The Biology of War

Segment 1: Fear-Based Thinking.  On this edition of The Doug Noll Show we speak with Judith Hand: scientist, novelist, futurist, and “peace ethologist.” We're going to learn the biological factors that cause war and what can be done to bring about peace. Judith is an Evolutionary Biologist who studies animal behavior, conflict resolution and social communication. She’s also an Ethologist, meaning she studies human behavior from a biological perspective.

War is not part of our human nature. It is not inevitable and is not an inherited trait. So what is it about our biology that makes us susceptible to war? It’s a cultural invention. Over the past 10,000 years we’ve had dominating societies where the primary decisions were made by men. There are consequences of taking women out of the decision making process in regards to war. Additionally, Judith has found that the fear of scarce resources sometimes drives people to war. It makes us vulnerable to war mongers, who come in and take advantage of that fear thinking. They stir up the fear of lack in order to form an army.

Segment 2: Peace Systems.  Judith believes we can create “peace systems.” For example, the European Union was created because people were tired of the brutality and the waste of WWII. They had a vision and they created the European Union, which is an example of a peace system. Another example is the United States. We decided that we would be united and solve our conflicts by using a court system. When the global community becomes aware that war mongers are causing war, and when they decide to stop being drawn into the scare tactics and instead create a global peace system with treaties, boycotts, and sanctions, peace happens.

So how do we deal with economic dislocation when we stop creating weapons? There is no simple answer as it would affect jobs and big money, but the citizens can start by telling their government that they would “prefer to spend the money in other ways rather than in arms and defense.” The only people who make money off of war is the war industry. It’s bad for business such as Target, Google and Apple to have war.

Segment 3: Less corruption and less war.  There is an emphasis on the role of women in creating a peaceful world, because of their biological make-up. Their child-bearing DNA requires social stability. Although women are aggressive just like men, when it comes to using physical conflict, there is a difference. Biologically, a woman carries a child, takes the risk of childbirth, feeds the child, and protects the child for at least 12 years until they can reproduce on their own. It is a much bigger biological investment than what men invest. Women have been adapted to WANT social stability in their community, where they are raising their children. Therefore women have a lot of traits that help them resolve conflict without violence. Where women are involved in leadership in a society, there’s less corruption and less war.

Segment 4: War is not an inherited trait. So how do we manage population growth, strain on resources and climate change in a non-violent way? Judith says there is an answer: there is a general global hungering to avoid war because our survival instinct has been triggered. There is a sense that what we’ve been doing in the past has to change. War is NOT inevitable. The threats that are coming at us can actually unite us instead of tear us apart. To learn more about Judith’s work please visit http://www.afww.org/.

To listen to the entire interview:

Segment 1

Segment 2

Segment 3

Segment 4


Abuse in the Military: Wounds That Don’t Heal

Segment 1: Their Physical Wounds Were Not Healing.  On this edition of The Doug Noll Show we have the 2nd part of our interview with Sarah Blum: psychotherapist, Vietnam vet, nurse and author. Sarah finished her tour of duty at Cu Chi in 1968 and started working at a hospital in Tacoma, Washington. It was then that she started to learn how internally broken veterans were. Young guys were coming back and not being received in a positive way. Additionally, their physical wounds were not healing the way in which there were expected. Sarah realized that their heads and hearts were not in balance. At that time no one at that time understood PTSD.

Segment 2: Women Under Fire.  When Sarah decided to write her first book she was still working as a nurse psychotherapist, and realized she needed three things in order to complete this project: a title that she could get behind and that would inspire her, the knowledge that she could write well, and plenty of women to interview. She began interviewing women veterans who were open to speaking about serving in the military. She wanted a wide variety of stories and was open to everyone. She scheduled interviews once a week for years. During an interview she would essentially do two things: write and listen. Her psychotherapy skills came into play as well, as she needed to be fully present and hold the women in a safe and protected way. Sarah conducted interviews with 58 women vets over a course of a few years, ranging from WWII vets to the most current veterans. A mentor who read her manuscript told her she should write about women being abused in the military, which Sarah struggled with, but which eventually changed the shape of the entire project. She ended up with two separate books as well as a website.

