Stressed. Burnt out. Anxious. Sound familiar? Many of us, particularly during this time of the pandemic, are feeling overwhelmed by our workload, struggling to meet deadlines. These stressful realities are compounded by fears of COVID-19, our physical isolation from colleagues, and our uncertainties about the future. Dr. Gordon will help you put these stressors into perspective and teach you self-care techniques to bring you back into the biological and psychological balance that will enable you to mobilize to address them.

Mindfulness is often presented as optional; something that we practice if we have some extra time on our hands or manage to muster up a little bit of serenity. In reality, mindfulness is most needed during the times it’s most difficult to practice it -- in high-stress environments, during emotionally difficult times, and when we are forced to confront threats to our health and uncertainty about our future. Join Dr. Gordon to discuss how we make mindfulness an everyday reality, and learn and experience how it can change your life and relationship with work.

We all know that you can’t pour water from an empty cup. So how do we take care of ourselves and address our own trauma enough to be able to properly take care and address the trauma of others? Dr. Gordon will address this question, teaching us to use breath and movement to quiet trauma-agitated minds and melt trauma-frozen bodies. He will explain how the biological and psychological balance these techniques provide create the foundation for successful use of a vast array of self-care and therapeutic tools.

We all have or will experience burnout on the job and the sluggishness, boredom, and frustration that accompany it. One way we can learn to combat burnout is by learning which foods enhance our ability to deal effectively with the challenges life brings to us and indeed rebuild brains damaged by trauma and chronic stress. Dr. Gordon will address the connection between the digestive tract and the brain, provide a roadmap for creating a trauma healing, stress reducing diet, and share ways to bring mindfulness to every aspect of food selection, cooking, and eating.

Devoting oneself to helping others can be as challenging as it is rewarding. For many of us, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, the challenges have exceeded the rewards. We may feel irritable, have difficulty concentrating, and find ourselves exhausted halfway through the day. We have to force ourselves to listen compassionately and may find our minds wandering. Dr. Gordon will provide a hopeful perspective on preventing as well as healing burnout and will share with us techniques he has used, including meditation and movement, guided imagery, journaling, and mindful eating that recharge our batteries and allow us to be emotionally present and productive as we work with our patients, clients, and students.

In the wake of a community tragedy such as a shooting, a suicide, or a form of sexual violence, we often find ourselves frozen by trauma, unable to figure out what to do next to take care of ourselves or those around us. Over the course of 50 years of psychological healing work, Dr. Gordon has come to the conclusion that practicing self-care and engaging in small, supportive self-care groups has the power to transform lives, heal trauma, and build healthier, more resilient communities. Join Dr. Gordon to hear how he has used these tools in the midst of wars and after mass shootings, and learn how to use the tools and why they are effective, and how you can work with them to bring transformation and healing to your life and your workplace, campus, and community.

When we experience trauma, our bodies go into life saving mode, pushing us into the life-saving fight-or-flight stress response. When that response is prolonged, as it often is when we experience major and/or ongoing trauma, we become agitated and hyper-vigilant; we feel powerless, grow angry with little or no provocation; we cannot concentrate or relax into a sleep that may be filled with nightmares of what we’ve suffered or might again undergo. In this talk, Dr. Gordon will address trauma-induced biological damage and its psychological consequences, providing tools and techniques to restore biological and psychological balance and to free you from the loop of hopeless and self-defeating thoughts that bind you to trauma.

The trauma of others can be overwhelming, especially when we’re the ones they’re turning to for help after a disaster. Sometimes, their trauma can even begin to feel like our trauma. In this talk, Dr. Gordon will explain what trauma is, the ways we all experience it, and how to come into the biological and psychological balance that enables us to talk about trauma with customers and/or clients in a way that is sensitive, useful, self-preserving, and meaningful.

• Preparing for the unexpected
• The ins & outs of complementary & alternative medicine
• More on fight, flight, or freeze and their antidotes
• Putting mindfulness techniques into practice
• Psychological healing as a means of violence reduction
• Navigating the trauma of COVID-19
• Using food as medicine
• The effects of poverty, gender, & race on mental wellbeing