What does trauma have to do with our current global challenges? Is there a link between trauma and the difficulties that we currently face?

Today I speak with Matthew Green who is a former Reuters and Financial Times journalist who now works in the area of climate news with an interest in collective trauma healing. What is the Collective Trauma Healing movement which was founded by Thomas Hubl? How do we heal?

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Matthew Green is a former Reuters climate and Financial Times correspondent and has reported from more than 30 countries.

He is now global investigations editor at DeSmog, a nonprofit climate news service. He is also a co-host of the Collective Trauma Summit 2022 and a student on Thomas Hübl’s two-year Timeless Wisdom Training program.

He writes the Resonant World newsletter on healing collective trauma. He is also the author of the book Aftershock: The Untold Story of Surviving Peace.

Questions and topics to talk about:

1. I would love for you to share some of your journey and how you got passionate about climate change and collective trauma healing?
2. Could you speak a little about climate change and what you have seen unfolding over the past few years?
3. What is collective trauma healing? And how do you feel that links into some of the issues we face as a species?
4. Having just read Nick Duffell's book, Wounded Leaders, have you any further thoughts into the current climate crisis, the leaders, boarding school and how that links into collective trauma?
5. Some topics to talk about (excerpts from Matthew's brilliant article https://www.desmog.com/2022/09/27/collective-trauma-healing-climate-change-activism/):
6. “The impact of events that took place decades or even centuries ago, can cascade through generations, silently shaping the destiny of communities, cultures, and nations.”
7. How when we suppress the vulnerable parts of ourselves that we don't take care of the vulnerable in society. Could the vulnerable also be seen as the environment?
8. “The industrialized world’s failure to mount a meaningful response to climate change is itself a symptom of collective trauma, rooted in patterns of exploitation handed down over generations.”
9. “People who suffered early adversity often resort to self-medicating their pain to society’s pursuit of endless, fossil fuel-powered economic growth.”
10. “Could politicians’ apparent paralysis in response to the threat mirror the way individuals with significant trauma may go emotionally numb, or avoid potential triggers, rather than acknowledge their deepest hurt?”
11. “The climate crisis is the consequence of a mindset: The mindset that people can be oppressed, that you can go to new territories, loot them, appropriate them, and get rich from them,” Xiye Bastida. I would argue that this began with the Empire and boarding school. What do you feel?
12. “The kind of grandiosity, manipulation, and blame-shifting that can emerge as defences against childhood trauma are so often evident among leaders in politics, business, and finance.”
13. The power of community to heal
14. The power of leaders becoming trauma informed
15. Humanity's greatest threat is also the greatest opportunity
16. PTSD / First World War and how it was noticed that those who went to boarding school had learned to suppress emotions.
17. Anything else that you would like to share?

#climatechange #climatecrisis #collectivetraumahealing #woundedleaders

To read more of Matthew's work please visit his website here: https://matthewgreenjournalism.com/

To join the Resonant World email list on Substack: https://matthewgreenglobal.substack.com/

To buy Matthew's bestselling book called Aftershock about PTSD: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Aftershock-Fighting-Surviving-Trauma-Finding/dp/1846273315/ref=sr_1_1?crid=LDDR3C660JSC&keywords=matthew+green+aftershock&qid=1667216113&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIwLjI0IiwicXNhIjoiMC4wMCIsInFzcCI6IjAuMDAifQ%3D%3D&sprefix=matthew+green+aftershock%2Caps%2C285&sr=8-1

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An Evolving Man (AEM) Podcast is for men (and women) who want to grow, evolve and want support in learning how to do this.

On a regular basis there will be an interview around men's (and women's) topics ranging from self-development, relationships, spirituality, archetypes, trauma, boarding school syndrome and men's work featuring authors and leaders in this field.

The sense with these interviews is to support people during these times of change. What are the teachings, tools and practices that you can use to help you through these turbulent times?