Keynote
Healing Ourselves, Healing Our World: Spirituality and trauma recovery
Patricia Mathes Cane, Ph.D.
Every year around the world, countless people are subjected to trauma resulting from political and domestic violence, natural disasters, genocide, poverty and HIV/AIDS. In response to this trauma, Dr. Cane and her colleagues at Capacitar, Inc., have adapted energy-based wellness practices and taught them in culturally sensitive ways to professionals and grassroots people to promote individual and communal healing. Working in the most traumatized communities in the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East, they follow a “cascading” training model in which people who have few resources and little access to medical or psychological care can learn skills for dealing with trauma and the ongoing stresses and challenges of life, and in turn bring these skills to their wider communities.
Dr. Cane's keynote presentation will provide background about Capacitar's trauma healing work in the US and in other countries. It will also include history and stories, the theory on which their work is based, summaries of research and outcomes measurement, and reflections on what they have learned about the empowerment and resilience of grassroots people. The keynote will also offer training in several of the skills and wellness practices that are central to their healing work.