It's always been about what I learned and witnessed.
My doctorate in Clinical Psychology, concentration in Somatics only added to my knowledge. My intensified learning began with my mother who survived WWII concentration camp Jasenovac, former Yugoslavia. I had the realization that my grandmothers and mother survived a century of wars in former Yugoslavia. I knew their trauma is passed down through the generations; transgenerational.
I witnessed trauma ripple across the globe in my Kolo (Serbo-Croatian for round dance or to be in circle) trauma work. As a social scientist 1 Department of Defense, in Afghanistan, my front seat faced the banishment of Afghan women from society thus internationally. For over a decade I sat in kolos with the Bosnian women war crimes and war survivors. With the International criminal court, as a Psycho-social gender victim's expert, I witnessed how trauma is contagious. In Haiti 2010, the earthquake conspired more catastrophic traumas as I saw women and children without food and water. I could list more countries across the globe where I saw the pattern repeat.
I define trauma as intensified learning where no one wants to enroll but are pitched into traumatic events and situations. Clinically, I do not define trauma as a mental illness. Rather, the trauma symptoms tell me your neurology and body are healthy. At best a memory disorder where your survival mechanisms need to discern between 'Do I need survive right now?' or "Do I need to thrive?'
Are you surviving right now or thriving?
Dr. Danica Anderson
www.kolocollaboration.org