Tuesday, April 11, 2023
8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Breakfast & Lunch Provided

Session 1: “Trauma” is not a Dirty Word
This introductory session will define and explore the nature of trauma. Various kinds of trauma will be defined, including traumatic stress, vicarious trauma, and implicit trauma. We will delve into the systemic and individual dimensions of trauma challenging legal professionals.

Session 2: A Neuro-Somatic Snapshot of Trauma
This session will introduce participants to key scientific concepts that enliven our best and most current understanding of trauma to demystify the practical impacts this can have on legal professionals. Understanding some basic physiology will deepen participants’ understanding of trauma and what it means to be “trauma-informed”.

Session 3: How Trauma Shapes Personality: High and Low Achievers
In this session, we explore how trauma shapes personality in different ways and how this can impact justice professionals.

Session 4: Law and Trauma
This session intends to draw out the breadth and depth of the intersection between trauma and law in a practical sense. We invite participants to share their experiences with trauma in their professional lives and we will explore the hidden impacts workplace trauma exposure can have on our performance and commitment to our profession.

Wednesday, April 12, 2023
8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Breakfast & Lunch Provided

Session 5: What are the Benefits of Emotional Intelligence?
According to research published by the ABA, lawyers are 20% above average IQ and 15% below average EQ. We will unpack how this came to be, how it manifests in practice and what happens when you increase it. Practical examples will be provided of what happens when you have low EQ in the justice sector and how you can increase yours.

Session 6: Trauma and Triggers
This session will explore how trauma in all its forms leads to the formation of triggers which hijack the parts of the brain associated with higher-order cognition by the emotional centre. We will also explore some introductory neuroscience to help understand the supervenient relationship between trauma and triggers in a way tailored for justice professionals.

Session 7: Self Regulation & Co-Regulation
In this workshop, we combine the concepts shared in sessions 1 - 6 to explore how the uniquely mammalian capacities for self-regulation and co-regulation are the bedrock of emotional intelligence and can be harnessed to live a better life and also deactivate those in the throws of a trauma response.

Session 8: Biohacking your Nervous System for Performance
This session will elucidate how trauma and eudaimonia inhabit two ends of a continuum. Participants will explore how they can leverage their burgeoning understanding of trauma to improve their performance by bio-hacking their own autonomic nervous systems.

Thursday, April 13, 2023
8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Breakfast & Lunch Provided

Session 9 : Burnout / Compassion Fatigue / Vicarious Trauma
In this session, participants will dive into understanding this three-headed dragon terrorising many people in the justice sector. Practical tools for recovering from these three forms of trauma will be explored.

Session 10: Boundaries
This session excavates and uncovers the root cause of burnout, compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma: poorly set and maintained boundaries. We will define boundaries and explore how they can be set and maintained in healthy ways that benefit participants both personally and professionally.

Session 11: Where Did My Boundaries Come From?
Participants will have the opportunity to explore the three primary childhood levers that shape our adult boundaries. The insights gained here can support tectonic-level shifts in emotional intelligence.

Session 12: Trauma is Not a Death Sentence: Post-Traumatic Growth, Mindfulness & Abundant Thinking for Legal Professionals
Whatever it is that body and mind take on can be unlearned. We take the woo-woo out of mindfulness and so-called “abundant thinking” and present robust data on the ways that simple practices and changes in belief can reframe life to produce better outcomes. Moreover, we offer research in post-traumatic growth to identify how people change after metabolising trauma.

Friday, April 14, 2023
9:00am- 4:00pm
Breakfast & Lunch Provided

Trauma-Informed Practice Incubator
This day is an opportunity to work closely with Myrna and Dr. Dhall to discuss and create strategies for the implementation of trauma-informed and emotionally intelligent principles to create change in how we work with and connect to traumatised individuals.

This day is ideal for those who wish to drive and implement change and accountability in their organisation and practice.

This private, small group session is offered at an additional cost.