About this site

The blog

I started Good Works in Trauma after a couple of pivotal meetings here in Missoula in May and June of 2009, especially a two-day seminar put together by the group Exploratory Beyond Trauma and featuring Bessel van der Kolk. We here at the National Native Children’s Trauma Center were surprised that the gathering drew about 300 people, because we had somewhat naively assumed we were the only ones working on this issue in western Montana. But I bet we were not alone in our surprise. These people came frome such disparate backgrounds and such a range of organizations that my guess is most of us labor on in isolation. The situation seemed to call for a networked solution, and this is the beginnings of that netwrok.

Serendipitously, van der Kolk invited me to his conference in Boston a few weeks later, and I heard a broad and lively series of presentations. This only bolstered my conclsuion that it takes a network to follow developments at national and even international centers on trauma and report back to anyone who cares to plug into our communty. So that’s what I am doing.

And by the way, the National Native Children’s Trauma Center here at the University of Montana pays the bills. We think it’s part of our research role to gain a broader understanding of the community of people working with trauma, simply because it enlivens and enlightens our work.

Self-care journal

Is a sidebar blog that is generated by our readers, and anyone reading this is invited to chime in. We’re looking for short accounts (500-800 words) detailing personal journeys in self-care or dealing with compassion fatigue. This feature is a result of our engaging this larger community. Simply, we found that the more we talked about self-care, the more it resonated. Just email me for details on submitting.

How to use the site

We post at least a couple of times a week, so simply bookmark us and check in when you feel like it. Or if you want to take advantage of our technology, simply register using the link at the bottom right-hand column of the page. This will allow you to get automatically-generated emails every time there’s a fresh post. Or you can go techier still by subscribing to an RSS feed, using the link on the right.

Rules on comments

You’ll notice the first time you post a comment, it doesn’t appear immediately. It goes to me for approval. Not that I am trying to limit discussion. Just the opposite, but the loathsome world of spammers sometimes use these comments to generate notice. Once I have approved you for that first comment, you’re on our “A” list, meaning all future comments appear immediately.

Contact

Richard Manning

National Native Children’s Trauma Center

The University of Montana

406-243-6249

richard.manning@umontana.edu