The Body After a Natural Disaster: Tending & Befriending our Trauma Responses

Our region has been impacted by a major disaster, understandably leaving us in states of shock, freeze or numbness, fright, anger, and overwhelm. These responses are normal given the impact and aftermath of Hurricane Helene: you are not alone in these experiences. 

Join us for an insightful event that explores how stress, trauma, and body awareness are interconnected in disaster recovery. We’ll dive into how the body responds to stress after a traumatic event like a hurricane. Drawing upon the work of Peter Levine, Bessel van der Kolk and somatic instinctual wisdom, we’ll uncover practical tools for managing traumatic experiences to restore balance. Learn to recognize your body’s distress signals, understand the mental-emotional impacts of disaster trauma, and discover strategies for reclaiming your peace and well-being.

This virtual event will occur via Zoom on December 5, from 6:00 – 7:00 pm. The event is free and open to everyone. Please RSVP via this link, if you would like to join via Zoom. You can also watch the event live on our YouTube page.

Patti Elledge is a trauma healing specialist who has served as a therapist and somatic mentor for thousands of individuals over the past 25+ years. Prior to that, she worked as a child development specialist serving infants, children, and families.  Patti trained directly with Somatic Experiencing faculty Peter Levine, Raja Selvam, and Kathy Kain and assisted more than 40 SE trainings.  Patti also served as faculty for Dr. Diane Poole Heller’s groundbreaking attachment training, DARe, for 9 years and then in 2020 launched her own 3-month online Somatic Mentoring.  She continues to teach, most recently participating in a weeklong event at Blue Spirit Costa Rica with Bessel van der Kolk and Dick Schwartz.  Patti weaves cutting-edge therapeutic strategies from the fields of somatic experiencing, attachment, interpersonal neurobiology, parts work, relational inquiry practices, deep ecology, and the felt sense of embodiment.  By utilizing attunement, presence, and the blending of these techniques, over-coupled survival energies (fight-flight-freeze) that appear so seemingly intractable with the essence of loving/bonding and attaching, can be shifted and healed.  By accessing all parts of our nervous system and moving out of dysregulated and early fear-based patterns we can embrace who we truly are meant to be and embody our True Essence in these amazing, evolving times.

Ariana Figueroa is a board-certified Health and Wellness Coach trained at Duke Integrative Medicine. As a Health Coach and Facilitator, she is dedicated to fostering a space where insight and meaningful change can flourish. Curiosity, cultural humility, and compassion are core values in how Ariana approaches her work. She has a background in motivational interviewing, positive psychology, herbalism studies, group coaching, individual coaching, and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Social Work at Western Carolina University.