Psychological Trauma and Listening with the Heart

Participants are invited to bring one or two portraits (photographs, paintings, sketches, or newspaper clippings) that speak to them, as well as a notebook and pen for personal reflection. Experiencing the relationship between image and affect leads to thought, curiosity, and action. This insight will serve as starting point for an in-depth exploration of collective trauma and the paradigm of purposeful action for dealing with trauma. Developing a capacity for curiosity and mutuality (an I-Thou relationship) is not only central for the treatment of psychological trauma but also serves as an antidote to the ills and sclerosis of a fundamentalist mindset, which is the source of much human suffering.