Returning to Ourselves: The Wisdom of Trauma<br />A 4-Day Online Retreat

Returning to Ourselves: The Wisdom of Trauma
A 4-Day Online Retreat

With Gabor Maté, Betsy Polatin, and Lorraine Taylor  •  July 16-19, 2020 • 9am-12pm PDT

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The event is SOLD OUT and registration is now closed. 

For many of us, the global crisis has reactivated old fears, depression, dissociation, feelings of isolation and numbness. We live in times of uncertainty that awaken old traumas and reactions in us. When we are under stress and feel challenged, we resort to old patterns of survival. 

Join Dr. Gabor Maté & Betsy Polatin for a 4-day Live, online retreat July 16–19, 2020 from 9am-12pm Pacific Time. In this unique workshop we will learn to:

  • Apply Dr Gabor Maté’s Compassionate Inquiry technique to access early traumatic event and uncover unconscious feeling states
  • Trace and uncover repressed emotional states through body awareness
  • Utilize meditation and breathing practices to generate calm and stability
  • Express what has until now remained unexpressed from early trauma
  • Cultivate self-acceptance and self-compassion, being with what is
  • Access implicit memory through body sensations and emotions
  • Cultivate patience, respect and choice in the healing process
  • Find a balanced stance in ourselves

Many turn to spirituality to alleviate pain and suffering. The internal discomfort of anger, sadness, fear, shame, or self-loathing is soothed by pleasant or blissful experiences encountered through meditation, yoga, chanting, prayer and connecting in community. Spiritual bypass occurs when we use our spiritual beliefs, practices, community and way of life to avoid experiencing, revealing and processing emotional pain. The original wound can remain unhealed, despite years of dedicated spiritual practice. We may even intensify our practice in a disciplined effort to suppress difficult emotions.

Spiritual bypassing can be addressed through compassionately guided self-inquiry supported by bodywork, which, together, invite pain, discomfort and repressed emotions to come to the surface to be experienced, witnessed and worked through in a safe, supportive setting. Acceptance, allowing, non-judgement, expression and self-compassion are the ingredients needed for resolution.

This moment of crisis and uncertainty provides a potent opportunity to recognize old trauma dynamics and create new ways to respond informed by trauma education.

Resources

Find a complete list of resources here

Why Attend?

  • to be introduced to the process of Compassionate Inquiry
  • to understand your own triggers and their origin
  • to recognize mental-emotional patterns and drivers, and how they limit your wholeness, choice and freedom
  • to bring healing and integration to traumatic events from the past
  • to participate in daily, live inquiry sessions with Dr. Gabor Maté

This program will feature Dr. Gabor Maté’s unique therapeutic work and teaching, Compassionate Inquiry, enhanced by movement and breathwork led by Betsy Polatin. We will explore emotional realities and traumatic imprints that spiritual modalities often ignore. It will be an in-depth program, suitable for therapists, spiritual seekers and anyone looking for a profound, experiential understanding of their traumatic imprint and the hidden beliefs that sustain it.

The teaching will be articulated in four main themes:

      1. Recognizing Trauma Dynamics
      2. Staying Grounded and Connected
      3. Expanding Compassion
      4. Developing Resilience 

Who is this online retreat for?

This will be an in-depth program, suitable for therapists, spiritual seekers and anyone looking for a profound, experiential understanding of their traumatic imprint and the hidden beliefs that sustain it.

Workshop structure: July 16–19, 9:00–12:00 PDT

This 4-day live, online retreat consists of one daily 3-hour session, from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM PDT. Gabor will be offering a mixture of didactic presentation and Q&A sessions with participants.The event is structured like a live retreat, and all participants are invited to participate live to all sessions on all days. 

Having a webcamera is strongly recommended. Gabor is asking participants to have their video turned on. Priority to questions will also be given to those that have their video enabled.

Sessions will take place through the Zoom platform. A link will be sent to participants upon registration.

