VIRTUAL SESSIONS

As noted above, while many facilitators and participants began by moving from being trauma-reactive to becoming trauma-informed, the overall initiative had evolved from being trauma-informed to being trauma-reducing and purposefully healing-centered.

The permission and encouragement to engage in artistic self-care were potent aspects of the online sessions. Facilitators and participants took away various exercises that offered them outlets for creative expression – from simple movement and breathing techniques to meditative drawing exercises.

With increased programming, the planning team deepened its bench strength and added new clinicians and different master teaching artists. And while the core presentations and structure of the curriculum remained the same, presentations were tweaked, adapted, and revised to include up-to-the-minute examples of trauma and harm from the current healthcare and public safety crises, as well as stories of mitigating trauma and building resilience. The different facilitators were usually able to stay for an entire session and could get to know participants as well as make deeper connections with the lessons and activities of other facilitators.

As Zoom functions improved, teaching artists such as Sheikia “Purple Haze” Norris, Rachel Alban, and Alysia Souder were able to play with the ways that people turned their cameras on and off and how they connected visually “across” the tiles on the screen; they had participants mute and unmute for call and response, and they used the chat function to allow “quieter” people to interact. In addition, functions such as jam boards and small group breakout rooms allowed for more individual expression and intimate conversations about specific topics of interest and reinforced the sense of community.

“Sadly, with the transition to online, we lost dance! But we did add new teaching artists and certainly included movement.” (Lauren

Meehan)

While the clinicians had to drastically condense their presentations to fit the time slots, the intensity of the content – both in terms of the amount and the complexity of the scientific research and concepts – was well-suited to online PowerPoint presentations. Everyone could hear and see the material and the material was easily shared as a resource for future viewing.