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Glenda Z. Villamarín, MA, LCP, is a clinical psychologist, Brainspotting Trainer , and PhD candidate whose work gently weaves together neuroscience, ancestral wisdom, and cultural reflection to support individual and collective healing.  She is the author of Cultural Critique and Psychology: Attachment Theory in Ecuador and co-author of Tunkawan: The Path of Wisdom—an invitation to walk with reverence through ancestral teachings and inner transformation.

This episode will take the curious, erudite and noetic listener on quite a journey.   Glenda brings a balanced measure of great experience with a touching, gentle humility.  In doing so she covers here one of the most powerful insights into how ancestral healing and Andean medicine integrate such respect for the wisdom of the plants and the planet, in human healing.  She goes well beyond many modern misconceptions of indigenous knowledge to identify the importance of epistemology in the framing of, and engaging in, the field of healing.  An incredible example of how the Andean indigenous people understand the master plant, tobacco, gives a fascinating developmental insight into the integrative and spiritual power of such plants through ritual and ceremony.  This is incredible when one extrapolates it's meaning to our relationships with other plants too and the life force on which we depend.  In addition, the flow of this conversation leaves the listener with an unmistakable insight into the power of humility in taking a well educated yet non-expert position of uncertainty, when this is applied to attuned investigation, curiosity and spiritual awareness.  

For more information on Glenda’s work go to:

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Website: www.serendipitaecuador.org    

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Una Archer is the founder of Help Your Child Thrive, where she supports parents using an attachment- and trauma-informed approach. “Attachment" can feel like an abstract and complex concept, and she’s passionate about making it accessible, turning theory and research into simple, everyday steps that help parents feel more confident and connected with their children. 

In this episode, you can hear Una describe her attuned approach in establishing a framework with the child and family in a deep and respectful way.  The listener will get an insight into the connection and patience that is so helpful in building trust and attachment bonds with the therapist, and the foundations for trauma work.  It is really an essential learning point to hear how Una holds the power of 'uncertainty' in order to drop any predetermined agenda and cerate the space to really open up to the experience of her people, thus empowering them.  This approach facilitates deeper healing of attachment wounds, intergenerational healing and most importantly, scaffolds the bonds and behaviours that can maximise the love moving within each family system.  

For more information about Una’s work, go to:

https://www.helpyourchildthrive.co.uk/

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https://bspuk.co.uk/trainings-and-events/

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This short episode is an important message in our time.  It is taken from a recent production that is core to his trainings, writing and healing retreats. Mark speaks from the heart about the essence of healing and in this brief snapshot,  covers key concepts that have been subjugated and marginalised in so much therapy and healing work.  Through this narration, we can remind ourselves of the relationship between the person and the psyche, the importance of ritual and ceremony, the power of the collective or the tribe, and the power of meeting our pain within and well beyond psychology.  

This piece then invites listeners and seekers to explore the retreat opportunity, Brainspotting: From Source.   Mark will co-host this alongside esteemed trainer Dr Roby Ables and the remarkable musician, yoga teacher and sound healing trainer, Siobhan Swider.  

It is time to receive...  join us

Brainspotting: From Source

 A Shared, Unifying Journey

May 13 - 18, 2025

Banff, Alberta Canada

https://www.cpimt.ca/

For more information on Brainspotting and to train with Dr Mark Grixti go to:

https://bspuk.co.uk/trainings-and-events/

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Welcome to a captivating special edition of the Awe in Trauma podcast!
In this episode, fittingly titled "Question Mark," we unlock powerful insights through a thought-provoking Q&A session with leading experts. As breakthroughs in neurobiology, neuropsychology, spirituality, and healing reshape our understanding of trauma and human suffering, the need for a fresh, holistic framework has never been greater.

Contributors in this episode include top professionals (links below) from the fields of psychotherapy, psychology, and bodywork. We’re excited to feature a special guest appearance by regular Awe in Trauma contributor and Brainspotting founder, Dr. David Grand.

Join us as we explore emerging concepts brimming with hope, innovation, and the promise of transformation. Tune in to discover new possibilities that blend historic and ancestral wisdom with fresh approaches to healing and growth. 

We can’t wait to share this journey with you!

Links to episode contributors:
David Grand    https://brainspotting.com
Alessia Bruno  https://eng.performaceexpansion.com
Cynthia Swartzberg  https://cynthasis.com/
Eppie Wells  https://eppiewellscounselling.co.uk/
Malachy Coleman https://www.malachycoleman.com/en/home/
Una Archer  https://www.helpyourchildthrive.co.uk/

For more information on Brainspotting and to train with Dr Mark Grixti go to:

https://bspuk.co.uk/trainings-and-events/

https://www.facebook.com/brainspottinguk

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/awe-in-trauma/id1580294433?i=1000543054793

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Dr. Adam O'Brien is an Approved Brainspotting Consultant and special topics trainer. He is a specialist in trauma, dissociation, addiction, recovery, and trauma or memory resolution. His passion is educating on healing through Addiction as Dissociation Model and research, helping others walk the Path of the Wounded Healer, Recovery research, advocating for psychedelic medicine and psychedelic research, and freeing the hearts and minds of audiences by activating states of healing together with his Addiction Re-Educational Program at the Wounded Healers Institute.

This powerful episode takes the listener through a journey into the power of history and insight into developing a relationship with parts of oneself that may be hidden away and dissociated off through trauma and overwhelm.  Adam takes us through his fascinating doctoral research into the multidimensional nature of the human experience, spirit and soul as well as the incredible impact of drug use on the body, the psyche and the personality.  Within a culture of dissociation and isolation, Adam sets out the importance of a fresh and revolutionary approach which serves to honour the connectivity of all things across time and space, so that we can access the abundance of this planet to reconnect with our pasts and our many modalities of experiencing the world, thus facilitating powerful processing and integration to safely transcend and to heal.

