MINDFULNESS

IN CRISIS AREAS

CMRP 2016 – BANGOR U

JUDITTA BEN-DAVID MA SEP

TOWO GROUP _ MBSE

ToWo- Beyond Language, Race and Culture

Ireland, Turkey, South Africa, Germany, Israel

Who are we?

ToWo is a non-governmental, non-profit group dedicated to providing psycho-physical tools grounded in Mindfulness

To refugees, displaced people, field staff of humanitarian aid organizations and Hospitals in trauma-ridden areas.

GHS, ToWo’s daughter group, the Galilee Healing Sisterhood. Cross cultural women group training.

Capacity building: Mindfulness, Trauma therapy, Resilience, Non Violent Communication.

GHS Galilee Healing Sisterhood

The Refugee Era

Globally, as of December 2015, there were 65.3 million

displaced people. - UNHCR

One in every 113 people on Earth has now been driven from

their home by persecution, conflict and violence or human rights

violations.

Three countries, Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia — accounted

for more than half of the refugees under the U.N.'s mandate.

The level of forced displacement worldwide is unprecedented

since the founding of the UN itself.

Syrian refugees

As of February 2016, the United Nations (UN) has

identified 13.5 million Syrians requiring humanitarian assistance, of which 6.6 million are internally displaced within Syria, and over 4.8 million are refugees outside of Syria.

Turkey is the largest host country with over 2.7 million Syrian refugees. (… Jordan, Lebanon)

Located in tent camps near the borders, semi-urban areas, poor areas of the cities, and in transit.

Refugees in Europe

1.8 million migrants and refugees crossed into Europe 2015-16

… sparking a crisis as countries struggled to cope with the

influx, bringing up WW2 memories, fear of the stranger, fear

of change, creating division in the EU.

Mostly unsettled, living in huge groups, in transit, in hangars,

community centers, in camps.

Vast majority arrived by sea (boats), but some made their way

over land (walking), principally via Turkey, Greece, and

Albania.

The sea way has a high death toll. The near past has fear, loss,

violence - mostly Survival mode.

Middle East, Arabic refugees

In the last years:

Beyond the 4.8 million Arabic speaking refugees, Syrian Kurdish Yazidi - out of Syria. After 2010. (still unsettled)

Iraqi refugees over 4.5 million - out of Iraq. More than 2 million in Middle East countries. (mostly better settled). After 2007.

Older:

1.2 million refugees in Palestine, 38,500 refugees residing in Israel. After 1948. (settled, community intact, stayed close to home).

Urgency

Suspicion and Need

The toll of uncertainty

Zaatari camp_ Jordan

I left everything - video

I left everything_ 0:54

Indomeni_life on hold

Walking_ 1:30

Crisis Trauma Affects

What do you feel now? Keef Haallek?

Take a min to pause and sense inside.

What did we see and hear?

What helped you regulate your response?

And when you did, how did it feel?

Symptoms observed (refugees)

Highly charged nervous system/ Contracted bodies:

Emotional outbursts

Body tension high

Language (repetitions, disbelief in being understood)

Movement _ ―but I’m walking‖_ on the go

Hijacked by memories

Fear suspicion

Sense of separateness

Clinical

Most prevalent and significant are emotional disorders, such as: depression, prolonged grief disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder and various forms of anxiety disorders. Mental health is fragile during such prolonged crisis.

Being uprooted, instability uncertainty and loss of people houses families status jobs ... Loss of points of belonging.

Being a victim, a perpetrator, or a witness to violence. War violence, Survival violence, Betrayal.

Gender-based violence, including domestic violence, sexual violence, early marriages, women being sold off, harassment and isolation, exploitation, and

survival sex.

Poverty, despair, shame and guilt.

Suffering

People fleeing from conflict :

Surge and stagnation of survival mechanisms, such as fight-flight-freeze.

Uprooted far away from their natural environment and culture, in communities they do not know. Insecurity.

Experienced loss, fear, violence and destruction, are left without homes, without identity, and live in deep uncertainty about tomorrow.

High activation in nervous system: Busy-ness, preoccupation.

Their suffering is acute. Their need for an island of sanity is acute.

Trauma

"Our society at large, beyond nationalities, is affected by trauma. The impact of trauma on the society creates violence that is carried over through generations.

To the degree we are dissociated, we have a diminished potential for choice making. We remain subject to unwitting compliance with patterns that perpetuate personal and collective disenchantment.

While we may value kindness, connection and cooperation we repeatedly find ourselves and the world immersed in conflict. We desperately need to cultivate the resources and empowerment to gain our freedom from the cycles of violence, defensiveness and reactivity."

Pat Ogden Ph.D.

Restoring Balance

“Your deepest presence

is in every small

contracting and expanding.

The two as beautifully

balanced and coordinated

As bird wings.”

- Rumi

Basic ANS education

MBSE follows and modifies

the charge and discharge of arousal

in the Autonomic Nervous System

that arises in response to a threat.

Sympathetic – Parasympathetic

Fight and flight – Rest and digest

Bumped out of the Resilient zone

Trauma Definition

Trauma as Too Much too soon too fast

Trauma as act of Defense that did not resolve.

Trauma as Dissociation

As a Delusion: the intimidation is still here

Trauma as robbing us of the Present moment

and who I am.

Trauma an implicit Body memory

Definition

Trauma as a meeting of a specific neural system with a specific event at a specific time…

i.e. not primarily in the event

An inner relationship

―What fires together wires together‖

Helplessness, weakness, low immune system

Influence the strength of trauma imprint

Resilience

Resiliency dependant on Body awareness cues, first.

