Empowering Harm Reduction Leaders
NEST’s Advanced Training is specifically designed to help increase your professional resiliency and develop new skills in empathy, compassionate care and trauma-informed crisis response. In addition to covering the basics of Harm Reduction and crisis prevention, we will explore the signs and symptoms of compassion fatigue and secondary trauma. We will also discuss how to build resilience in a stressful work environments, how to reconnect to your community and we will engage in exercises in mindfulness, self-compassionate and authentic expression.
Who Should Take This Course
- Harm Reduction Professionals
- Mental Health Professionals
- Anyone working on the frontlines of trauma who is interested in growing their skillset in providing care while maintaining self-care
What You Will Walk Away With
- Critical Perspective – Unbiased, accurate information about mind-altering substances
- Practical Application – Real, actionable tools for supporting someone who is having an emotional crisis
- Direct Service Skills – Techniques and training in de-escalation and other direct services/responses
- Self-Awareness – Better understanding of your authentic self so that you can be in integrity when serving others
- Professional Longevity – Tools and self-care exercises that build professional and personal resilience in a field that encounters secondary trauma regularly.
Join NEST training programs to become a more compassionate, connected and prepared harm reductionist.
Course & Program Detail
This 3 hour/half-day workshop is only available in person. We will provide an overview of Harm Reduction principles and a history of direct services and the evolution into NEST. We will explore the similarities and differences of traumatized states and substance-induced altered states. We will discuss techniques for improving work/life balance, how to address vicarious trauma that can deeply affect care providers. We will engage in experiential scenarios that explore identity and authenticity, as well as practical scenarios for working in crisis response.
Subjects That May Be Covered
- Harm Reduction Principles
- Direct Services Options
- Drugs, Psychedelics and Other Altering Substances
- Trauma-Informed Community Principles
- In Depth STICC Training – NEST’s proprietary training format which stands for Sustainable, Trauma-Informed Compassionate Care, for Harm Reduction Workers and First Responders.
- Self-Care
- Consent
- Patience Practice
- Escalation
- Integration
- In Depth Experiential Scenarios, Including:
- Sexual/Physical Assault
- Domestic Violence
- Bystander Intervention
- Other Emergency Scenarios
- Importance of Integration & Aftercare
Prerequisites & Qualifications
In order to join us for this training, you must:
- Be over the age of 18
- Have professional or volunteer experience in a helping industry (mental health, hospice care, foster care, teaching, nursing, etc.
All applicants will be screened and vetted prior to enrollment acceptance.
FROM THE NEST COMMUNITY
“Being able to provide support and services to not only attendees but also fellow staff makes the work that much more meaningful and effective. NEST is expanding the accessibility to harm reduction.”
“Working with Erica and her team at N.E.S.T. provides the safety and support our production team needs to get through the challenging, stressful moments to ensure a successful event.”
“Working under an integrative wellness care model with such a diverse team of caregivers has been a refreshing, insightful experience.”
“I’ve had the privilege to work with the compassionate care providers at NEST and am constantly blown away by the level of dedication and attention they bring to the work of harm reduction. Rock on, team!”
“I’m so grateful for this experience. I’ve known harm reduction is my passion for a long time, and NEST created space for me to explore my potential in this field and support my community in a way that felt so RIGHT. My values are super aligned with NEST’s values, and I could see that our team was leading with our values to pull all of this off!”
“I enthusiastically recommend this training! Erica’s presentation was clear and accessible, and she left me with tools to implement right away. Both the conceptual framework and practical guidance would be beneficial to anyone who is looking to compassionately hold space for people going through traumatic experiences – not just those working in the world of psychedelic harm reduction. I really appreciated the approach to self-care, especially the checklists and schematics for self-reflection and assessing one’s readiness to compassionately hold space for others.”
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