The book synopsis is as follows: Healer: Reducing Crises helps people reduce the time, trauma, and costs of healing by integrating Emotional Intelligence skills with the trauma-informed perspective. Its focus is everything from accidents and abuse to neglect and natural disasters because we value impact over event name. It’s a practical, easy-to-read guide and learning tool with additional opportunities available online.
Nashville-based author Elizabeth Power is a subject matter expert on trauma-informed change, resilience, and alignment work with individuals and organizations. She is also an Adjunct Instructor in Psychiatry at Georgetown University Medical Center.
Power serves as the CEO of EPower and Associates, Inc. is a sought-after speaker, facilitator, teacher, and consultant. EPower & Associates is the parent organization for The EPower Change Institute and The Trauma Informed Academy. She helps people with change, resilience and self-care, and alignment.
In addition, Power develops cross-cultural adaptations of models of care for the mental health community as well as helping other countries like Japan develop their own models. The Trauma Informed Academy recently released her new model, The Trauma Responsive System which focuses on mastering 9 elements akin to applied emotional intelligence.
She’s graced the cover of Successful Meetings Magazine talking about change, guested on The Montel Williams and Faith Daniels Show talking about multiple personalities, and in El Diario Juarez talking about trauma.
Her client list includes General Motors, the National Center for PTSD, J.D. Power and Associates, Asurion, and many more. Power’s work synthesizes sociology, education, and psychology, among other fields. She’s a fresh (and funny) voice in this world.
Your personal life is a story of overcoming obstacles and thriving. What inspired you to share your story with people, and use your experience to help others find healing?
I’ve pretty much lived wide open all my life, refusing the defining gaze of the Other at every opportunity. I am not the problem. What happened to me was—and I mean even the most mundane things to some for which there is no perpetrator. I got sick and tired of the trash talk people made about people who had histories of trauma, and I got tired of the flat-out erroneous assumption that it is always abuse and neglect.
I refused to sit down, shut up, and be colonized by a system wedded to a medical model that told me I was too sick to heal, would never get better, and didn’t want to get better.
I realized that the prevailing model considered the challenges I faced as a chronic illness to be managed rather than “developmental delays” caused by interrupted development and overwhelming experiences. I chose to learn my way beyond the impact, and geez, I taught Trauma-Informed Care, Self-Determination, and Applied Skills for Living for over 20 years. It’s time to stop traveling so much and write it down for the people who come beyond me.
But the more significant issue that drives me is this. We need to realize that we’ll never have enough therapists and counselors to meet the need that continues to increase. It’s not possible. So what do we do instead? I thought marrying Emotional Intelligence with Trauma Recovery skills made sense, so I’m putting it out there. Everything I know about how to be Trauma-Responsive.
Your most recent book, ‘Healer: Reducing Crises,’ helps readers navigate the chaos and manage trauma by teaching skills to increase Emotional Intelligence and manage overwhelming experiences. These days more and more people are looking to heal and create change in their lives, what is one of the keys that they can employ now to get the process started?
More than ever, we need to be able to self-soothe without turning to things that will ultimately hurt us.
We have a lot of connections to pleasant things that we can focus on a little more. What smile-bringing photos are on your phone? Who has a unique ringtone, and why? What’s your favorite family recipe? Do you have jewelry or clothing that someone gave you?
When you call these things to mind, you help yourself feel better and build up hope. Enlarging hope is vital. Connections are crucial. Use the ones you have to help you get a little stronger for the duration.
We may not be able to choose some of the changes we face. We can choose how we face them.
Downtime is necessary for many writers to get their creative mojo going. What do you do when it’s time for you to relax and unwind?
Garden, walk, cook, read. Think, create. Simple things.
You’re an amazing author and speaker, and I am sure you have a lot of fans. What was the most interesting feedback or question you have received from a reader?
“Where have you been all my life. I so needed this healing work you do. It just makes sense.” I’d never thought about myself as a sense-maker.
You have a lot of projects going on, so you have one in the works that you want to tell us about?
I’m neck-deep promoting my new book, writing the next one, and delivering on projects in place. The most exciting to me is writing the next book, “Healer: Changing Lenses.”
Her book Healer: Reducing Crises is available on Amazon.
To learn more about Elizabeth Power, check out her official website.