Daily structure:

Betsy Polatin - Breath and Movement 9:00 – 9:10
Gabor Maté - Presentation and Q&A 9:10 – 10:35
Betsy Polatin - Breath and Movement 10:35 – 10:45
Break 10:45 – 11:00
Gabor Maté - Presentation and Q&A 11:00 – 11:50
Betsy Polatin - Breath and Movement 11:50 – 12:00

 

See this event in your time zone

Workshop container:
 

  • PLEASE NOTE that by participating in this live event and speaking with your camera on or off, you agree for your voice and image to be recorded and included in the video to be distributed to participants after the event.
  • Having a webcamera is strongly recommended. Gabor is asking participants to have their video turned on. Priority to questions will also be given to those that have their video enabled.
  • Confidentiality is an integral part to the container of this event. Please do not share any session content with anyone.
  • Questions by Gabor are to be considered an invitation to participate, and not a demand. If you don't feel like participating, you don't need to. Even if you have agreed to an exchange with Gabor, you can back out any time you want.
  • We encourage you to be open about any concern you may have, when it arises.
  • Questions are to be asked live, with video on, using the raise your hand button.
  • If something about the process disturbs you, don't talk to other retreat participants or to someone outside the course without talking to someone who can do something about it. Talking to other participants might bring release, but does not necessarily bring the change you can experience from the process.
  • For any technical questions, or any questions or comments about the container, please do not talk to Betsy or Gabor directly. Please talk to facilitators/organizers privately through the zoom platform chat window or by email.
  • If you have a question and feel uncomfortable sharing directly, you can write to facilitators and have your comments/questions answered anonymously.
  • Facilitators will moderate the chat window and alert Gabor/Betsy if anything needs attention.
  • We encourage you to use the chat feature to respond to and get involved with the process that is happening, and not for social chatting.

Currency

Prices are in United States Dollars.

Scholarships

The general scholarship application period for this event has ended. We have awarded over 600 partial and full scholarships already. If you missed this application window, we invite you to join our newsletter to know about these opportunities for future events.

Refund Policy

The registration fee for SAND’s online events is non-refundable*. Please note that your registration includes access to all recordings of the event, so any missed sessions may be watched at a later date.

*SAND will consider refund requests due to an extraordinary circumstance or emergency on a case by case basis. Please contact us at [email protected]

Continuing Education

12 CEs are available for an additional $40 via Cassidy Seminars. Purchase CEs here upon completion of this course.  All sessions must be attended live in their entirety in order to receive CEs.

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Compassionate Inquiry Handout (downloadable)

Click the "Watch Now" button to access handout (or download here).

There is no video, just a document. You must be logged in to access.

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Optional Pre-Event Tech Orientation

Jul 15, 2020 9:00am - 9:30am PDT

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Day 1: Recognizing Trauma Dynamics

Jul 16, 2020 9:00am - 12:00pm PDT

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Day 2: Staying Grounded and Connected

Jul 17, 2020 9:00am - 12:00pm PDT

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Day 3: Expanding Compassion

Jul 18, 2020 9:00am - 12:00pm PDT

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Day 4: Developing Resilience

Jul 19, 2020 9:00am - 12:00pm PDT

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Integration (September 12, 2020)

Sep 12, 2020 9:00am - 12:00pm PDT

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Lorraine Taylor: Yoga & the Nervous System

Sep 13, 2020 1:00pm PDT

A 30 minute sequence of gentle yoga asana to activate the parasympathetic nervous system helping to calm stress, release tension and bring healing. Its a simple sequence for all levels of flexibility with an attention on opening the heart and cultivating an attitude of kindness and compassion in each movement. When we learn to meet all that is arising in this moment with openness and curiosity, we can understand ourselves more deeply and discover who we are on all levels of our being from the physical and energetic to the emotional, mental, intuitive and beyond. Ultimately bringing a greater wisdom and acceptance to our lives. 

