This Tantric Body De-Armouring (TBD) practitioner training does not teach practitioners how to work with and heal people’s trauma. Many people also ask if the retreats are for healing their own complex trauma. This statement serves to provide an overview of what’s needed for healing complex trauma and what is realistically within the retreats’ scope of support.
The type of healing required for resolving complex trauma is extensive and is outside the scope, purpose and timeframe of these personal and spiritual development retreats. Qualified trauma therapists require highly specialised education and skills to offer support to people seeking complex trauma healing. Also, it needs to be undertaken within an environment specifically designed for this purpose. If you are wanting to learn how to heal peoples complex trauma, it’s recommended that you seek out a qualified training organisation that specifically teaches courses in how to do this.
Trauma-informed care definition: Being informed and sensitive about people who have experienced trauma and able to adapt modalities and services to ensure the participant isn’t re-traumatised.
The TBD practitioner training is, however, trauma-informed, meaning that practitioners will learn:
What trauma is neurologically
How to identify when a participant is experiencing a traumatic response
How to support participants to create safety and to self-care appropriately
How to support participants to expand their agency and choice
When to refer to a participant to a qualified medical practitioner
Actively avoid re-traumatisation
Understanding intersectionality and identity development
Ensure participants know they can set the pace, say stop or no and take breaks as required during the retreats
Understand the impact of how trauma can affect decision-making, boundary formulation and consent
Note: Detailed education about trauma and being a trauma-informed practitioner is covered in the TBD practitioner online courses named Polyvagal Theory for Practitioners and Trauma-informed Care and Consent.
As the TBD practitioner training is fundamentally participant-centred, it can support an extensive range of experiences. This is because the trainee practitioner maintains agency and choice, and the facilitators and assistants maintains clear communication and receives feedback during retreats. This combination provides an environment for the trainee practitioner to create safety, agency and choice for themselves.
Worldwide, awareness of the term trauma has been steadily increasing over the last decade. The definition has widened to such a degree that at times it can create miscommunications not just among the general public, but also among healthcare practitioners. The type of trauma referred to here is when there has been a neurological adaption as a survival response to an overwhelming event/s that has shifted the person’s worldview.
The TBD practitioner training may be supportive for trainee practitioners who have had a broad range of experiences, some of which at times, people may call trauma. The role of a trauma-informed TBD practitioner training facilitators and assistants isn’t to specifically treat trainee practitoners complex traumas but to appropriately provide and adapt their modalities and services while ensuring they don’t re-traumatise trainees.
This TBD practitioner training isn’t designed for trainee practitioners to use for resolving their own unresolved trauma. It’s facilitated somatically, with an emphasis on experiences, bodywork, practices, dance, movement, meditation, TBD and trainees exploring and embodying their erotic sense of self in a safe, respectful and healthy way. A central methodology used for trainee practitioners is to learn through giving and receiving the techniques and practices from other trainees, assistants and facilitators. A somatic participant-centered practitioner course involving giving and receiving TBD and other exercises as part of the core learning and methodology isn’t an effective environment in which to resolve personal trauma.
Anyone wanting to participate in the TBD practitioner training should first seek appropriate support for any complex trauma they may have experienced. It’s recommended only then to register for the training once they can self-care appropriately and create enough safety and agency for themselves, even when exposed to events that may have in the past triggered them into overwhelm.
The facilitators are, however, experienced in supporting people experiencing emotional trauma and overwhelm, and the participant-centred training emphasises embodiment and exploring how to self-care appropriately, as well as how to create safety and increase agency. Rest assured; trainees will be held in a supported environment should anything arise unexpectedly.