Aims to bring a holistic approach to the field of healing those who suffer from traumatic stress due to natural disasters, domestic abuse, incarceration, and violence. Trauma is defined to include posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the fight-flight response, and intergenerational trauma that passes in the cultural legacy to successive generations. In pictures and stories of specific individuals from the cultures of Central America, the techniques learned primarily from Eastern cultures are shown to work effectively as body-mind-spirit exercises provide nonmedical ways for people to renew their lives through practices that release stress and balance energy (breathwork, visualization, acupressure, thought field therapy, tai chi meditation, pal dan gum, the river of life, etc.), practices that nourish and harmonize energy (meditation, charkas, process acupressure, and massage), and practices that heal and transform communities and society (community ritual, dance and music, the labyrinth, and the partnership model). Popular education empowers individuals to address their own problems and then apply their knowledge to their communities. Grassroots leadership is encouraged to teach holistic practices through workshops, and the characteristics of successful leaders and the elements of the workshops are detailed. (IP)
