I began attending the BFF meets here in Calgary more for myself and my own healing journey than for Selfling or anything like that. The Breaking Free Foundation began hosting these events as a way for everyone to sit down and talk their traumas out, one story at a time, and there has been quite a strong bond building.It’s an interesting environment. One that is totally free of judgment or recrimination. Like, for real. Try to imagine being in a room that is completely free of static electricity, that crisp and clean feeling in the air. That’s what it’s like being at a BFF meetup.
It’s an interesting environment. One that is totally free of judgment or recrimination. Like, for real. Try to imagine being in a room that is completely free of static electricity, that crisp and clean feeling in the air. That’s what it’s like being at a BFF meetup. I went to my first meetup and started to feel rather embarrassed because I was carrying around the trauma I dealt with years ago when I was being bullied, and here I was in a room full of people discussing “real trauma”. It was nice being reassured by survivors of trauma that my experience does not get to be evaluated by others. So I shouldn’t be doing that to myself, either.
The Mechanics of Trauma
At one of our meets, this energetic fellow by the name of Corey Deacon showed up and spoke to us at length about how our brains react to trauma and how a practice he has started performing – called neurofeedback – can identify where in the brain these reactions are taking place in an attempt to begin an effective treatment.
Mr. Deacon, the founder of Neurvana Health in Calgary, lit the room up nicely, I thought, because he was helping paint a picture of trauma as this thing that is finite and mechanical. Like something that might happen to your car or an appliance. Something diagnostic which anyone could manage.
Now, to be clear, we aren’t saying that trauma is exactly that, but it is helpful to think of a challenge as something you can get in front of, rather than as something that controls and reprograms you.
I spoke with Corey a couple times about the work he does and how it has helped people. He even spoke about his experience as a teen as well and that got him into our next Selfling Story.
I felt that adding Corey’s story to the Selfling Stories was important because it helps people understand what else is happening inside us after having experienced trauma and we felt this to be important information to have for young people who may be dealing with it.
Help Is Available
Neurvana Health has struck a partnership with the Breaking Free Foundation to help deal with some of the costs of neurofeedback and we would like to point you to that opportunity here. How this works is anyone who has experienced trauma and suffering the effects of trauma should get in touch with the Breaking Free Foundation and Neurvana Health in order to take advantage of some of the cost savings. we have those links below.
There is a small correction in the video you are about to watch as there is no more BFF GRANT link on the Neurvana Health website. What we are doing is leaving links below for contacting both the Breaking Free Foundation and Neurvana Health.
If you fit the criteria of someone who is trying to unlock problems with past trauma, we strongly encourage you to reach out to either organization to have them help you make the next step on your journey.