Low resiliency participants show less sensitivity to body relevant information, early on. Miss match occurs…

Low resilience individuals show an exaggerated brain response to an aversive intero-ceptive stimulus.

―Resilience is largely about body awareness

and not rational thinking‖

―Even smart people, if they don’t listen to their body, might not

bounce back as quickly from adversity,

as someone who is more attuned to his or her physiology.‖

- 2016_Lori Hasse et Dr. Martin Paulus, scientific director the Laureate Institute for Brain Research in Tulsa, Okla.

Sensations first

Consciousness unfolds through body awareness

First foundation of Mindfulness – sensations

The language of survival are sensations, that’s where we can enter

To open the knot and rewire. To move out of the rut.

―The more you pay attention to neutral and/or pleasant sensations

the more you strengthen your Resilient Zone. ‖

Elaine Karras CRM

Between my Hands

I hold my face between my hands

No, I am not crying

I hold my face between my hands

To keep my loneliness warm

Two hands protecting

Two hands nourishing

Two hands to prevent

My soul from leaving me

In anger

- Thich Naht Hanh

Why Mindfulness *

Holding the place of Kindness

―A larger whole of intentionality that the world is starving for‖ J.K. Zinn

Moving into attunement, Relating.

Bringing back Intimacy.

Small insightful moments.

Long term and short term option to enter into the full catastrophe.

Care of the Facilitator: balance and well being in the face of the full catastrophe. Intense cruelty to intense beauty. Reminding vastness, the embrace of awareness.

Why Mindfulness **

Trauma robs you of the present moment !

The inability to be in the here and now

Trauma affects our perception of reality;

narrow perspective and loss of flexibility.

Hyper vigilance rigidity, as well as high levels of reactivity.

Healing happens in the here and in the now

Time and space, hippocampus vs. short circuit

Why Mindfulness ***

what is -vs- what is not

Communication with environment

Coming out of trance

Lowering violence/reactivity

Health

HRV lowered

Concentration supports new learning

How Mindfulness

Meeting the basic defense system operating

Mindful Movement

Shifting the default mode into full embodiment

Short sequences

Pragmatic, No visualization to little visualization

Widening the present moment

Instilling gentle kind curious attention

Any Limitations?

Discussion:

How to make it relevant to the refugees?

How to make it fit their life situation?

What could be the Limitations?

How to make it take into consideration the strong

hold of shock and trauma?

How to bring this to the aid workers as support?

SE in service of Awareness

Breaking down the busy-ness to small pieces

through the body. Titration.

Discharge

From brace to flexibility. Negotiation.

Slowing down, teasing apart, to being present. Dual

Awareness.

Basic goodness accessibility. Resources.

Goals of MBSE in crisis

Coming back to our senses

Widening the Resiliency zone

Resetting nervous system

Remembering our self

Skills of self care

That travel with you daily, a reminder, kindness

Relationship with yourself and the world

Basic steps

Meeting

Education, normalizing

Tracking + Attention practice

Grounding

Resourcing

Shifting the default mode (wandering mind) into full Embodiment

Tracking to recognize and discern between sensations, enriching

Reminding- Accessibility to Basic Goodness

Beyond skin, beyond separateness, non judgemental

Beyond the Chaos – Rigidity duality

Culture sensitive

How are you doing?

How is it hearing?

How’s your heart?

كيف حالك ?כיף חאלק

Inquiry and curiosity. Questions.

Metaphors need to be adapted- care for language

Being overwhelmed… in Arabic would be more of an electrical storm in the sky … rather than a water related image.

Boundaries need to be seen and respected

Trust needs to be discussed and established.

Partnering.

Culture sensitive

―Research has shown that the therapeutic approach of

Mindfulness did not clash with cultural values‖

―Clients reported that they found mindfulness consistent with

their faith whether Muslim or Christian. Mindfulness was seen to

be complementary to regular reflective prayer.‖

Mrs. Hend Saab of St George

Community Mental Health Service. NSW

Mindfulness in Arabic ل الواعي التأمُّ

Ultimate respect of a culture

Translating the materials to their own language.

Mindfulness has been translated to 26 languages, but not to Arabic.

We’re putting up a crowd funding campaign To make it available online, in Arabic, for whoever needs it wherever.

ToWo group. Mindfulness in Arabic. ل الواعي التأمُّTowogroup.blogspot.com

Help us make it happen !

Research:

The benefits of an online program. Frewen and Lanius 2015

MMTT

Music

Ederlezi

Syrian refugees Zaatari

Syrian orchestra and black bird

―trauma is about loss of connection to ourselves, to our

bodies, to our families, to others and to the world

around us…‖

―In being able to renew our experience of ourselves as

sensing human animals..

We can begin to loosen trauma’s grip on us and

transform it’s powerful energies.‖

Peter Levine

Stories (Galilee & Turkey)

THANKS!

MINDFULNESS IN ARABIC

CAMPAIGN

TOWOGROUP@GMAIL.COM

TOWOGROUP.BLOGSPOT.COM

http://towogroup.blogspot.co.il/2016/06/mindfulness-in-arabic-new-and-unique.html

THANKS!

JUDITTA BEN DAVID MA SEP

TOWOGROUP@GMAIL.COM

TOWOGROUP.BLOGSPOT.COM

+972-77 -6639903