Trauma Coaching Change Makers - Meetup in the UK
It’s not often I have a chance to give a conference presentation at a venue that is as close to a castle as I’ve ever experienced! Hussein Alzribi, my RJS co-founder and refugee Subject Matter Expert and I gave a presentation at Hult University Ashridge’s Trauma-Conscious Coaching Conference. We presented our unique methodologies for coaching refugees, including the five refugee mindsets we have identified: 1) Victim Mentality, 2) Survival Mode Thinking, 3) Unempowered Mindset, 4) Identity Conflict, and 5)Distrust of Systems. We also identified a neuroscience model (SCARF) to explain why those mindsets can trigger threat response (Fight, Flight, or Freeze). Our interactive workshop allowed the coaches an opportunity to share coaching techniques, models and approaches that could help transform those negative mindsets to more empowering ones. They shared some great coaching tools that we will explore and build into a future training program for coaches working with refugees.
A highlight for me was the following day, June 14th, when we met with several of our UK coaches for RJS’s first in-person UK Regional Hub meeting. (Zoom meetings are fine, but there’s nothing that can compare to in-person meetings!) To have a chance to meet and get to know Sarah Crittenden, Evie Arnold, Fatima Adam, Sredeep Sarkar and Brenna Dorrance was truly inspiring. It reconfirmed how smart, committed, experienced, and passionate our RJS coaches are, which explains the significant impact we’re having on our refugee clients. Thanks to Srideep (Shree) who led us in exercises to better understand our own relation to our emotions and how that plays a part in our coaching. Evie led us in an engaging discussion that enhanced our cultural sensitivity and helped us find ways to live our RJS****values of Empowerment; Empathy and Compassion; Embracing Diversity and Inclusion; Collaboration; Cultural Sensitivity; Integrity and Fairness and Global Learning Community. Just by being together and discussing these issues, I felt we were living our values—and having fun all the while!
Finally, while in London, I attended the global premier in London of a new musical a dear friend of mine wrote, Martin Storrow, called “King of Pangea”. This soul-stirring folk musical is a celebration of the extraordinary power of hope after a great loss. There were many strong parallels to the refugee journey –of painful loss and then hope. Listen to Martin singing a stirring version of one of the songs in his musical, “ A Refugee’s Prayer” which he performed to accompany a video we created for World Refugee Day in 2022.
I know I speak for all our RJS coaches, mentors, and staff when I say we feel privileged to be part of the refugee journey that helps individuals turn the corner of loss, to once again experience hope.