Segment 3: Isolated, Ostracized and Shamed.  During her research Sarah started hearing stories of abuse toward women. In listening to their stories, what made an impact on her was the tremendous tenacity and courage of the women who had been abused. It wasn’t just about the assault; it was about what followed the assault. She began to feel a strong connection with these women and was inspired to do something on their behalf. Sarah discovered that there was a culture of abuse toward women in the military that undermines morale and destroys the health, minds, and careers of valuable women soldiers. These women were being subjected to violent sexual abuse. Typically men in the military perceive women as government property that they could do with what they chose. If a woman reports the abuse they are punished harshly. The perpetrators are protected, promoted and permitted to continue. The victims are isolated, ostracized and shamed.

Segment 4: Leadership Fail.  Sarah believes there is a leadership failure within the military, and they cannot “train” their way out of this. There is a sense of entitlement in the military by men, as well as a hierarchical structure within the military so powerful that any woman reporting rape or sexual assault will find her superiors closing rank and protecting themselves instead of the victim. It is a target-rich environment for sexual assault and the leadership does not want to see it, know it, or deal with it. To find out more about Sarah’s invaluable work, visit http://www.womenunderfire.net/.

To listen to the entire interview:

Segment 1

Segment 2

Segment 3

Segment 4

 

 

 


Healing from the Trauma of War and Abuse

Segment 1: Hearing Their Stories.  On this edition of The Doug Noll Show we have the pleasure of speaking with Sarah Blum. Sarah is a decorated Vietnam veteran nurse who served as an operating room nurse in the 12th Evacuation Hospital in Cu Chi, Vietnam during the height of fighting in 1967. She is also a therapist and the author of Women Under Fire: Abuse in the Military and the sequel, Women Under Fire: PTSD and Healing. Sarah decided that if there was ever a war and she was single, that she would enlist as a military nurse. She talked to a number of different recruiters and ended up enlisting in the Army. She was trained as an operating nurse at Letterman General Hospital in San Francisco, which was her first experience with Veterans from Vietnam. She began hearing their stories and witnessing their pain and healing, which shaped her Vietnam experience.

Segment 2: A Loss of Faith.  Sarah was flown to Vietnam and got her orders to be a nurse at the 67th Evacuation Hospital, but ended up switching with someone and going to the 12th Evacuation Hospital in Cu Chi. It was a desolate area. She was allowed a few days to get situated and “make a space for herself” before going to work in the operating room. She quickly became a trauma nurse, as the hospital was situated where all the fighting was taking place and was the largest user of fresh blood. Emotionally it was very disturbing. Over time it had a detrimental effect on her spirituality. She couldn’t believe the Divine would allow something so horrible to take place.

Segment 3: Their Minds and Hearts Were Still Injured.  Sarah eventually experienced a breaking point and in order to get through her tour as a nurse she imagined building a thick brick wall around her heart. She was so successful with the wall that all her memories of the 2nd half of her tour are not in color; they are in tones of brown.

When she came back to the U.S. she was assigned to a hospital in Tacoma, Washington. She began noticing that the wounds the soldiers experienced were not healing the way they should be healing. She realized the wounds weren’t healing because the soldiers’ minds and hearts were still injured. That was the impetus for her to become psychotherapists. She first became an intuitive healer, and although she didn’t have any formal education, she did the work helped a lot of veterans. Ultimately she went back to school and studied psychotherapy in college and graduate school. She learned about trauma, how it affects people and how to help heal it. 

Segment 4: National Pride and Past Trauma.  In 1996 she became part of an organization called Peace Trees, and traveled to Vietnam to plant indigenous trees on the land that was destroyed by the war. Sarah was the only woman veteran on the trip. They first removed all the live land mines out of the land so the area was safe for Vietnamese children. The goal of the trip was to highlight the devastation done by America, and then plant trees to beautify the area. The area is now a grown forest called Friendship Forest. At the end of the trip she went back to the area she had been stationed in during the war. She visited the tunnels that thousands of Vietnamese people lived in. Although very traumatic, she experienced a tremendous spiritual healing and a heart opening as well. She realized there was no difference between the Vietnamese and the Americans. They both had national pride as well as past trauma from which to heal.

To listen to the entire interview: 

Segment 1

Segment 2

Segment 3

Segment 4


Repairing the Harm with Victim-Offender Dialogue

Segment 1: Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Movement.  On this edition of The Doug Noll Show we are speaking with Sheryl Wilson: practitioner, trainer and educator in restorative justice for over a decade. Sheryl has had the honor of working with individuals from around the world in her practice and is currently writing a book that explores the links connecting the Civil Rights Movement to the Restorative Justice Movement.

