WHAT WE DO
Through keynote speeches, experiential workshops, and direct consultation, we offer practical tools for cultivating the deep self-knowledge and systemic insights that are at the core of trauma stewardship.
WHO WE ARE
Laura van Dernoot Lipsky, founder and director of The Trauma Stewardship Institute and author of Trauma Stewardship and The Age of Overwhelm, has worked directly with trauma survivors for more than three decades.
WHERE WE’LL BE
Check out where we’ll be in the months ahead. We would be happy to try to coordinate our travel to work with you when we are in your area or connect you with potential collaborators.
Reading this book is like looking into a mirror. We will see ourselves much more clearly, will understand ourselves much better and will come up with better ways of being It and of doing It. Compassion, yes Compassion is Happiness itself. Enjoy.
Thích Nhất Hạnh
Zen Master and peace activist
Plum Village Monastery, France
Laura spent time with us at Facebook engaging with employees whose roles include reviewing traumatic content. She’s incredibly engaging, genuine, and is a true expert in trauma. Her influence lead to direct changes in our team’s self-care routine — an outcome you can’t place a value on.
Maggie Cook
Program and Partnerships Manager
Online Safety, Security
Facebook
We are all puzzles. As we make our way through life, we assemble our pieces. But, there is always one confounding puzzle piece. One that we stare at, turn in circles, and wonder why it won’t fit. The piece of ourselves that hinders our connection to things we love, like our work and our family. Laura’s presentation makes you laugh at that piece of your life, look at it in a new light, then fit it neatly in as if you knew where it went all along. Laura helps us understand that piece of ourselves so central to our completion.
Judge Susie Norby
Clackamas County Circuit Court, Oregon
Laura van Dernoot Lipsky’s work on trauma stewardship is invaluable to anyone who is trying to solve the world’s most compelling problems. It enables trauma workers to keep themselves healthy enough to stay in over the long term, and to serve their missions with integrity and joy. The tools Laura offers are practical and profound, helping us emerge whole from even the most troubling situations.
Rinku Sen
Executive Director, Applied Research Center
Publisher, ColorLines.com
Laura’s program allows participants to self-select their level of engagement. As participants, we are permitted the comfort of maintaining our zone of self-protection, but we are welcome to enjoy the relief that comes with the realization that we are all emotionally dented and dinged. Some of us a little bit, some of us a lot. Laura’s interaction with the audience is occasionally pointed, often humorous, and unfailingly honest. She creates a comfort zone, leads by example, and then invites her audience to fully engage the formidable and endless challenge of being honest with themselves. If you fully engage, your work is just beginning at the conclusion of the presentation. Laura’s program can change, and even save, lives.
Deirdre Walker
Senior Advisor
Center for Homeland Defense and Security, United States Naval Postgraduate School
Keynote
Talks
Whether you invite 20 people or 2,000, we are able to provide a keynote talk for your community, workplace, or conference.
There is no limit to the number of attendees. Participants from any and all professional disciplines or life circumstances will benefit.
Organizational
Consulting
Big, small, city, state, federal, local, national, nonprofit, for-profit: it’s hard to find an area in which Laura has not worked. The consulting relationship can last anywhere from a few hours to a few years. We are here to help you figure out what is the most efficient and effective use of your resources.
Workshops &
Retreats
Past participants have lauded Laura’s workshops as “enlightening,” “practical,” “heaven-sent,” “perfect timing,” “nothing like I thought it would be,” and “a necessity.”
Whatever the format, workshops offer a practical, holistic approach to caring for ourselves as we do the essential work of caring for others or the planet.
Disaster
Response
Dealing with calamity, whether a natural disaster or a human tragedy, often leaves responders, community members, and loved ones feeling overwhelmed and with little idea of how to recognize or address their own needs for compassion and care.
We’re here to help.
OUR COMRADES
Here’s a sample of some of the folks with whom we’ve been fortunate to work.
