Resiliency Within

Marc Straus will discuss his newly published memoir, One-Legged Mongoose, Secrets, Legacies and Coming of Age in 1950's New York The book documents two pivotal years of his childhood on Long Island, beginning with him being forced by his parents to leave public school and commute four hours a day to a Yeshiva in Queens. Marc Straus will share his unflinching look at child abuse in the home and his ability to rise above it, One-Legged Mongoose reminds us of the bonds between siblings, the power of family secrets, and the way we learn to protect ourselves by protecting each other. He chronicles the physical abuse at the hands of his mother and the eventful start of his adolescence—which included a battle with polio, a surgery-requiring eye-injury, and an almost-fatal hit-and-run—Straus explores the Anti-Semitism he encountered in public school, in the community at large, and even in the Boy Scouts. And it's the Scouts that lend the book its title—a nod to a campfire story about a half-man, half-mongoose that's almost the height of a full-grown man, and that Straus and the other boys of Troop 300 are tasked with locating. As Straus explains, "I was willing to face it. I know all about monsters."

MERIEL SCHINDLER will share her journey in writing The Lost Café Schindler as she recounts the history of an extraordinary family. The Lost Café Schindler is a story of tragic loss—several of Meriel's relatives disappeared in Terezín and Auschwitz—but also one of reclamation and reconciliation. Beautifully written, it is an unforgettable portrait of an era and a testament to the pull that family history has on future generations. She will share the narrative centering around the Café Schindler, the social hub of Innsbruck. Famous for its pastries, home-distilled liquors, live entertainment, and hospitality, the Café became an eyewitness to history. As conditions became untenable for Jews in Austria during the Nazi era, the Schindlers were forced to leave, and their café was expropriated. What had once been home to jazz and apple strudel was now a Nazi officers' drinking club. As she unravels her family history, including the truth behind what happened on Kristallnacht when the Nazis beat her grandfather and left him for dead, Meriel Schindler also tells the untold story of the fate of the Jews of western Austria. She reconstructs the color and vibrancy of life in pre-war Innsbruck against the majestic backdrop of the Austrian Alps, as well as the rise of antisemitism and the Nazi occupation.

November is National Native American Heritage Month, which pays tribute to the rich history and culture of the indigenous people of the Americas. In 2009, during President Barack H. Obama's first term in office, November became National Native American Heritage Month. Magdalena Sunshine Serrano is an Indigenous woman of Serrano, Apache, and Tarahumara descent and Julene A. Jose, is an Indigenous woman of the Tohono O'odham Nation who also serves on the Pasqua Yaqui Tribe. Magdalena and Julene will share their perspectives and their wisdom about healing, hope and empowerment in their communities. We can all learn from their collective wisdom. They both will also address how the Community Resiliency Model is congruent to their organic views of healing. Over the last decade the Trauma Resource Institute, our sponsor, has had the honor to learn about the true history of the Indigenous people who lived in these lands prior to the Europeans who settled in the Americas. The suffering has been great, and the maltreatment of Indigenous people has been a holocaust often not acknowledged. The strength and beauty of the diverse cultures and traditions of Indigenous people will be discussed as well as the strength that springs forth from their cultural traditions.

Building accessible interventions promoting mind and body health in rural America is possible. Research suggests that individuals living in rural areas are less likely than residents of urban areas to seek professional help for psychological distress for several reasons including stigma (both public and self-directed) and limited mental health literacy. Laurie Strand and Melissa Boley, both psychotherapists working in rural Idaho will share their insights and how they have managed through community coalitions to create accessible and affordable programs promoting wellbeing that can lead to greater mental health. They will talk about the strengths of their community and how they have integrated the Community Resiliency Model into the school system and other community organizations.

Karin Weiri will discuss her new book, Achieving Peace, Purpose and Prosperity. As a society we have built a myopic view of mental health blaming the majority on genetics and leaving out environmental, societal trauma and influence. She will discuss how powerful the mind is and how to access our full potential when we learn how to use simple, yet powerful tools. The role of stress is huge as is the way we are over fed and under nourished. Karin will share how we can balance the body again, including using nutritional supplements, to reset the nervous system. She has learned that you can now oversee your environment and how you want to respond instead of acting with a kneejerk reaction. With these skills, you can begin to create the reality you want to live in.

