Summer 2018 Embrace E-Newsletter
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Embrace Quarterly E-Newsletter
Summer 2018
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Engaging the Body in Healing |
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This summer, Embrace is hosting weekly "Yoga in the Park" events in Shell Lake, Ladysmith and Phillips. These events are an outdoor, somatic intervention support group series held in each of Embrace's county service areas with trained yoga instructors from
5 Koshas Yoga & Wellness and
Om Sweet Om Yoga who specialize in trauma-sensitive yoga. The series are community-wide events that help break down the silence surrounding domestic and sexual violence and allow group attendees to reap the proven benefits of yoga including increased compassion towards others and healthier relationships. Other reported benefits of practicing yoga include better coping skills, increased emotional regulation, improved neurological and physical health outcomes, and healthier parenting practices. In August, Embrace advocates will also be trained by 5 Koshas Yoga & Wellness' certified yoga therapist, Mary Hilliker, in using yoga techniques with survivors to help them manage chronic high stress, anxiety, panic and aid in the recovery from trauma. In the training, staff will explore simple yoga techniques, such as postures, breathing exercises, awareness tools and short meditations, that are easy to teach and easy for survivors to learn. The session will incorporate lecture, practice and experiential exercises to help staff gain confidence in teaching survivors yoga techniques.
Trauma disrupts a survivor's ability to trust their gut feelings. This mistrust makes a survivor's mind and body misperceive threats when there are none. As a result, trauma survivors often have antagonistic relationships with their bodies.
Bessel van der Kolk, author of
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, notes, "Trauma [survivors] cannot recover until they become familiar with and befriend the sensations in their bodies. Being frightened means that you live in a body that is always on guard. Angry people live in angry bodies. The bodies of child abuse [survivors] are tense and defensive until they find a way to relax and feel safe. In order to change, people need to become aware of their sensations and the way that their bodies interact with the world around them. Physical self-awareness is the first step in releasing the tyranny of the past."
Specialized yoga programs, like Embrace's "Yoga in the Park" events, help people develop a physical self-awareness that aids them in overcoming the harmful effects of trauma and feelings of disconnect from one’s body which is common among survivors. The community connections made during the event also encourage survivors to reach out to others for support. The path to healing is paved with the continuous rebuilding of having agency over ourselves, befriending our bodies, and being in charge of our own body's experiences. As service providers, we need to integrate these physical aspects into a holistic, mind-body approach to fully support survivors in healing from trauma.
For more information about the upcoming "Yoga in the Park" sessions offered at no cost to attendees, check out the event listings on our
Facebook page.
Source:
GENDER & TRAUMA Somatic Interventions for Girls in Juvenile Justice: Implications for Policy and Practice
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Partnership to Provide Immediate, Onsite Access to Emergency Contraception
Immediate, free and confidential access to emergency contraception (also called Plan B) is now available onsite at Embrace's Rusk County Office thanks to the partnership with Rusk County Public Health's Reproductive Health and Family Planning Services Program. Access to emergency contraception and a non-judgemental, trained advocate are available 24/7 at the Embrace Rusk County Office for anyone in need. Together, Embrace and Public Health modified the access system to a trauma-informed approach that shifted the Plan B storage unit from the law enforcement center to Embrace's private office. This new process also eliminates in-the-moment phone calls to insurance carriers as well as a several hour delayed response to the person accessing the medication. Embrace is grateful to partner with Public Health to improve rural reproductive health care for survivors!
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Double Your Donation's Impact!
Every year, Embrace partners with Feed My People Food Bank as part of the Food for More Challenge. For every dollar you donate to Embrace between July 1st and August 11th, Feed My People will match with a pound of food for the shelter doubling the impact of your donation to Embrace! Donate online at embracewi.org or send a check to Embrace's office at 107 Lindoo Avenue East, Ladysmith, WI 54848. Please indicate "match donation" in the memo.
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Accepting Interns for Fall 2018
Are you interested in spending a semester interning with us? You’ll gain valuable, hands-on experience in a variety of areas. Even if you have already graduated, we encourage you to apply for any internship to gain experience!
"Going into my internship, I was worried because I had 0 experience with a non-profit, but as it went on I learned that I love it! I felt like what I was saying was actually getting heard and what I was doing was actually being appreciated! All of the staff at Embrace were genuinely nice and caring! I am so happy I had the opportunity to intern here!" - Brandy Carlsen, Embrace Intern
Click here to read the internship job description and apply >>
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Set Embrace As Your Amazon Smile Donation Recipient
Did you know you could be supporting rural survivors through every Amazon.com order you make?! Amazon will donate a portion of your order's sales to your set Amazon Smile recipient. All you have to do is set Embrace as YOUR Amazon Smile recipient before placing an order.
1.) Log into www.smile.amazon.com with your Amazon account information.
2.) Near the bottom of the webpage, in the search bar under the text, "Or pick your own charitable organization", enter
Embrace Services, Inc., and click the grey "Search" button to the right.
3.) In the results that appear, double check Embrace's location is listed as "Ladysmith WI" which is Embrace's main office and shelter location. Click the yellow "Select" button to the right to save Embrace as your recipient.
4.) When you shop at Amazon, make sure you start by going to www.smile.amazon.com to support Embrace with every purchase!
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History says, Don't hope
on this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
the longed for tidal wave
of justice can rise up,
and hope and history rhyme.
So hope for a great sea-change
on the far side of revenge.
Believe that a further shore
is reachable from here.
Believe in miracles
and cures and healing wells.
― Seamus Heaney,
"The Cure at Troy"
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