Psychological First Aid (PFA) – April, 2025

Online Workshop

April 5, 2025 3:00 pm

This 5-session course meets each Saturday starting April 5, 2025.

You have days left to enroll.

Banu İbaoğlu Vaughn – Türkiye
Charlotte Faris – USA
Hope Maltz – USA
Mahek Shah – Pakistan
Mano Krach – Germany
Pat Omidian – USA
Instructors:
Banu İbaoğlu Vaughn – Türkiye Charlotte Faris – USA Hope Maltz – USA Mahek Shah – Pakistan Mano Krach – Germany Pat Omidian – USA
Psychological First Aid (PFA), The foundational course for our 2-Year course "Community Wellness Focusing: An Integrative Approach to MHPSS"

Psychological First Aid (PFA)

What to do when you don’t know what to do?

Your friend just lost a beloved pet. What do you do?

A close family member lost their house in a flood, or maybe they were robbed or something very painfully personal happened to them. How can you help?

You, yourself, have just experienced a trauma (or have been holding onto something that happened long ago). What do you need?

A whole community suffered a disaster of some kind–fire, earthquake, disease, conflict. Can you make a difference?

We recommend Psychological First Aid (PFA)

PFA is a peer-based process designed to be used in the midst of trauma or emotional suffering. It is designed for anyone who wants to help, and be supportive. It is all about what to do when you wonder what to do to make a difference.

Sign up for PFA (as an independent course) or Sign up for our full 2-year Community Wellness Focusing: An Integrative Approach to MHPSS (Featuring PFA)

The Psychological First Aid (PFA) class lays the foundation for community wellness by developing essential skills. Participants will strengthen their ability to observe and make meaningful connections within their communities, building mutual trust. Deep listening practices will be introduced to promote self-care and resilience, ensuring that those engaged in psychosocial support have the tools to sustain their own well-being while assisting others. Upon successful completion of this course, participants will receive a certificate in PFA and Basic Focusing.

Click here to sign up for PFA!

And Click here to sign up for a full, 2-year, 128 hour Certification Course on Community Wellness Focusing.

 

What we will cover in PFA

Click here for an easy sign-up for PFA

Save the date:1-Apr-2025Special introduction to the full 2 year course
Class 1        8-Apr-2025What to do when you don’t know what to do
Class 215-Apr-2025     Learn all you can before you go
Class 322-Apr-2025Look before you leap
Class 429-Apr-2025Listening some more and Linking
Class 56-May-2025Course Wrap-up and Discussion

In each class we practice deep ways of listening to ourselves and each other. We also talk about how to take care of ourselves while we work to support others.

 

We offer:

  • a Community Wellness approach to PFA that is flexible, adaptable, and versatile in its essence and design.
  • a systemic approach that considers each person within their social context, as part of a group, and takes into account both the health of the group and the health of the individual.
  •  a holistic approach that wellness as physical, emotional, social, intellectual and spiritual.

Develop foundational community wellness skills. Practice deep listening and linking skills in community and apply deep listening skills within ourselves to promote personal safety.

Can we use PFA to heal our outer and inner wounds? 

PFA is about learning to listen in the right way, in a deep way, in a human way that can bring healing and resilience. This PFA course revolves around listening skills. It’s easy to practice and it’s easy to share. And, we explore many aspects of wellness that can support healing. 

Can we use PFA to promote healing in communities? 

Our PFA approach is holistic and centered around community wellness. We recognize the importance of community in any healing and recovery process.  

Why do we stress Community Wellness?

We humans are all social creatures, regardless of how our cultures define community. Each society has its own way to be in community. For example, one of the traumas of the COVID pandemic was that protocols forced people into isolation. For the elderly and high risk groups, this has meant very long periods of time without critically important social connections. And we can find many other examples across the world. 

What will you gain in this course?

By the end of the course, you will be familiar with the components of an effective PFA practice, including deep listening, engaging the community or individual resilience and promoting holistic/systemic recovery. To put it simply, you will know what to do when others around you don’t. 

Course Facilitators:

Dr. Patricia (Pat) Omidian holds PhD in Medical Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley/ San Francisco and has worked in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Japan, Mexico, and Liberia developing psychosocial support, mental health and community wellness programs. She has conducted trainings in PFA, gender awareness, psychosocial support and self care for communities and in universities in an additional 12 countries.

Dr. Banu İbaoğlu Vaughn, PhD, LPC is a psychologist and seasoned psychotherapist specializing in dialogical and community-based interventions alongside her clinical practice, with a focus on Consciousness and Society. Her professional experience spans multiple cultural contexts, including extensive disaster response in Turkey’s earthquake-affected regions She brings a unique perspective to PFA through her commitment to dialogical presence, aiming to co-create supportive, empowering spaces for individuals and communities to process and reconnect to their resources.

Join us for a 5 Session online course (17 hours instruction time)

The Course begins on April 5, 2025 (8 AM PT, 11 AM ET)

Enrollment limited, sign up soon!

Click here to sign up!

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