Keynote - Overwhelmed? You are not alone! What's going on?
Speaker
-
Berns Galloway
Berns currently works as a psychotherapist (since 1995 after graduating with an MEd from the University of Victoria)) and Somatic Experiencing trainer (since 2008), facilitating Somatic Experiencing trainings around the world. His first professional work was as a Special Education teacher in New Brunswick (his home province) after graduating from Dalhousie University (1989) and Acadia University (1980). Moving to Yellowknife in 1984 (for one year which lead to seven) supported gaining many years’ experience as an elementary classroom teacher and engaging with all that that involves (and more). Living in ‘the north’ was a unique and rich experience. Pursuing his own personal development work then lead to a move away from working with kids to working with adults in a more intimate context. As a somatically oriented practitioner and trainer, Berns now supports people who work with others to orient to what is working (amidst all that is not) as a way to renegotiate overwhelming experiences and achieve better health and well-being.
It Has Been a Long Three Years…and Here We Are!
For better or worse, we are social animals. Our well-being depends on the quality of the contact. We share a home environment; a work environment. We are impacted as we encounter others; we have influence over each other simply by being near (and simply by existing), let alone interacting. From a biological/physiological/historical perspective, we have a nervous system which very heavily influences our experience of ourselves and of others. We “ping” off each other. As you interact with students, colleagues, parents and others involved in the educational process, your nervous system can often be more in control of what you experience then you are – which means we can be disconnected from this process and not have the kind of control (and result) we would prefer.
As a therapist and educator specializing in supporting people to find more ease and ‘regulation’ in their lives, I want to share with you some information about how I understand overwhelm, how the body participates in the response to being overwhelmed, and what we can do to shift this experience. I work with people dealing with trauma. I am going to talk about how to be more “self-informed” and “other aware”, which could support you to be more attuned and responsive, less reactive and more effective. I will share a bit of the science about how all this works and how it relates to our everyday lives. And possibly we will discover something that will make a difference.
Target Audience
Any