For BIPOC Training Participants: Healing Trauma & Microaggressions to Improve Outcomes for System Involved Youth

Nima Novak

Training Description

The effects of racial microaggressions and vicarious trauma have been shown in research to cause very harmful consequences to those experiencing them, especially for people of color who are coping with colonization, assimilation, and generational trauma. In this 2-hour training, the presentation will include: definitions; research on how polyvagal theory can help heal harm from racial microaggressions and vicarious trauma; an introduction to the neuroscience of nervous system and brain chemicals; and strategies BIPOC system involved youth and their caregivers (who are all too often negatively affected by vicarious trauma) can implement. Participants will be guided through a sequence of learning activities to explore and understand the negative impact that microaggressions and vicarious trauma can have on BIPOC system involved youth and families (as well as those who support them) and to gain increased self-awareness to reduce harm in the future through nervous system regulation and self-examination of their own behavior. Learning activities will include: self-reflection, storytelling of real life examples, large group exercises, and participant question time.

Learning Objectives

● BIPOC participants will be able to identify & define 2 major nervous systems and functions.

● BIPOC participants will be able to explain the window of tolerance and learn 10 ways to identify dysregulation and its potential impact on system involved youth and their caregivers.

● BIPOC participants will be able to describe polyvagal theory and learn 4 strategies for nervous system regulation which can be used by caregivers of system involved youth.

Agenda

1:00-1:20pm Welcome, Community Norms, Participant Introductions

1:20-1:30pm Resourcing the body activity

1:30-1:50pm Definitions & functions:

● Generational Trauma

● Vicarious Trauma

● Racial Microaggressions & Impact

● Native Erasure

1:50-2pm  Small group break out rooms

2-2:20pm  Definitions & functions

● Parasympathetic Nervous System

● Sympathetic Nervous System

● Window of Tolerance

● Interoception

2:20-2:30pm  Group questions

2:30-2:50pm  Definitions & Functions:

● Brain Chemicals

● Vagus Nerve & practical exercises to reset nervous system

2:50am-3:15pm Story Telling

3:15-3:40pm  Break out Room & Group Share

3:40-4:00pm Questions & key takeaways & wrap-up

Meet Our Trainer

Nima Novak is an Indigenous Speech Language Pathologist from the Mohawk Tribe of the Iroquois Nation. She holds a Bachelor's of Arts in Psychology and a Master’s of Science in Speech Language Pathology. She has worked extensively in marginalized communities, specifically in Oxnard with Indigenous preschool population and on the west side of Chicago, where she has seen first hand the negative effects of trauma on speech, language and fluency development. She is currently studying somatic therapies, Polyvagal Theory, Mindful Self Compassion (MSC) and Reiki to promote healing across the communities she serves, with the intention of loving kindness for all. Her focus on evidence-based practices and empirical research serves to bridge the worlds of healing and science which are often relegated to different categories. Nima’s holistic approach of resilience and education teaches how research-based mindfulness practices can be used to manage trauma in the body for both her students and colleagues experiencing the effects of secondary trauma. She is dedicated to empowering her students and all womxn to pursue their passions through the cultivation of resilience and self-worth. In her school based speech therapy and basketball coaching Nima takes a trauma-informed approach to support BIPOC and all students at every level.

This course meets the qualifications for (3.0) BBS CE hours for LCSWs, LMFTs, LPCCs, and LEPs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences & is provided by Fred Finch Youth Center, CAMFT Provider #045295.