those who have experienced sexual abuse to recover from trauma, in groups & individually in her private practice and community settings as a trauma specialist through the embodied somatic psychologies and other holistic approaches. For more information, please visit www.atiratan.com 

Testimonials: 

“If you are ready to engage in serious trauma healing work, Atira is the practitioner to go for.Her own genuine humanness consistently lived and embodied, and her outstandingly compassionate nature create a strong and safe therapeutic container that cannot be surpassed. After a search for decades for the right trauma therapist, all thumbs up for her, as the healing and transformation, I’ve been looking for has finally become real!”

– Jessica Bertram, Eco-Tour Guide, Germany.

“Atira holds a beautiful space that feels incredibly safe to explore and uncover the many layers of experienced trauma. Her intuitive way of working and the practices she guides with have helped me to rewire my entire nervous system. I now have a strong template for how to identify, track, and clear associated trauma behaviours. Her sessions have guided me back home to my body, heart and spirit. I am eternally grateful.”

– Adelina Vaughn, Bodyworker and Energy Healer, USA.