The Jigsaw Puzzle of Trauma and Healing: Karin Spitfire

Open Forum/Q&A
In English

The experience of trauma affects everything. Over the last 45 years, I have worked with the effects of trauma from a somatic point of view. Healing from trauma is non-linear, multi-dimensional. We can’t leave out the soul, the political context, the relational, the big feelings, the shame, or the generational. But everything is connected to everything; no matter where we begin, we get somewhere, and the next move/issue will show itself. 

In this session, I invite you to raise questions about all of it: from where to start, how to listen, nervous system reversals, grounding, soul retrieval, polyvagal theory, mental health diagnosis, inner child work, symptoms management, addiction, co-dependency, re-enactment, triggers, how to separate the cranial rhythm from the breath, integrity, self-disclosure, when to push, when to hold, etc. 

The goal is to enable our folks to put the jigsaw puzzle back together (there will be missing pieces) and to become as liberated as possible from the compounding impacts of trauma on them, their expression, their people and their communities.

Related resources:

• Watch a conversation between Karin and Carol Swann, titled "A spontaneously recorded conversation on how embodiment can be used to understand decolonization, anti-racism, and re-matriation"

• Read an article from the 1999 edition of Currents about trauma by Karin, titled Dragon Riding through the Abyss.

• Read a collection of Karin's poems published in Currents from 1999 to 2025.

• Download Karin's master's thesis titled Breaking the Frame, as well as an introduction written in 2025.