Trauma-Informed Mindfulness Practitioner

This is the second of three short videos that explain the important concept in of providing the person you are supporting with a sense of safety. There are five types of safety to consider.

This is the first of three short videos that explain the important concept in of providing the person you are supporting with a sense of safety. There are five types of safety to consider.

This is the first of two short videos that cover the fifth Characteristic of the TIM model which is 'Avoidance of Harm'. Trauma-informed and trauma-responsive approaches to health and social care as well as education and other organisational roles includes the very important component of not causing any further harm. In other words seeking to avoid re-traumatising someone through our practices, approaches, and attitudes.

This is the second of two short videos that cover the fifth Characteristic of the TIM model which is 'Avoidance of Harm'.

This is the last of three short videos that explain the important concept in of providing the person you are supporting with a sense of safety. There are five types of safety to consider. These are relational, environmental, process, culture and body.

Titration is a central concept in trauma-Informed Mindfulness. In this lecture you will learn the three levels of titration by proximity (environment, body, internal). You will also learn about titration of TIM practice by time.

This final lecture in Module two covers the concept of stabilisation. Traditionally trauma work involves three separate stages that occur in a linear fashion. In TIM, the flexibility to use these skills dynamically means that they are valuable both as tools for stabilisation and as a technique for integration.

Now that you have finished laying the foundations of TIM by studying the Characteristics, it is time to look at the practical aspects of working with TIM. In this lesson Nikki will introduce you to the seven Trauma-Informed Mindfulness Attitudes. Once you start using TIM, you will choose one Attitude to work on with the person you are supporting during each practice exercise.

The first two Attitudes in TIM are Being present, and Having hope.  When doing any exercise such as watching clouds, or feeling a sensation of a cold breeze, the mindfulness Attitude that is being practiced could be one of these first two options. Being present refers to being in a state of awareness of the present moment, without just being physically present but having your mind drifting elsewhere. Having hope can be difficult for people with depression or anxiety, and you may need to hold onto hope for them for a while. That is why having your own mindfulness practice is important, so that you can enjoy the benefits first hand. Knowing the benefits of TIM for yourself will help you to remain hopeful for whoever you are supporting.

Unfortunately many people struggle with being compassionate towards themselves, even when they are able to be compassionate towards others. Training ourselves to be compassionate and kind to ourselves can involve practice and consistency to see the benefits. Alongside practicing self-compassion, we need patience. None of these skills can be mastered overnight, and allowing ourselves to be a beginner, and to gradually work our way to being better and better at these practices takes patience. So Self-compassion and Patience are the first two Trauma-Informed Mindfulness Attitudes that are covered in this lesson. These are taught first, because the third Attitude of Being honest with ourselves can lead to self-criticism or judgment, which is something we want to train ourselves and whoever we are supporting away from.

With trauma, one of the main symptoms is avoidance. Avoidance of reminders, triggers and emotions related to the traumatic experience. Avoidance helps in the short term but can become problematic over time. Trauma-Informed Mindfulness is a toll to safely and gently face up to things that have been avoided, in order to heal and grow. However, facing things that are frightening or painful requires being courageous. This is the next of the TIM Attitudes covered in this lesson. This lesson also explains the Attitude of Accepting what is. Acceptance in mindfulness does not mean agreeing that it is okay. It means being realistic and not fooling ourselves that things are different than they really are. When we accept what is, then we can be more realistic about how we plan to  move forward.

Now that you have covered all of the Characteristics and Attitudes in the TIM model, this lesson introduces you to the third and final component which is the TIM Skills.

Being curious is the first TIM skill explained in this lesson. This reminds us of our childhood fascination with everything 'new'. We are encouraged to regain a 'beginners mind' and to approach things in life with curiosity and interest. Second is the skill of just Observing. We can observe using all five physical senses, without describing, judging, labelling or otherwise categorising our experience - just to experience it for what it is.

Three more TIM skills are introduced and explained in this lesson. These skills are Factual description - which means not using shortcuts, labels or evaluations such as 'good/bad'. Non-judgment is central to mindfulness practice and is a skill that is important to develop. Finally, non-resistance is the final skill in this lesson which relates to learning to be able to not fight against unwanted thoughts but to stay calm and simply redirect your attention elsewhere.

This lesson covers the last two of the seven TIM Skills which are Turning towards, and Letting go. Nikki explains how to support someone to practice these skills with TIM. In addition, this video covers the important matter of setting intentions. The practice of TIM is in three stages. The first is to set an intention using SMART goals so that it is really clear which Attitudes and Skills are being practiced. The second stage is the practice itself. The third stage is inquiry. This means that after practicing the Exercise, Attitude and Skill, a clear question specifically relating to how successful the person thinks they were is asked that relates directly to the intentions that were set for the practice exercise.

In order to use TIM systematically and to gauge accurately how someone is succeeding with their practice, we use the Subjective Units of Success scale. The SUS scale is a 0-10 self-scoring system whereby the person you are supporting can evaluate how successful they think they were at engaging in the exercise using the chosen Attitude and Skill. Once a numerical score has been provided, the next step is to decide together whether to titrate the next exercise to be easier or more difficult. Titration down or up can happen by Proximity and/or Time.

Now that you have completed the full Trauma-Informed Mindfulness Practitioner training course, this is an opportunity for a quick re-cap and summary. In addition to reviewing the course material, this video introduces you to the FREE TIM resources that you can download and print for your own use.

Nikki demonstrates the use of the TIM resources with someone who has chosen to do exercises at the Intermediate level - which is the second level of proximity titration - the body. In this video you will see how Nikki supports the person to choose which exercise she wants to do as well as which Attitude, which Skill and for the selected amount of Time. Nikki also shows you how to use the Subjective Units of Success measure to engage in inquiry about how successful the practice was. This assessment leads on to making choices about whether to titrate the next exercise up or down.

As a student of this course you are provided with a FREE downloadable set of resources for facilitating a Trauma-informed Mindfulness session. Please print the resources onto card or laminate them for longevity. Nikki provides a video demonstration of how to use your resources.