Carolyn Yoder

For nearly three decades, I've worked as a psychotherapist and international trauma and resilience trainer. As the Founding Director of the STAR training program (Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience), I've witnessed the truism that hurt people hurt people. But I also witnessed individuals and groups with the courage to face their histories, both what was done to them and what they did to others. Such transformed people transform people, bringing healing and light to the world and inspiring me to do my own work. A multidisciplinary team created STAR at Eastern Mennonite University's Center for Justice and Peacebuilding.The concepts, tools, and processes draw from neuroscience, psychology, restorative justice, conflict transformation, human security, and spirituality. The content was further shaped by feedback from thousands of training participants on six continents with lived experience on staying resilient through what life brought: historical trauma, crisis, joy, division, peace, or violence. I now live in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. My current focus is addressing eco-anxiety and despair in ways that free us for collective action that heals us and our planet.