International Trauma-Healing Institute
A non profit organization dedicated to global trauma healing
ITI in Social Media
“The International Trauma-Healing Institute benefits individuals, communities, nations and the international community by bringing awareness to trauma as the root cause of suffering, conflict and violence, and offering empowering tools for trauma resolution, healing and peace.”
"Our vision, our mission to heal"
“Unresolved trauma is a fundamental obstacle to peace.
Resolved trauma brings peace and transformation.”
If healed, the millions of traumatized people will contribute to peace.
If untreated, they will provide ready recruits for the next conflict, violence, poverty, epidemic or war.
International Trauma-Healing Institute
A non profit organization dedicated to global trauma healing
OUR MISSION AND VISION
Trauma is a root cause of suffering,
conflict and violence.
Our goal is to develop healing tools, videos, articles, publications, and conferences to educate the public about trauma and its healing.
HELPING HEAL SOCIETY
We believe in reducing the role of individual and collective trauma on conflict, violence and war by healing trauma, building resiliency, and applying conflict resolution strategies at national and international levels.
OUR MISSION AND VISION
We offer specialized training programs for individuals, professionals, organizations and social sectors.
The Ross Model training includes EmotionAid® and Free from Conflict Protocol and sector-tailored programs.
THE ROSS MODEL
TAILORED PROGRAMS FOR ORGANIZATIONS AND SOCIAL SECTORS
Our programs provide evidence-based tools for healing and conflict resolution
The Ross Model
The Ross Model is the umbrella under which trainings in EmotionAid® and Conflict Resolution are delivered at national levels through the ten identified social sectors that interface with trauma, either causing it, healing it, or both.
EmotionAid® is a five-step process for self-regulation and emotional first aid.
Based on proven cutting edge methods such as Somatic Experiencing, EMDR, and the polyvagal and other tools, help you learn how to handle anxiety, stress and trauma, and prevent cumulative trauma and burnout
Free from Conflict Protocol Workshops are for anyone who desires to resolve conflicts, large or small, at the individual, family, community, national or international levels and be a great communicator.
These workshops offer a new paradigm to understand people and resolve conflicts successfully, and include EmotionAid®
* The ITI - Healing Institute also offers sessions and programs based on Somatic Experiencing TM led by Gina Ross.
We, as a society, the leaders and decision-makers, the diplomats, the peacemakers, the media and the public, need to recognize trauma and its impact and work towards its resolution if we are to have lasting and sustainable peace.
The millions of traumatized civilians and soldiers from previous and present wars, if healed, will contribute to peace.
If untreated, they will provide ready recruits for the next conflict, violence and war.
Our premise is that collective trauma is at the root of many violent conflicts. To diminish violence, build a foundation for peace and successful conflict resolution, we must first learn to identify and resolve individual and collective trauma in their early stages.
The pervasive trauma that wars, conflicts and displacements create destroys the ability of individuals, communities, groups and nations to function. Trauma deregulates people’s nervous system, affecting emotional, mental and behavioral functions. It also breeds irrational negative polarized thinking, leading to paranoia, erroneous interpretation and unreasonable demands, thus swoing the seeds for the next conflict and war. The traumatized behavior can be erraticand destructive toward the self and others.
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BEYOND
THE TRAUMA VORTEX
INTO
THE HEALING VORTEX
SERIES OF BOOKS FOR ALL RELEVANT SOCIAL SECTORS
This series informs about the costs and healing of trauma at the national level by directing tailor-made information to the 10 social sectors that we identify and interfaces with trauma.
They present how trauma manifests and how healing can be promoted in each sector.
BEYOND THE
TRAUMA VORTEX
DIPLOMATS, NGO'S, FIRST RESPONDERS
PSYCHOLOGY AND
EDUCATION
CLERGY
MEDICAL
FIELD
MILITARY
*Ebook Available
GENERAL PUBLIC
*Ebook Available
MEDIA
*Ebook complimentary for the media
A GUIDE FOR YOU
מדריך בשבילך
Hebrew
DO TRAUMA A CURA
Portuguese
TRANSFORMER LE TRAUMA EN FORCE VITALE
French
GLOBALLY ADDRESSING TRAUMA TOGETHER
MAKING TREMENDOUS CHANGES IN OUR WAY OF THINKING
While trauma engenders overwhelm, loss of control, despair, pessimism, cynicism, paralysis or acting out, its healing opens the door for optimism and hope and the desire and capacity for creative and constructive action.
Trauma is devastating and destructive.
Its healing is transformative for individuals and society.
THE MEDIA ARE THE EYES, EARS, AND VOICE
OF OUR COLLECTIVE BODY
Can the media help put trauma, its impact, resolution and transformation on the global agenda? Is it possible that if it is invited to help bring these changes about, the media would say no? Can it become aware of the impact of 24/7 instantaneous communication on the public? Are there changes it would have to undergo to do this?
As one journalist said:
“Many journalists enter the field as idealists, wanting to uncover what is wrong and help to better society. I know I did...but I see now that leaving the business because I did not feel good about what I was doing was not the answer. I want to reenter it in a position and with people who want to take a leadership role in helping better our society.”
As the media’s impact has expanded, its responsibility to fully incorporate the trauma and healing vortices' reality also expanded. We must be able to trust them and guide them to serve us well.
