Collective trauma
“Traumatic events that a bigger part of a population, a nation, or the world, goes through collectively…shared past that is, in a way, like the sand in the engine in how we respond to the current crisis.
I believe when we talk about collective trauma, we’re usually talking about the root causes that lead up to the current crises and the way we respond to a current crisis. They’re entangled.
When we look at a trauma there are two major sets of symptoms: One is hyperactivity, which comes with a tremendous amount of stress and reactivity, and the other one is numbness and indifference.”
Collective Healing
“The process works on the principle that individual or systemic coherence is the power to integrate the fragmentation of the system. And sometimes the system doesn’t have enough inner coherence.
So then we need to build this through group processes. And we need to supplement — just as a trauma therapist might do for a client — the missing element. We need an infusion of coherence into the group to integrate with the traumatization, which can lead to inner stability and structure, and help them develop a more fluid way to respond to the world.
We have had many groups that focused on the Second World War and the Holocaust legacy in Germany and Israel. And then we expanded the topics to include colonialism, gender traumatization, racism in the U.S., and others.”