Sheryl’s knowledge and study of the Restorative Justice process goes back over 20 years. As a student under Mark Umbreit, she took a workshop and knew immediately that Restorative Justice was the direction she wanted to go in. She began to incorporate restorative dialogue in her work, whether it was in her then-current career or her volunteer work. Mark took her on as a protégé and she began facilitating community mediation and witnessing reconciliation cases. Sheryl has learned that there are moments when you have to allow silence, and just trust the process.

Segment 2: Repairing the Harm.  Defining Restorative Justice is difficult, but Sheryl’s quick definition is: repairing the harm that crime or wrongdoing has created. It’s about putting the situation, the community, and the people involved in a different and better place than before the conflict occurred. There is a lot of prep work that goes into a RJ session, and a big part of the prep is managing expectations. Sheryl’s goal is to make the players on both sides aware of what they might expect in a session and the key elements that are on the table.

Segment 3: The Victim Offender Mediation Movement is Not Going Away.  Doug tells us that Fresno was the birthplace of mediation and also the birthplace of three strikes, which is a striking paradox. Sheryl’s experience with judges and prosecutors has been mostly positive regarding Restorative Justice. However, she’s currently working with a woman from Michigan who has asked to meet her offender. The victim did not know how to precede with a meeting, so she reached out to Sheryl for help. Sheryl approached the Michigan government, including the State Attorney’s office, but they rejected the idea of victim-offender contact. “No contact” between victims and offenders is very staunchly imbedded in their system. Sheryl is starting a ground roots movement to ask Michigan to change their policies and allow victim offender mediation. She believes that this type of movement is not something that is going away. It makes great economic sense and is going to become more commonplace in the future.

Segment 4: Tell Their Stories.  Southern Truth and Reconciliation (STAR) works primarily with organizations that are seeking to do some Truth and Reconciliation (TRC) projects in terms of racial violence that has occurred in some of these communities in the past. STAR partners with communities for projects and outreach programs, which speaks to Sheryl’s passion exploring the Civil Rights Movement. In fact, her first love, as an African American, is researching the Civil Rights Movement and learning how those events shaped her own life and the lives of her parents. Restorative Justice is trying to put a name to the harms that were done and a name to the reconciliation process. Sheryl’s goal with her book is to research and interview larger-than-life figures, like Andrew Young, listen to them, record their stories, and begin the healing process.

To listen to the entire interview:

Segment 1

Segment 2

Segment 3

Segment 4


Restorative Justice: How Simple Dialogue Can Transform Lives

Segment 1: The Desire to Be Heard.  On this edition of The Doug Noll Show we have Distinguished Law Professor at Marquette University and Director of the Law School’s Restorative Justice Initiative’s Janine Geske. During her renowned career Janine has served as a Visiting Professor of Law at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, interim dean of Marquette Law School, and a Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice from 1993-1998. Prior to becoming a judge, she served as chief staff attorney for the Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee and then as clinical director and assistant professor of law at Marquette University.

Janine tells us that her Marquette students are very passionate about the Restorative Justice Initiative. Once she is able to get people to understand what RJ is, they fall in love with the process. Her students feel privileged to journey with a victim and find a different way to deal with harm and conflict. The RJ process changes their outlook on life and what they do after they graduate.

Janine and her colleagues also do prison work where they’ve been running a program for 15 years in a maximum security prison. They take 25 high-end offenders serving life sentences and bring them together with victims (but not the offenders’ actual victims). The two groups sit in “circles” for 3 full days, during which they go from building community in the room to having an understanding of how the crimes hurt the victims to everyone telling their stories and doing activities together. It’s a very spiritual and transformative experience for all involved.

Janine’s main take-away from this work is that everyone has the desire to be heard and understood, and that simple dialogue can transform relationships.

Segment 2: There Will Always Be Grief.  In additional to her work in prisons and Marquette’s Restorative Justice Initiative, Janine has a caseload of victim-offender dialogues that she and her coworkers facilitate. These meetings are always at the victim’s request, and the minimum prep time is at least six months. It’s a personal journey for the survivor and the offender to go back in time and process their feelings about this terrible incident. The victims decide what they want to ask and what they want to resolve. The meetings are incredibly powerful. It becomes a flow of dialogue between two individuals, and Janine does not interfere. It’s unbelievable for most of us to think that someone whose child was murdered can sit within feet of the offender. Janine stresses that there will always be grief, but often the victims find themselves in a more peaceful place and with an opportunity to move forward with greater ease.

