Peter Ivy is happy for 30th Anniversary with his wife.
Gretchen Oppriecht is happy.
Bob Roepke is celebrating a birthday Saturday.
Matt P. has a son turning 18.
Ryan S. the city has a new deputy police chief who was offered the job - external candidate.
YOUTH EXCHANGE STUDENT – Ane Otsby
Ane shared a lovely sunset photo of their last soccer game - which they won! With soccer ending, there’s time to get sick, so her voice is raspy today and a bit low energy. Back home, there is an exchange student from Stillwater. This weekend Ane is going to meet the other young lady’s mom.
STUDENT INTERN – Gonzalo Romero
Gonzalo shared that his team won their senior night against Cooper, but then they played Edina for their first sections meet and lost. Edina is the top ranked team in the state. Yesterday was first NHS meeting and he earned an academic letter award for carrying a high GPA.
PRESENTATION: Emily Manaen, Immigrant Trauma and Mental Health
Nate Manaen introduced his wife and their fourth-grade twins and another child in second grade.
Wife Emily is the speaker - mental health therapist with trauma and immigrant asylum specialities, LICSW with Haven Counseling and Consulting, which is a practice she founded.
Background & Training:
Trauma psychotherapist, meaning specialized training in assessing and treating trauma - about 12 years into her career. She also evaluates and provides support to immigrants.
Undergrad was here in MN, after undergrad, moved to Uganda in East Africa which became a very formative experience. Initially, she was a student, but then began to work for the program. As part of her time, she traveled to Rhwanda to learn about the genocide there. These experiences created a deep appreciation for different cultures. During her stay, a region of Uganda was also in conflict which influenced her next areas of interest for study.
Worked for the Center for Victims of Torture in St. Paul, and then pursued a program at the University of Notre Dame, focusing on International Peace Studies. She was one of fifteen in the cohort, and one of four from the USA - the rest were peace builders from other countries. She returned again to Uganda to complete her qualitative research on how communities and individuals recover from trauma (conflict, war, and healing). This led to a Master of Social Work at the University of Chicago with an emphasis on trauma. She and Nate lived and worked in Chicago for about ten years.
2019 saw them moving back with their three small children. Emily worked for CVT before opening her own practice.
Center for Victims of Torture - the first center in the country and has been operational for close to 40 years.
In the Twin Cities, CVT provides specialized rehabilitative services for survivors of torture using a multidisciplinary approach including social work, psychotherapy, medical service, group work, insurance coordination, and more.
Definition of torture: it is intentional and carried out by those in power and can be physical or psychological. The impact of torture goes beyond the individual - the whole community, including one’s beliefs and values.
A Triple Trauma Pagadigm was shared with a lot of indicators describing pre-flight, flight, and post-flight. In a nutshell, the trauma tends to occur in repetition, refugees are harmed in-country, flee due to harm and can be victimized during flight, arriving and victimization can continue. A lot of what is assessed for is PTSD, which means a life-threatening event, and profound depression.
Trauma, memory, and recall are facets of the individual’s live that are often required “telling” before authorities like a judge. Victims frequently struggle to recall due to how trauma affects the brain, and yet they are expected to be able to relate their traumatic experiences. Emily then explained a bit of the brain function - trauma and the limbic system. Essentially, two major functions of the brain go “offline” during trauma which make retelling a real struggle. Part of Emily’s work is to educate judges, attorneys, and other social workers about how the trauma brain functions.
Refugees are different from asylum seekers. A refugee has permission prior to leaving their own country. An asylum seeker has a much more difficult path, and can take upwards of ten years to earn. Both come from all over the world.
Emily collaborates with immigration attorneys and sometimes testifies in court, although most often it’s her report that is evidence, among other facets to her work. In the current climate, there is a new level of fear among clients, an uptick in referrals, detention cases, and a relatively new policy of “first in, first out.” So those who have just applied are being rushed through the process which is very challenging. An arrival came in July and their first interview was in August, meaning they had to find and pay for an attorney and get all their documents organized.
Her work is funded through community funding and pro bono. Emily does not work with children but has colleagues who do.
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Our raffle drawing - Gary Hardel was again the winner.
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