It goes without saying that it takes courage to take an honest look at the state of the world right now.

When we choose to be present with the events that are taking place, both on a global and community level, we are met with a vivid picture of human suffering. Its effects on our relationships with each other and the planet we live on appear to have an unrelenting momentum that further feeds a collective sense of hopelessness and despair. In our own community here in Bend we have recently witnessed horrific acts of gun violence which represent the continuation of a frightening trend that has been escalating in this country during recent years. When an event like this occurs, it is a trauma that ripples out through our community, and through the rest of the world. It is a shared wound, which we all-too-often attempt to endure alone. If we are able to process and integrate these events together as a community, however, we can gradually begin to shift how the wound exists in our culture—we can begin to slow the momentum of fear, fragmentation, and aloneness that continues to perpetuate these terrible events.

For those who are called to begin to alleviate the effects that collective trauma has on us as a community and a culture, Broken Top Counseling is now offering a free Collective Trauma Integration Process (CTIP) group Tuesday evenings from 6 to 7:30pm.

 During this time, we will work through a four-stage integration process focused on establishing group coherence, drawing forth underlying activation, highlighting essential insights from the group, and facilitating group clearing and integration. Our intention is to nurture a greater sense of community support and to make a contribution to collective healing processes that are happening all around the world, which each constitute an essential element of global post-traumatic growth.