Segment 3: The Circle.  Wardens who have sat in during the process have been impressed. They tell Janine that they notice a change in the offenders who have participated in the circle for three days. Janine looks at RJ in a broad sense: through the lens of harm, and not just crime. She and her colleagues have facilitated RJ peace circles with high school sports teams to explore un-sportsmanlike conduct, and with racial profiling cases, and with medical malpractice, and much more. The facilitators first need to just get the two sides to meet, and then reassure them that it is a safe environment meant to start a dialogue. It’s not particularly touchy-feely. Many victim advocates fear the process, as if the victims will be re-victimized. Sometimes it’s difficult to get past the advocate to see if the victim is even interested in exploring the process.

Segment 4: Lawyer to Peacemaker.  Janine’s students tell her that they practice law differently because of going through her program. There are many little victories throughout the process, and people’s lives are forever changed. Janine believes if we can improve the way we react, and lawyers can become peacemakers and problem-solvers, then the Restorative Justice Initiative’s teaching will be successful. To learn more about Janine Geske’s invaluable work, visit http://law.marquette.edu/rji/.

To listen to the entire interview:

Segment 1

Segment 2

Segment 3

Segment 4


The Dynamics of Dispute Resolution with High Conflict Personalities

Segment 1: The Dynamics of Personality Disorders.  Our guest on this edition of The Doug Noll Show is Bill Eddy. Bill is a lawyer, therapist, mediator and President of High Conflict Institute. (http://www.highconflictinstitute.com/) He’s also an international expert on resolving disputes involving high conflict personalities (HCPs).  Bill started his career as a clinical social worker and worked in a number of inner-city communities. He found that he enjoyed peacemaking but it was difficult to find any paying jobs in the field. He began volunteering with the San Diego Mediation Center (now the National Conflict Mediation Center), then decided to go to law school in order to learn about solving disputes within a legal context. He became a lawyer in 1992 and practiced in family court, focusing on divorce mediation.

Due to his training in social work, Bill had insights as to why people behave the way they do. As a lawyer he noticed that the high-conflict court cases were driven by the dynamics of personality disorders. The characteristics of these types of disorders include: all or nothing thinking, unmanaged emotions, extreme behavior, and a preoccupation of blaming others.

Segment 2: The High Conflict Personality.  Traits and disorders are a distinction that mental health professionals use that are not significant to the average person, which is why Bill began using the term “high conflict personality.” Although HCP people can look and seem normal at times, they are much more likely to get stuck in a conflict or be triggered by the environment around them.  HCPs are preoccupied with blaming others, and they tend toward all or nothing thinking. Their solutions are extreme and unpredictable.

Segment 3: The C.A.R.S. Method.  When dealing with someone who is a High Conflict Personality, one can manage the relationship by using Bill’s CARS method. The CARS method addresses the 4 key areas of difficulty that people have when dealing with high conflict personalities.

C – Connecting. Form a positive connection with these folks (which can be counterintuitive at times).

A – Analyze. Shift away from emotions to problem-solving. “Let’s look at our options here. What do you propose?”

R – Respond calmly to inaccurate information or hostile communications by using a “BIFF” response: brief, informative, friendly and firm.

S – Set Limits. HCPs can’t stop themselves. We must let them know what the consequences of their actions will be. Educate them and let them have a choice. It’s not personal; it’s about policies, or rules, or external circumstances.

Segment 4: www.highconflictinstitute.com.  The more you think about all these steps and practice them, the easier it becomes. To learn more about Bill’s invaluable work and the High Conflict Institute, please visit http://www.highconflictinstitute.com/.

To listen to the entire interview:

Segment 1

Segment 2

Segment 3

Segment 4


The New Generation of Charitable Giving

Segment 1: The New Generation of Parties.  Our guest on this edition of The Doug Noll Show is Kim Boerman, author of With Love…The New Generation of Party People. Kim’s party-throwing book was created specifically to raise $5 million for 10 targeted non-profit organizations annually. Per Kim’s website, her passion for entertaining and giving themed parties along with her belief that we can change the world one small step at a time helped develop the vision for her charitable giving project. Her book and accompanying website allows party hosts to provide unique and thought-provoking parties while raising money for worthy non-profits.

Kim started her career in real estate and was quite successful, but in 2011 disaster stuck. Her husband’s brother and mother passed away 10 days apart, followed by the death of a sister-in-law and her son’s best friend. The trauma caused Kim to reflect on why she was here and what she could do to live a more meaningful life. She had trouble going back to her real estate practice because it no longer aligned with what her core purpose was. Her whole family was in shock, but she realized with clarity that if anything ever happened to her, her extended family would give freely and with love. This thought was the catalyst for her book.

