Just as we reflect on how the Wildfires have come so close to some ISSTD members, and effected the very therapists who are usually there to support others in their trauma, some feel-good news surfaces. ISSTD Member Susan Pease Banitt, LCSW was contacted by a childhood friend, who is a Social Worker in California, who wanted to know if she could get some copies of Sue’s book: The Trauma Tool Kit: Healing PTSD From the Inside Out (Quest, 2012). Susan sent two boxes of 26 books down, one to her Social Worker friend and another to the National Association of Social Workers regional office in Chico, CA near the Paradise fire. She also asked her publisher, Quest Books if they could send an additional 100 copies because there were so many requests. Fortunately Quest Books agreed to do so! Susan has also managed to send free PDFs and Audible copies of The Trauma Tool Kit to any clinicians from the fire areas who are asking, and she will continue to do so for as long as is needed. In addition, on December 7, Susan was able to visit Chico for a day long trauma training for about 100 social workers dealing with the fires. Susan gave a presentation based on her book which included: trauma informed care, the stages of healing from trauma, working with people in the earliest stages of trauma shock and dissociation, the uses of energy techniques such as grounding and clearing in crisis work, self-care for the social worker who is both personally in crisis and helper, and mindfulness techniques among others. She offered a Reiki healing meditation to the group that was described as nurturing and helpful. Susan reported that this was an incredible experience, stating that, in a room full of Social Workers, “about 40 percent had been personally affected by the fires, as well as professionally affected. Yet they were so committed and attentive. It was really moving!”
