I met a woman recently who described her escape from the Camp Fire on the Ridge a year ago and within just thirty seconds she was weeping.
She described trying to get her two 100 pound dogs in the car and losing her husband just prior to the fire as well. The trauma that this new friend of mine has experienced continues to wash over her almost a year later.
When I asked her if I could bring her to a workshop on trauma, she immediately said yes.
I didn’t even get a chance to fully describe what will be happening at the event. She knows she needs to work through more of this excruciating pain. It is so healthy that this woman is acknowledging her grief, pain and how overwhelmed she is with even the smallest of tasks.
Even if you weren’t directly impacted by the Camp Fire and you live here in Butte County, it’s possible that you could be suffering with lingering effects of the tragedy that we all lived through. It doesn’t make it any better that many of us watched video on the news of the fire over and over, seeing the destruction that happened, this all adds up in our minds and our hearts.
Are you or someone you know is experiencing any of the following:
- Continuing lingering effects since the fire last November?
- Difficulty sleeping without medication?
- Self-medicating with substances?
- Binge Netflix watching, overeating?
- Feeling depressed, anxious or getting triggered by certain stories or content on the news?
- Suffered trauma in the past?
Neighborhood Church will be hosting a free workshop called "Managing Trauma with Resilience" on November 2nd, at Neighborhood Church, from 9am-Noon.
This workshop will be taught by Len Matheson who has been a trauma counselor since 1971. Len mixes his knowledge of brain function, science and behavioral analysis to help us recognize the triggers that cause us to spiral emotionally. In this workshop, he will help us understand what is happening in our brain as a result of trauma and how to begin to reroute our thinking patterns to begin healing and charting a new course for our future.
Len is a Jesus follower who sees faith and science as compatible and his heart is to see people walk into healing, he is an author and a father who loves well. Len and his wife Mary usually sits in the third row on Sundays mornings.
Len will be joined by Emma Sakai, who was Emma Slankard before marrying the love of her life Matt. Emma grew up at Neighborhood Church and will talk about how you can help your kids through some of the feelings associated with trauma. 
Please consider inviting someone in your life who has experienced trauma, in the fires of 2018 or in other aspects of life, to attend.
We won’t be pushing Jesus onto people, so this a safe event for people with no faith background to attend. Even though this is a free workshop, we are asking people to register so that we know how many people will be attending.
I am looking forward to hearing what Len and Emma have to teach me about Managing Trauma with Resilience.