For more information on Dr Adam O'Brien's work go to:
woundedhealersinstitute.org

For more information on Brainspotting and to train with Dr Mark Grixti go to:

https://bspuk.co.uk/trainings-and-events/

https://www.facebook.com/brainspottinguk

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A fascinating episode with Hamaima who is a Shamanic Practitioner, Musician, Sound Healer and New Earth Guide with many years of experience in holding space for ceremonies and retreats world wide. In her work she combines ancient practices from different spiritual traditions to guide and empower. 

In this episode Hamiama approaches healing from ma both a more traditional approach through her earlier years in Social Work to her more recent developments in working with indigenous tribes, plant medicine, and her project named “Mission on Earth”.   The listener will get some insight into what it means to engage in a dieta and work with tribes with their ancient and sacred approaches to healing.  Here you’ll see the power of the tribe in human wellness which raises interesting questions as to the way that western civilisation now perceives community and the impact that this can have on health and happiness.  Hamaima is open and expressive in framing how her losses and suffering became vehicles for change and how she has worked for many years to process this and to explore alternative ways to heal, work and relate.  In the final section of the podcast, we hear of her new project and how she hopes to support children and their families from the position that the new generation are highly spiritual and celestial beings that may not fully resonate with more traditional ways of doing things.  Yet some of the traditional values of love, support, acceptance, diversity and respect are central to facilitating child development and wellness, which she is keen to support in her approaches to deep healing.

More information about Hamaima's work please go to https://hamaima.com

For more information on Brainspotting and to train with Dr Mark Grixti go to:

https://bspuk.co.uk/trainings-and-events/

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Dr Melanie Young is a licensed psychologist with a private practice in Boulder, Colorado.   Melanie is a senior Brainspotting (BSP) trainer, consultant and certified Brainspotting therapist.  She assists individuals and couples with relationships, losses, and grief. Melanie helps navigate the challenges around brain injuries, ADD, pain, illness, and phobias. Specialties also include working with seniors, their families, and caregivers. She uses BSP as a tool to help heal trauma, increase effective coping strategies, strengthen internal resources, and enhance performance.
This wonderful episode takes the listener behind the scenes of what it's like to be a therapist/healer.  Melanie calls upon her wealth of personal experience as a Licenced Psychologist, as well as from those of a plethora of healers to explore the levels of protection that they utilise in working with so much pain and trauma.  We hear about how the healer can experience a range of symptoms that can result in burn-out, or compassion fatigue,  compromising their ability to thrive, work and be there for their people.  Whether you are supporting others in a formal psychiatric setting, a health institution or in the community, this episode provides insightful thoughts and practical ideas to be able to develop your own range of rituals and ceremonies to stay well in a demanding environment. Let the healers be healed.

For more information on Melanie's work go to:
https://melanieyoungpsyd.com/

For more information on Brainspotting and to train with Dr Mark Grixti go to:

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This final section of the mini-series is short in length but deep in importance.  Damir explains how societal changes globally  illustrates to the brain-wise observer how our systems of perception are products of our implicit systems of prediction.  These come from our memory systems and a lifetime of experiences.  In other words, believing is perceiving. 

Extraneous events unfolding in the world continue to display how there are those that can tolerate and integrate new information that may clash with the internal models of experience and perception.  Otherwise, there are those that assume a more dogmatic position when new experiences challenge these dogmatic models of the world.  The resources to adapt and create new models is compromised resulting in extreme, divisive and dominating reactions.    This is a place whereby we see the amplification of bifurcation, the sophistication of nuance is lost and diversity is compromised.  The powerful 'elite', with the mouthpiece of the legacy media and big tech can then colonise* your brains, dominate your perception and infiltrate your reality.

*Colonisation = Claiming that something is an empty space, then the colonisers fill it with their values (Vandana Shiva).

For more information on Damir's work go to: https://www.damirdelmonte.com/

For more information on Brainspotting and to train with Dr Mark Grixti go to:

https://bspuk.co.uk/trainings-and-events/

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In part 2 of this mini-series Damir explains the multi-dimensional functionality of the brain and the essential understanding that it's HOW we attend that completely changes what comes into manifestation.  We take a moment to understand the gravity of this idea as arbiters of the reality within which we reside.  From this position Damir describes how early and abusive experiences can drastically shape how a person's brain is sculpted and how this can impact on their relationship with all things.  Various types of sensory gating are explored and a recognition of the importance of safe touch in healing past wounds to be reunited with the one's own body.  There is so much hope that with the correct support and body based therapy such as Brainspotting, healing can happen through the immense neuroplasticity of the brain .  

For more information on Damir's work go to: https://www.damirdelmonte.com/

For more information on Brainspotting and to train with Dr Mark Grixti go to:

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In part 1 of this 3 part mini-series, (double doctor in the brain) Dr Damir Delmonte illustrates to us how to position our understanding of the brain in this phenomenally beautiful exploration of how and who we think we are.  Damir sets the frame for this 3 part series though attending to the levels of consciousness, subjective qualia, the pathways of the polyvagal process, and all in an evolutionary context of 700 million years.  This episode is a beautifully humble and incredibly insightful understanding of the immensity of our being and our interrelationship with all things.  

For more information on Damir's work go to: https://www.damirdelmonte.com/

For more information on Brainspotting and to train with Dr Mark Grixti go to:

https://bspuk.co.uk/trainings-and-events/

https://www.facebook.com/brainspottinguk

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/awe-in-trauma/id1580294433?i=1000543054793

https://twitter.com/BrainspottingUK

https://www.instagram.com/brainspotting_uk/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-wfQEAwQX3qr36zkhh9J0g