Segment 2: Ten Winning Non-Profits.  Kim used a detailed process for finding her featured non-profits. She enlisted the help of Charity Navigator to rank them and make sure they were rated highly enough that guests would feel comfortable donating money to the organizations. The non-profits featured in Kim’s book are:

Water Missions International

The Pajama Program

UCP Wheels for Humanity

Southeastern Guide Dogs

Operation Home Front

Give Kids the World

Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking

National Foundation for Facial Reconstruction

Alex’s Lemonade Stand

Convoy of Hope

Segment 3: Every Party Has a Theme.  Each party has a different theme. For example, Water Missions International’s theme is a luau. The goal is to give something back to the guests to thank them for their donation --- a unique experience, down to every last detail. The book gives the hosts all the information they need, including invitations, music play-lists, games and activities, and a call to action to raise funds for the featured charity.

Segment 4: $5 Million for 10 Charities.  The featured organizations love the project. Kim’s crew is in the process of putting together a format for the non-profits to blog and tweet, etc. It’s a way for their supporters to have more options to help their charities. Kim’s goal is to raise $5 million for 10 charities. 50 parties in 50 states. To find out more information about this project, please visit http://www.withlovebook.com/.

To listen to the entire interview:

Segment 1

Segment 2

Segment 3

Segment 4


The Psychology of Extreme Behavior

Segment 1: Big Risks, Big Change.  On this edition of The Doug Noll Show we are speaking with Dr. Frank Farley, psychologist and Professor at Temple University. Frank is former President of the American Psychological Association and six of its divisions, as well as the American Educational Research Association and International Council of Psychologists. Frank was born and raised in Canada. He was the first in his family to go to college, which is where he discovered psychology. He later studied in London and then ended up in Madison, Wisconsin and ultimately at Temple University. His primary focus of research is with extreme behavior, whether it’s violence (mass murderers, serial killers) or extreme athletes like Mt. Everest climbers. Frank tells us that great leaders like Mandela, King, and Gandhi engaged in extreme behavior. They took big risks, they pushed the envelope hard and they changed the world.

Segment 2: Nature versus Nurture.  We’ve seen some big atrocities in the last 10 year, such as numerous school shootings. In Doug’s experience, the murderers he’s worked with in prison have endured unimaginable abuse and horror. So why do some abused people become murderers? Frank believes it’s partially genetic, but a lot of it has to do with their environment. Both nature and nurture are involved. Most human behaviors are a combination of our biological side and our environmental side. The brain is enormously important. Anything of any importance goes through and is processed by the brain, but we also can’t deny the role of relationships, families and communities. Our brains are designed to be social and when prisoners are put in solitary confinement they begin to develop psychosis.

Segment 3: Defining Normal.  Frank has a hard time defining mental illness, because if we’re going to define abnormal, we need to have a grasp on what’s normal. One of his major concerns is that we “pathologize” so many behaviors. We see something extreme and slap a label on it and call it a mental illness. However, if we didn’t have extreme behaviors and risk takers, we wouldn’t have new ideas. These are the people who have created the modern world. Frank believes if we go too far in pathologizing behaviors, we may snuff out the very thing that is the driving force in the human race.

Segment 4: The Stigma Surrounding Mental Illness.  So what do we do about the mental illness issue? For example, what could the parent of a school shooter do? The answer is to get help. Use community resources, psychologists, counselors, spend more time with your child. It’s hard for a parent to know what to do, as there is a stigma surrounding mental illness and the resources are not always easily found. It’s a complex problem, and locking up a high percentage of our citizens is not the solution.

To listen to the entire interview:

Segment 1

Segment 2

Segment 3

Segment 4


Why Are Girls Disposable?

Segment 1: The Disposable Gender.  The United Nations estimates that as many as 200 million girls are missing today because of gendercide. This is a horrific tragedy of great magnitude that gets very little press. Our guest on this edition of The Doug Noll show is Evan Grae Davis, social justice advocate and director It’s A Girl movie. Evan began his film career by working with non-profits to give a voice to people in need, and has traveled the world for decades to help fundraising efforts by making movies for organizations. When filming his documentary, he started by asking the questions, “What are the cultural mindsets that underlie social injustices? Why are girls considered disposable?” He decided to focus on India and China because gendercide is common within cultures that are heavily patriarchal, and the largest numbers of girls missing were from these two countries.

