Presentations and Workshops

• Review of OVA's advocacy and trauma-specific counseling services for students, staff and faculty
• How can OVA support you and how to refer people to OVA
• Approximate time: 20 minutes
• Prefer to provide this with a version of the Supporting Survivors presentation

Traumatic experiences happen every day and the CU Boulder community is not exempt. After a traumatic experience, usually friends, mentors, family, and sometimes faculty/advisors are the first to be told about these experiences. How one responds matters as it can impact healing, as well as whether the survivors will seek additional support. This session will focus on:

• The positive impacts of trauma-informed support and how it can help a survivor heal
• General information on the impact of traumatic events (for more in-depth on this point see other presentation on Neurobiology of Trauma)
• Skills that address how to respond to someone after they share about a traumatic or life disrupting event (grow skills in how to be trauma-informed in our responses )
• A section can be added on trauma informed mandatory reporting for "responsible employees" (those required to reports sexual misconduct, discrimination and protected class harassment)
• Approximate time: 60 minutes, depending on whether practice scenarios and mandatory reporting are included. 45 minutes at minimum is preferable.
• If you have a CU IdentiKey, you may also take a version of the course online at your convenience through Percipio (approximately 30-40 minutes).

• Information on what people may experience physically, emotionally and cognitively in the aftermath of a traumatic event
• How the brain and body respond to traumatic experiences, neurobiology of traumatic events
• Healing and recovery stage
• Presentation geared towards people already involved in a helping role or for a class discussing trauma
• Approximate time: 75 minutes

This session will focus on learning more about vicarious trauma, compassion satisfaction vs.fatigue, burnout, and self-care. Explore  barriers to caring for ourselves and how to look at new ways that can be accessible to everyone.  As Audre Lorde says, “caring for my self is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation and that is an act of political warfare.”

• Learn about vicarious trauma, compassion satisfaction vs. fatigue, and burnout. (the impact of helping others)
• Learn the difference between coping and self-care.
• Explore barriers to self-care and attend to our needs in a new ways. (re-framing self-care)
• Add to your self-care toolbox.
• Presentation geared toward students, staff, and faculty who work in fields/roles that can have vicarious trauma (hearing about other people's traumatic experiences)
• Approximate time: 60 minutes

This presentations provides psychoeducation on intimate partner abuse (IPA), with an emphasis on increasing awareness and understanding of domestic violence, exploring its psychological impact, and empowering both survivors and secondary victims (those who support people with abusive partners) with knowledge of their rights, options, and resources. This presentation will cover:

• Understanding IPA (definitions, different forms of abuse, the impact it can cause)
• Healthy, unhealthy, and abusive behaviors in a relationship
• Defining healthy boundaries
• How to help a friend: safety planning, support, and the healing process
• Approximate time: 60-75 minutes

This presentation provides an introduction into how repeated discriminatory experiences can produce a traumatic response. Participants will learn how oppression can impact people’s stress responses and neurobiological development, and how to work effectively with people who have experienced oppressive trauma. . Additionally, this presentation also addresses the personal and community impacts of working within social justice, and how to care for oneself and one's community. The presentation will focus on:

• The overlap between oppression and trauma.
• Gain an introductory understanding of how chronic oppression can impact people’s stress responses.
• The differences between the intent of our actions and the impact of oppression.
• Identify the various impacts of oppression.
• Learn about the Professional Quality of Life model and how it can help helpers monitor their satisfaction and prompt self care.
• Identify how we can use the three types of self-care across time.
  • Upon request, this can be added, but would need more time: Identifying means of being accountable for our (mis)actions and making repairs.
• Approximate time: 60 minutes.

• These circumstances may be difficult for some and not for others, and we all have various ways of navigating grief and loss.
• If anyone affiliated with the University would like to have a time for people to gather and hear about campus and community resources as well as self-care, OVA staff, in partnership with either Counseling and Psychiatric Services (CAPS) and/or Faculty Staff and Assistance (FSAP), can facilitate or be present for these group resourcing sessions.
  • These sessions are not to debrief the loss and are also not group counseling sessions. The goal is to discuss the various responses and impacts of loss and or traumatic events, learn about resources, and talk about self-care.
  • Other staff and faculty may also lead this types of check in sessions post loss or disaster, learn more here: www.colorado.edu/ova/guidance-supporting-groups-after-traumatic-event