Post Traumatic Growth after Sexual Abuse and Psychedelics

An online 4-week course supporting recovery, embodiment and wellbeing hosted by Dr Alana Roy and Melissa Warner with guest facilitators Kat Beilharz (voice) and Ana Urbibe (trauma informed embodiment) and Atira Tan.

This course is designed for victim-survivor-integrators of sexual trauma. However, professionals working closely in this space may benefit from the education and experiential components of this course.

Includes:

• 8 hours live sessions (including vocal singing lessons)
• Preparation, integration and self-care slides and workbook
• Trauma and plant medicine informed recorded yoga session
• Recorded future self-meditation
• Poetry booklet
• Trauma informed psychedelic playlist

Online dates

Week 1) Self knowledge  June 2nd 6.30pm-8.30pm

Week 2) Relational Healing  June 9th 6.30pm-8.30pm

Week 3) Visionary Self June 16th 6.30pm-8.30pm

Week 4) Embodiment June 23rd 6.30pm-8.30pm

Cost

Full fee: $400 

Concession: $250

Please note: Tickets can be used for another program credit if you cannot attend. 

Additional services:

• Individual therapy session with Alana or Melissa can be booked in additional to program contact alana@thesignsoflife.com.au

Course Outline

Dr Alana Roy and Melissa Warner have lived experience of sexual abuse, domestic violence and teach from their experience of post traumatic growth with the use of psychedelics.

“Let us join together as women, on a heroes journey, from a victim to a survivor, let us integrate so that we can become whole and reclaim our power” - Dr Alana Roy

Outcomes of the Healing Sexual Assault course:

• Knowledge: of both trauma processes as well as medicinal psychedelics and how they may support recovery
• Connection: to self, nature and community
• Awareness: of the body through interception, self-knowledge and change processes
• Embodiment: by creating safe boundaries physically and emotionally to welcome play in our life
• Grounding: in growth practices such as meditation, journaling, compassionate self-touch, movement and empowered voice

The course will cover the following topics

• Introduction to the impacts of sexual abuse
• The heroes journey: mindfulness, acceptance and reconnection
• Neuroscience and research overview
• Understanding your predictive processing. How psychedelics relax prior beliefs and support change
• The somatic sense: interception
• Exploring the "Felt Sense of Safety" after sexual abuse
• Broken boundaries and trust, loss of identity and returning to self
• Using the Expressive Arts Therapies Methodology to explore healthy boundaries and protection after sexual abuse.
• Dissociation, archetypes and multiplicity
• Developing awareness of dissociation, multiplicity of the psyche and authentic relating to all parts of us
• Harm reduction and risk mitigation
• Working with the body, sensation and, your monthly cycle
• Preparation for psychedelics
• Compassionate self-inquiry, intention setting and metacognition
• Transcendence: The acute psychedelic experience
• Gratitude, precautions and coming back
• Integration
• Interpretation, truth and story
• Play and expression
• Voice and somatic awareness
• Trauma informed embodiment practices

We acknowledge that gender and sexuality is dynamic and fluid. This course is designed for women who are comfortable being in a cis women's environment. We will weave in gender nuances however we acknowledge that a specific program which is more representative of the LGBTQIA+ community should be further developed.

About the Facilitators

Dr Alana Roy (Lani)
Ph. D Psychology, B. A Social Work (MHSW)

Dr Roy is Psychologist and Social Worker and Founder of The Signs of Life Psychology. She also provides a range of clinical and academic services at The Mind Medicine Institute. She is involved in emerging clinical trials and research projects in the area of MDMA, psilocybin and Ayahuasca. She also is the coordinator of the psychedelic and plant medicine mental health professional network supported by the Department of Health.

 Alana specialises in complex trauma, disabilities and dual diagnosis and working with the Deaf community by providing therapy in Auslan sign language.

She is a Board Approved Psychology and Social Work supervisor and works with a range of Australian universities as a sessional academic and provides field education and supervision services across a range of mental health services, including PRISM- Psychedelic Research in Science and Medicine in partnership with Melissa Warner.

She has over 15 years of experience working with at in suicide prevention and at various Rape Crisis Centre's and Sexual Assault Crisis Lines and has provided social work services on various human trafficking projects in Kamapthipura Mumbai and the Philippines.

Alana specialises in preparation and integration in the field of psychedelic and sexual abuse survivors, particularly with Ayahuasca and the vegetelista dieta process.

Alana is passionate about co-creating a psychedelic ecology which values connection, safety and integrity, integrating science and the sacred.

For more information about her personal journey towards healing and psychedelics please see blog below.

https://medium.com/@DrAlanaRoy...