Segment 2: The Sheer Scope of Violence against Women.  Though Evan has been involved in human rights education and activism for many years, was surprised by the sheer scope of violence against women present in the world today. It’s easy to assume, being from the United States, that things are better as far as gender equality. However, in a large part of the world the plight of women is still extremely bad. The primary cause of this is a very strong patriarchal structure. Sons are preferred. Daughters become a part of the husband’s family. Additionally, a daughter takes a dowry, so she is essentially a deficit. In China it’s critical that a son is born in order to carry on the family name and have someone to care for the parents in their old age.

Segment 3: Sharing a Message and a Passion.  Evan and his producers provided copies of the finished film to India for free. All the social justice activists in India have access to the film and are encouraged to share it. Unfortunately there is very little opportunity for the film to be viewed in China. The documentary was mainly produced for Western countries, to share a message and a passion.

Segment 4: Economic Ties Trump Human Rights Issues.  The unfortunate reality is that our economic ties to India and China trump human rights issues. These issues are largely ignored for the sake of keeping good economic relationships. So what can one person do? Raise awareness. Share the film trailer. Talk to people. Educate them about the issue. There are additional ideas on the It’s A Girl website, such as a link to sign petitions to change the one-child law in China. There is very meaningful work happening on the ground in India and China to save girls, get protections in place, and demand equality. We can donate to those organizations. Spread the news. Raise awareness. To find out more, visit http://www.itsagirlmovie.com/.

To listen to the entire interview:

Segment 1

Segment 2

Segment 3

Segment 4


Restorative Justice and Healing the Trauma Tiger

Segment 1: Restorative Justice, Defined.  Our guest on this edition of The Doug Noll Show we have the honor of speaking with Dr. Mark Umbreit, Professor and founding Director of the Center for Restorative Justice & Peacemaking at the University of Minnesota, School of Social Work. Dr. Umbreit is an internationally recognized practitioner and scholar with more than 40 years of experience as a mediator, peacemaker, trainer, teacher and researcher. Has is the author of eight books and more than 200 other publications in the fields of restorative justice, mediation, spirituality, forgiveness, and peacemaking.

Dr. Umbreit defines restorative justice as a process as one which focuses on harm done and involves the people most affected by the harm in the response. It’s about offender accountability, victim assistance and support, and community involvement. True restorative justice is a victim-centered movement. It is also rooted in deep traditional and indigenous and spiritual practices.

Segment 2: A Good Track Record.  Dr. Umbreit says the restorative justice empirical research trajectory is quite good. He has been involved with several meta-analysis with samples as large as 9,000+ that found significant reduction in crime by offenders, positive data regarding serving victims, and satisfaction with entire process. In fact, there is more empirical evidence to validate the core principles of restorative justice – particularly the dialogue practices – then there are for most of our criminal justice programs (which are not examined thoroughly).

Back in the 1980s there were zero states that had an administrative protocol that allowed victims of severe violence to meet their offenders. Now, 27 states have procedures to allow that process. Victims of severe violence have far more trauma, loss, and grief than other types of victims. They usually have the need to get answers and express their pain to the person who caused their loss.

Segment 3: Taming the Tiger of Fear and Trauma.  Restorative justice at its core is simple: it’s about treating people with respect and honoring humanity. Dr. Umbreit’s latest book, Dancing with the Energy of Conflict and Trauma: Letting Go – Finding Peace, outlines struggles with conflict and traumatic events in the form of true stories. He has been blessed to learn from a wide range of people over the years --- people who would normally be labeled as trauma sufferers or wounded --- have been his greatest teachers and heroes. Trauma shakes up your perception of life and the world. This book is about taming the tiger of fear and working with it. At the end of the book there are tools to help heal and deal with trauma.

Segment 4: The Forgiveness Agenda.  Restorative justice is an expression of a deep sense of spirituality. To say Dr. Umbreit honors the wisdom and the teachings of Jesus doesn’t cancel out the wisdom and teachings of Mohammed or Buddha. Restorative justice has affected the way he views and understands the world, how he relates to the community, the way he interacts with his wife and kids. Dr. Umbreit says incredible things can occur when we humble ourselves and be mindful of not pushing an agenda of forgiveness on others. We need to recognize that people have a right to be angry and give them time to work through the emotion instead of dismissing or denying it. To find out more about Dr. Umbreit’s important work, visit http://www.cehd.umn.edu/ssw/RJP/.

To listen to the entire interview:

Segment 1

Segment 2

Segment 3

Segment 4