THE HIGH SOCIAL COST OF TRAUMA
Trauma is an everyday event, natural and widespread.
It can impact victims of “ordinary” events such as traffic accidents, falls, illnesses, sudden losses, and abuse as well as of “extraordinary” events such as natural disasters, violence, torture, terrorist attacks and war, labor camps and holocausts.
Most people exposed to traumatic events do not suffer from long-term emotional damage, while fifteen to twenty percent will develop PTSD, and a higher percentage will feel some traumatic effects on their lives. Events like the September 11 attacks, worldwide terror attacks, bio-chemical warfare, eco-terrorism, cyber- attacks, maritime warfare and pandemics, impact the world as a whole. The “global collective nervous system” becomes activated and on edge. Populations are on alert, feeling unsafe and helpless in the face of on-going unpredictability. Trauma directly impacts its victims, their
families, and friends. Additionally, cumulative stress from constant threats and 24/7 media coverage of tragedy make people vulnerable to secondhand trauma and impact the collective nervous system. Traumatic events may also awaken old traumas. Trauma’s effects are often not immediately apparent.
Traumatic reenactment (repetition) is one of the most dangerous and daunting aspects of trauma. It creates a downward spiral of traumatic symptoms, called metaphorically “the trauma vortex”, which gains a life of its own. The “trauma vortex” has a magnetic pull and is contagious.
When their trauma is not healed, people will likely continue to repeat or reenact their traumatic experience in some way or another. When whole nations have been traumatized, the implications are staggering.
Trauma is an everyday event, natural and widespread. It can impact victims of “ordinary” events such as traffic accidents, falls, illnesses, sudden losses, and abuse as well as of “extraordinary” events such as natural disasters, violence, torture, terrorist attacks and war, labor camps and holocausts. Most people exposed to traumatic events do not suffer from long-term emotional damage, while fifteen to twenty percent will develop PTSD, and a higher percentage will feel some traumatic effects on their lives.
Events like the September 11 attacks, worldwide terror attacks, bio-chemical warfare, eco-terrorism, cyber- attacks, maritime warfare and pandemics, impact the world as a whole. The “global collective nervous system” becomes activated and on edge. Populations are on alert, feeling unsafe and helpless in the face of on-going unpredictability.
Trauma directly impacts its victims, their families, and friends. Additionally, cumulative stress from constant threats and 24/7 media coverage of tragedies make people vulnerable to secondhand trauma and impact the collective nervous system. Traumatic events may also awaken old traumas. Trauma’s efects are often not immediately apparent. Traumatic reenactment (repetition) is one of the most dangerous and daunting aspects of trauma. It creates a downward spiral of traumatic symptoms, called metaphorically “the trauma vortex”.
THE COST OF UNRESOLVED TRAUMA TO SOCIETY IS INCALCULABLE
Trauma’s impact can be pervasive and destructive to individuals, families, communities and nations. It can cause physical and mental illness; learning disabilities; addictions; deviant or aggressive behavior; polarized belief systems; racial, ethnic and religious intolerance, and violence between individuals, in schools and communities, among groups and nations.
The “trauma vortex” has a magnetic pull and is contagious.
When their trauma is not healed, people will likely continue to repeat or
reenact their traumatic experience in some way or another.
When whole nations have been traumatized, the implications are staggering.
THE IMPORTANCE OF
INDIVIDUAL
TRAUMA HEALING
ADRESS AND RELEASE TRAUMA FOR BETTER LIVING
In times of high stress or threat, including the coronavirus Covid19 crisis and extreme political polarization, whether moved by fear, terror, anger or rage, our body natu- rally releases stress hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol, to prepare us to defend ourselves.
These hormones provide our bodies with powerful energy for action.
Several physiological changes occur muscles tense, heart and pulse beat faster, the breath gets shorter, quicker, etc..
If we can fight or -flee from the threat, the hormonal energy will be used up; the tense sensations will dissipate, and our body returns normal.
If we cannot fight or flee, we freeze; the energy from these hormones is not used up. If we do not discharge the freeze, it remains as excess stuck energy in our body and turns into traumatic symptoms: we become fearful, anxious, disoriented, or tense and rageful - painful but natural reactions.
The good news is that these feelings and sensations can be released on the spot
TRAUMA IS TREATABLE AND PREVENTABLE
Awareness of trauma’s impact and its effective treatment must become an underlying force/principle in society. We have an inherent capacity to heal. We just need to learn to harness this capacity and enlist our body, the healer, in the process.
Cutting-edge short-term techniques to treat trauma and release stress have been developed in the last decades. They help prevent trauma and develop resiliency. These techniques rely on mankind’s innate ability, which we call the “healing vortex”. With awareness, the healing vortex wins and is contagious. The metaphors “trauma vortex” and “healing vortex” have been coined by Dr. Peter Levine.
The mission of the International Trauma-Healing Institute is to develop models that focus on treating the general population and help “deactivate” the ‘collec- tive nervous system’. Deactivating the autonomic nervous system hyper-arousal allows people to restore balance and homeostasis. They can recuperate control over their physiology, emotions, thoughts, and behavior, and more easily return to their normal work and personal functioning.