This programming is in collaboration with you, the learner, to co-create an experience grounded in reflection, curiosity, humility, and growth. This approach isn’t to provide final solutions but to start conversations, ask different questions, reframe what is “normal,” and navigate how this can look in your organization. It is important to me to mitigate any harm that marginalized and minoritized groups of people experience, recognizing that everyone has a role in moving toward equity.
This course includes two workshops and tools to introduce trauma-informed care and get deeper into how to navigate shifting power dynamics from a lens of liberatory power, as well as trauma-informed communication strategies based on Nisha’s Trauma-Informed Communication Framework. Attendance is not mandatory for both; however, we highly encourage learners to attend both sessions.
There are several trauma-informed reframes I introduce in my work, including moving from “What’s wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?” and “Expert” to “Enlightened witness”. One reframe that has resonated a lot with library workers is moving from “Power over” to “Power with”. Based on our conversation, we agreed focusing on “Power over” to “Power with”.
For this process to be successful, I ask that participants be accountable for their learning and integrate their learning outside of the training. This includes watching, incorporating tools, and reflecting on what came up for them to create a sustainable foundation that supports them after the program is complete.
Agenda:
Introduction
Grounding in Your Values
Building Relational Skills
Trauma, Safety, the Nervous System, and Power
Trauma-Informed Library Practices
Integration and Moving Forward
What's this course all about?
This course will provide you knowledge, tools, and practices to relate to trauma with the utmost care from a systemic and individual lens. It goes beyond teaching you to be merely trauma-informed in libraries but aims to support you to become a trauma-informed human being who leads from a place of care.
This self-paced course guides you through complex topics like trauma and power dynamics, allowing you to process them at your own pace, reducing the risk of retraumatization. It includes a care plan, somatic library, and check-in points for your to tend to yourself throughout the duration of the course, embodying the purpose of trauma-informed care.
Workshop 1
Trauma-informed Care: Examining Power Over vs. Power With
Identify trauma-informed reframes that resonate with your library role.
Examine how power over vs. power with.
HOMEWORK: Identify feelings and needs that come with shifting power dynamics.
Workshop 2
Feelings, Needs, and Trauma-Informed Communication Strategies
Discuss feelings and needs that apply to a professional situation.
Apply trauma-informed communication framework to a professional situation, keeping power dynamics in mind.
Facilitator Bio
Nisha Mody, MLIS, MA CCC-SLP (she/her) is a South Asian American Life coach, writer, and former librarian. She worked as a Health & Life Sciences Librarian, serving as liaison to the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and as the Associate Director of the Network of the National Library of Medicine, Pacific Southwest Region. Throughout her work, Nisha has consistently valued growth, relationship, and liberation, all of which led her to becoming a healing coach with a trauma-informed approach. She teaches and talks about imagining and incorporating trauma-informed practices in libraries and in our everyday lives, centering the ways systems of oppression and intergenerational trauma affect us deeply. Nisha coaches people individually and in groups, and you can find out more about her at www.nishaland.com.