Melissa Warner
B.Science (Neuroscience), Grad Dip (Psych)

Psychedelic Medicine Integration Coach, Mindfulness Meditation Teacher

Melissa is an advocate for innovative solutions for mental health and is on a mission to cultivate an evidence and experience-based understanding of consciousness.

Melissa is Secretary of Psychedelic Research in Science and Medicine, an academic consultant at The Mind Medicine Institute, co- founder of The Australian Psychedelic Society and a member of the UK Australian Young Leaders Forum.

After graduating in Neuroscience from the University of Melbourne, Melissa travelled to leading international center's of psychedelic research, transformative technology, meditation and somatic practices to help forecast next-generation mental health treatments. Currently, Melissa supports Australian psychedelic research trials at PRISM and is a post-graduate psychology student at The University of Melbourne.

Melissa is an experienced meditation guide, having studied within the Mahamudra lineage. She is passionate about the potential of mindfulness-based approaches to scaffold and accentuate psychedelic healing. As a preparation and integration coach, Melissa’s values the multiplicity of every individual and welcomes the whole person into every session. Melissa’s approach is informed by a scientific outlook, a transpersonal perspective, a positive psychology lens and grounded in somatic awareness.

Melissa seeks to create  spaces that nurtures the therapeutic, poetic, and eudaemonic capacities of the psyche. A believer in the healing power of creative practices. Melissa enjoys sharing practice, poetry, dance and painting with others.

Ana Uribe

Trauma Informed Embodiment Facilitator, Educator And Coach 

Ana is a senior yoga, meditation and certified Trauma Sensitive Yoga facilitator (TCTSY-F). She works as a trauma informed embodiment practitioner, educator and coach. Through her own experiences with trauma, adversity and the subsequent process of healing and integration, is committed to a practice that focuses on creating safe spaces for people to reclaim their bodies, innate wisdom and power. Her areas of expertise include mental health, trauma recovery and psychedelic and plant medicine integration.

Ana’s work has included facilitating roles within the prison system, youth homelessness, foster care and not-for-profit sectors, as well as universities and corporate environments. She regularly runs retreats, training and educational workshops on trauma informed approaches to support the wider community and professional development.

Ana offers a 10-week person-centered program that is based on a multi-dimensional approach and the creation of mutually respectful and supportive relationships. Her mission is to meet people where they are at, moment to moment, through engaging compassionate inquiry, somatic/embodied processes and the spaces between. The program welcomes individuals and groups.

Most recently, Ana developed a trauma informed program in collaboration with Victoria University. As the co-author and facilitator, she guided 300 students through the mindfulness program centered around mental health, wellbeing and trauma informed yoga over the course of 10 weeks.

Ana is currently completing a certification in Compassionate Inquiry® a Psychotherapeutic approach that was created by Dr. Gabor Mate. In her free time, Ana loves to go camping with her partner and dog. She thrives in community and enjoys chatting with her family in Colombia.

Atira Tan

A TEDx speaker, activist, somatic trauma specialist & educator, #1 Best Selling Author, and yoga teacher & group facilitator, Atira Tan, is a powerful agent of transformation and change.

She is the founding director of Art to Healing, an Australian charity that supports the trauma recovery of child sex slaves in Asia. She is a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, holds an M.A in Clinical Art Therapy, a B.A. in Fine Arts and Transpersonal Art Therapy and is currently a Ph.D. candidate at EGS in Switzerland. From the slums in Nepal to the Amazonian jungles in Peru, Atira has touched the lives of thousands of women, men, and children around the world, supporting them through her 19 years of experience in various somatic and creative trauma recovery approaches. Passionate about creating safer spaces for everybody, and bringing healing and awareness to the “shadowy” areas of life, Atira has worked as a trauma-informed integration specialist in retreat centers such as the Temple of the Way of Light and is currently the head of integration at AYA Healing Retreats.

Kat Beilharz
Naam Yoga Facilitator, Naam YTT 200 hours, Practitioner Transpersonal Group Voice Therapy, British Academy of Sound Healing, Yoga of the Voice Facilitator, Certificate Vox Mundi

Kat is a Ceremonial Musician and Sound Facilitator, working with sound and voice as tools for healing. Her journey with sound has roots in Naam Yoga; Shamanic Indigenous traditions of Peru and Ecuador; and a Western Transpersonal lens through the British Academy of Sound Therapy. The voice is Kat's spiritual and creative practice which she loves sharing with others and guiding people through the experience of reclaiming and opening their voice in all of life. She is one half of Yanahey who have shared Sound Meditation throughout the East Coast of Australia for the last 7 years.

In this series, Kat invites participants to use their voice as a tool for embodiment, self system regulation and creative expression. She will also explore the anatomy of the voice and how singing supports the healing journey of women.