Dear Friend,
Happy holidays!
We know that the holidays can be a time of mixed emotions for many. Joy and happiness and sadness and grief often coexist and can be magnified at times like this. And, for many survivors of trauma, the holidays can be even more difficult with mounting pressure and potential triggers. There are many negotiations made to remain in an emotional safe space. Trauma does not acknowledge the holidays and trauma symptoms are ever present and can be intensified.
We asked Wendy Blanco, our Director of Counseling Services & Trauma Recovery to share some holiday health and wellness tips:
Take a mindful moment to think about the images and memories that come to mind when you think of the holidays. Notice what comes up for you. Do some of the words look like this?
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Here are some tools and tips on how to survive and thrive this holiday season:
- Give yourself the gift of patience and grace even if it means that others will be disappointed. Take the words from Dr. Seuss as a guide, “Those who matter don’t mind and those who mind don’t matter.”
- Spend some time setting intentions about how you want to prioritize your time this holiday season. What do you want to do more of? What do you want to do less of?
- Notice the expectations that are self-imposed and expectations that are environmentally made and put them on the metaphorical shelf. Notice what purpose they serve and for whom. Notice how these expectations are reinforced in your life and give yourself the gift discernment. What can I leave on the shelf and store in the vault?
- Think about the resources and strengths around you. How can I fill my cup with healthy connection, self-fulfillment and internal kindness and grace.
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POV’s People: Where are they now?
Throughout this year, we will be highlighting individuals or groups that have impacted our work over the last 50 years.
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Ali Maclean
POV Advisory Board Member
Ali Maclean first began working with POV when she produced a comedy show in conjunction with Laughing Liberally, at the Improv called Campaign and Suffering. It was in response to vile and inhumane comments about rape that were made by politicians such as Paul Ryan, Todd Aiken, and Richard Murdoch who were in favor of loosening laws that protected victims of violence.
After that show, Ali began producing the yearly comedy charity event Distressed during Denim Day week, to raise money for POV and awareness around domestic and sexual violence. As a survivor of violence herself, Ali wanted to use her skills as a writer and performer and use laughter and empathy to help others as well as inspire them to stand up to rape culture. "I joined the advisory board because I felt that Peace Over Violence was an important organization that not only aided those who were in the midst of crisis and recovery but helped to prevent potential violence in the future by providing key education and intervention programs."
At the time Ali joined the Advisory Board, She was working as a comedy writer. But since then she has transitioned into playwriting. She describes her work as 'definitely more dramatic, often dealing with trauma and how people navigate through it.' Her plays have won multiple awards, (including the John Gassner Award, the Julie Harris Award) and have been published. Last year she was given the David Sedaris Humor Writing Prize. Her play This Will Be Our Year, which deals with themes of sexual violence and toxic relationships, will be remounted next year in Hollywood.
You can find more about Ali's work at alimaclean.com
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50 Years Over Violence
Our year end campaign is in full swing! This year we are celebrating our 50th anniversary and highlighting the many milestones we have achieved along the way. But our work is not done, and we need your help to continue our mission of building healthy relationships, families and communities free from sexual, domestic and interpersonal violence.
Click here to see more and support our campaign!
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GIVE TODAY and SUPPORT OUR TOMORROW
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Program Highlight: Youth trauma-informed self defense
This past fall semester six Students Together Organizing for Peace (STOP) club youth members took a trauma-informed self-defense training led by Yvette Lozano and Jasmine Barnes. These Youth Violence Prevention Specialists were asked to lead self-defense and healing circles for their peers at Miguel Contreras Learning Complex, and this training enabled and empowered them to provide this. Their excitement, professionalism, and commitment to violence prevention and education is admirable!
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POV Reads
We recently lost a prolific thinker and revolutionary activist, bell hooks. hooks inspired and challenged us, and her writings on race and gender continue to inform the work we do. This POV reads features a few of the many highlights from her body of work.
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“Visionary feminism is a wise and loving politics. It is rooted in the love of male and female being, refusing to privilege one over the other. The soul of feminist politics is the commitment to ending patriarchal domination of women and men, girls and boys. Love cannot exist in any relationship that is based on domination and coercion. Males cannot love themselves in patriarchal culture if their very self-definition relies on submission to patriarchal rules. When men embrace feminist thinking and practice, which emphasizes the value of mutual growth and self-actualization in all relationships, their emotional well-being will be enhanced. A genuine feminist politics always brings us from bondage to freedom, from lovelessness to loving.”
—bell hooks
1952-2021
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By Shamira Ibrahim
“She embraced a pedagogical mission of giving clarity and context to ongoing discussions, encouraging those who dared to interrogate existing ideas of race, class, or gender. Her approach to it all was informed by radical possibilities: We are not exclusively defined by any one single classification as long as we are fully present in all of them.”
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By R.L. Stollar
The renowned Black feminist philosopher bell hooks has written at length about liberative parenting. She describes this form of parenting in two ways: as “revolutionary parenting” as well as “feminist parenting.”
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By bell hooks
A groundbreaking work of feminist history and theory analyzing the complex relations between various forms of oppression. Ain't I a Woman examines the impact of sexism on black women during slavery, the historic devaluation of black womanhood, black male sexism, racism within the recent women's movement, and black women's involvement with feminism.
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By bell hooks
All About Love offers radical new ways to think about love by showing its interconnectedness in our private and public lives. hooks explains how our everyday notions of what it means to give and receive love often fail us, and how these ideals are established in early childhood. She offers a rethinking of self-love (without narcissism) that will bring peace and compassion to our personal and professional lives, and asserts the place of love to end struggles between individuals, in communities, and among societies.
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Coming up: New Webinar Series
Dating can be challenging for some people, especially those who have experienced traumatic losses, betrayal, or abuse in relationships. Individuals who have experienced interpersonal trauma work hard to heal their relational wounds, improve their sense of self, and make themselves emotionally available for a healthy relationship. Yet some residual trauma symptoms can still be there, ready to trigger a range of thoughts and behaviors from risky impulses to paralyzing fear.
This free 8-session webinar is designed to help people prepare for dating again or improve their dating experience after interpersonal trauma. Each weekly session is 30 minutes, followed by a 10-minute Q&A. This series will be held virtually on Saturdays at 11am PST, starting on January 22nd, and is open to anyone preparing for dating again or already dating after interpersonal trauma.
Facilitated by: Federico Carmona, POV Trauma Therapist; Frances Nova, ACSW Intern; Helen Altenbach, MFT Intern
Click here to register!
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POV Merch
Our POV shop is stocked with our trademark merch, Denim Day swag, and special edition 50th anniversary items! Check our our new items and order today!
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POV is hiring!
Looking to join the team at Peace Over Violence? Apply today!
Open Positions:
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Support healing services for survivors of domestic and sexual violence.
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CONTACT
Metro Headquarters
1541 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 300
Los Angeles, CA 90017
213.955.9090 office
213.955.9093 fax
213.785.2684 video
213.785.2749 video
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West San Gabriel Valley Center
892 N Fair Oaks Ave, Suite D
Pasadena, CA 91103
626.584.6191 office
626.584.6193 fax
626.243.7972 video
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