Duration: 30 minutes

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Lorraine Taylor: Yoga & The Vagus Nerve

Sep 13, 2020 2:00pm PDT

A 30 minute sequence of gentle yoga asana and pranayama to activate the vagus nerve and the parasympathetic nervous system. This helps to calm any stress or tension and bring healing to all the different levels of who we are. Its a simple sequence for all levels of flexibility with an attention on being kind and compassionate to the body and anything that is stirred up from within. We learn to meet all that is arising in this moment with an openness and curiosity to understand who we are.

Duration: 30 minutes

Gabor Maté

Gabor Maté M.D., C.M., is a Canadian physician (retired), public speaker and bestselling author, published internationally in multiple languages. His book on addiction, the award- winning In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction, is used as a text in many institutions of higher learning in Canada and the U.S. His most recent book, The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture, to be published in over 30 languages on five continents, has been and continues to be a #1 Canadian bestseller and, as of March 26 will been 18 weeks a New York Times bestseller.

After two decades as a family doctor and palliative care director, for twelve years Gabor worked in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside with patients challenged by hard-core drug addiction, mental illness and HIV, including at Vancouver Supervised Injection Site, North America’s first such facility. His other interests encompass childhood developmental issues, ADHD, mind/body health, trauma and parenting. He is in constant demand as a speaker internationally and has addressed judicial bodies in Canada, the U.S. and Australia on the links between trauma, addictions, and dysfunctional behaviors. He has worked with many Indigenous communities around these issues.

He has received an Outstanding Alumnus Award from Simon Fraser University and an Honorary Degree (Laws) from the University of Northern British Columbia. For his groundbreaking medical work and writings, he has been given the Order of Canada, and the Civic Merit award from his home city of Vancouver.

A film based on his work, The Wisdom of Trauma, has been viewed by over 10 million people internationally and has been translated into twenty languages. It is shown regularly in many institutions, including schools and prisons, in Canada, the U.S., and abroad. www.thewisdomoftrauma.com His therapeutic method, Compassionate Inquiry, has been, in the past three years, studied by over 3,000 health care providers in 80 countries.

Gabor is a speaker much in demand internationally on addiction, stress and mind/body health, child development, trauma, ADHD and other topics related to his five best-selling books. He has been featured on some of the most popular podcasts, such as Joe Rogan, Tim Ferris, Jay Shetty, and others.

His next book, co-written with his son Daniel, will be Hello Again: A Fresh Start for Adult Children and Their Parents, based on their popular workshop.

www.drgabormate.com 

Betsy Polatin

Betsy Polatin, MFA, SEP, an internationally recognized breathing/movement specialist and best-selling author, has been teaching for 45 years. Her unique and intuitive perspectives are greatly influenced by the study of movement, breath, and trauma, as well as the teachings of spiritual and meditation masters. She speaks at conferences around the world.

She’s had numerous articles published in the Huffington Post, and is the author of The Actor’s Secret and Humanual.

www.humanual.com

Lorraine Taylor

Lorraine Taylor is contributing some short gentle yoga asana and pranayama sequences to activate the vagus nerve and the parasympathetic nervous system. 

From a very young age, Lorraine was fascinated by the beauty of movement and music. Her childhood was spent exploring the body through gymnastics, ice skating and different styles of dance. In her early twenties, a strong calling to the path of Yoga became the catalyst for many deeper realisations in her life and she left everything behind to follow this call. She has now been a dedicated Yogini and lover of Truth for almost thirty years. She specialises in offering an insightful feminine way of practising Yoga, bringing forth her love of Tantra and Kashmir Shaivism.  She has also dedicated many years to the study of Jnana (Non Duality), Bhakti (Devotion) as well as Traditional Hatha Yoga which has led her to discover the depths of the Yogic practice, understanding the beauty of the fluid form while investigating the more subtle layers that exist within us. Ultimately pointing to what lies beyond which is the true meaning of Yoga. Oneness. She is currently very inspired by somatic based practices and trauma informed Yoga, recognising how important this work is right now in our current world. Her classes are a journey of who we are on every level from the physical to the beyond all shared with a healthy dose of humour and an open heart.

www.lorrainetayloryoga.com