Trauma awareness and healing is a specialty area of STAR retreats. Participants with both past and relatively recent episodes of trauma find STAR a safe environment in which to work. Childhood trauma recovery can be accomplished at STAR, sometimes over a series of retreats.
Trauma is a reality of life. Trauma is the fallout from physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, assault, neglect, surgeries, accidents, natural disasters, war, or death of loved ones. Trauma often has a devastating impact on a person’s life.
Some traumas may be decades old, while others are more recent. Either way, people may experience insomnia, flashbacks, generalized anxiety, depression, or trouble with intimacy. They may be out of touch with their feelings and life may take on a detached flat quality of involvement in daily life. Others may be continually overwhelmed and flooded by intense emotions or have difficulty maintaining or developing intimate relationships.
Society has little patience with the wounded. People are supposed to get over it, move on, stop thinking about it, or forgive and forget. As much as people would love to do that, it just doesn’t work. Even when traumatized people are surrounded by loving encouragement and support, they may still be plagued by what happened. Survivors of trauma don't even connect the disruptive symptoms and dysfunctional patterns in their lives with the traumas of their past. What may be lacking is a safe, supportive, and loving place in which to tap into natural healing abilities and shift from merely surviving to an empowered ability to thrive.
A STAR retreat provides an environment of trauma awareness and healing that is designed to encourage profound personal exploration. Accompanied and supported by experienced and caring facilitators, people find the courage to face and heal the pain, anger, fear, and grief that come with trauma. Then, they can finally let the past rest in the past, reclaim their power and authentic voices, and move into their futures with meaning and dignity.
Also see:
The STAR Process
What Graduates Say about STAR Retreats
The Value of a Personal Growth Retreat
Frequently Asked Questions