We are stuck in a pattern. Urgent headlines such as George Floyd's murder or the chaos of the Afghanistan withdrawal pulls our attention, demand our support but we consistently fail to achieve meaningful systematic change. All too often once the limelight fades on the "en vogue" issues of the moment, the issue is relegated to the special interest groups whose purpose was set up to keep on fighting for justice and reform. In the storytelling, those who are in-need is always positioned as the "other," the listener, the supporters are outsiders, the "fairy godmothers" who has the power to change the outcome. What if we told a different story? A story that showed us how we are all connected as outsiders, as the other, that alienations are actually our shared bond and our belonging? In another word, despite of our race, ethnicity, socio-economic class, we all have felt that sense of aloneness once upon a time. How would that affect the systems we design, the policies we write, and who is advocating for whom and for how long?

Many of us needed a break from the pandemic and the usual windstorms of life. We needed a respite: a journey reminding us of decency, kindness, compassion and folksy wisdom. Over the last two seasons of Ted Lasso, an AppleTV+ original, we have laughed, cried and been deeply touched by the lived experiences of Ted Lasso and his crew. Ted Lasso is about "an American football coach hired to manage a British soccer team. What he lacks in knowledge, he makes up for with optimism, determination...and biscuits." Ted is described as winning others over with his "decency" and "relentless optimism." But his decency and relentless optimism" is anchored in the characters own painful struggles and is displayed within the context of other characters' struggles with pain that often play out in revenge, greed, selfishness, and a general lack of care for others. Ted Lasso offers an example of what else could also be true in how we treat others with value and respect amidst our own pain and challenge. It also demonstrates that a compassionate and kindly stance can transform people and systems. Elaine Miller-Karas, the host of "Resiliency Within," will explore with Dr. Michael Sapp, the CEO of the Trauma Resource Institute, the themes of Ted Lasso and how relevant the character's journey is to many of us who have been betrayed, deceived, belittled, abused, traumatized, and ultimately transformed.

Drs. Grabbe and Duva will discuss how healthcare workers can care for themselves during the pandemic and through the experience of moral injury. Dr. Wendy Dean stated that "Moral injury occurs when health care providers are "repeatedly expected, in the course of providing care, to make choices that transgress their long-standing, deeply held commitment to healing." From June to September, Mental Health America polled more than 1,100 health care workers about COVID-19, finding that 93% reported stress, 86% anxiety, 77% frustration, 76% exhaustion and burnout, and 75% said they were overwhelmed. Healthcare workers have been asked to work in unimagined conditions, taking extra shifts, caring for more patients in intensive care units and asked to make ethical conditions about who is next in line for the next bed. They also often receive questions from individuals dying from COVID-19 who do not believe in the diagnosis and challenging their efforts to care for them. Many healthcare workers including nurses, respiratory therapists and more are leaving the profession they have loved and cherished because the toll has been too great on them personally and professionally and there is no end in sight.

Every Memory Deserves Respect is a book written with warmth and heart. It's about trauma, recovery, and a remarkable therapy called EMDR—Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. The authors, Michael Baldwin, a client who experienced transformative relief from trauma through EMDR therapy, and Dr. Deborah Korn, a leading expert on EMDR therapy, will discuss the circumstances that brought them together to write this book and the nature of their unique collaboration. Dr. Korn will provide an overview of how and why EMDR works and will share her thoughts on its strengths and range of applicability. Michael will talk about his therapeutic journey and about the many ways that EMDR therapy enabled him to heal and ultimately re-engage with life with renewed hope and clarity and a firm commitment to self-care.

After Michelle was diagnosed with cancer a second time and endured a challenging treatment year, she was lost - emotionally and physically. She took a job at her son's school and had to quit after 3 days due to the pain in her body. Cue major soul searching; she needed to do SOMETHING. Thankfully, Breast Friends of Oregon was literally one mile from her house and she went in to volunteer. At this support organization, she found a strong desire to give back and help other women, taking cancer and finding the silver linings out of it. Personally, she found that writing out her experiences brought her joy and now terms herself an "over-sharer." Nothing about her cancer journey is off limits if it will help others. Her goals are to finish a book about what she has learned from cancer and to shout it from the rooftops via written words, on any stage that will have her and also as the host of the Breast Friends Cancer Support Network podcast.