Elaine Miller-Karas, LCSW
Bio
Elaine Miller-Karas LCSW is the executive director and co-founder of the Trauma Resource Institute. She is adjunct faculty at Loma Linda University’s School of Social Work and Social Ecology and has both orchestrated and presented at international projects throughout the world.Her work in Africa included training the Kenyan Association of Professional Counselorsand the 2007 Conference to end Female Genital Mutilation.Elaine’s book is titled Building Resilience to Trauma: The Trauma and Community Resiliency Models.
She co-authored the Trauma and Community Resiliency Modelworkbooks as well as contributed to To TheRescue: Stories of Healthcare Workers at the Scenes of Disaster.
The Quote
Elaine shares the story of the Elpis, the Greek personification of hope who was viewed, not as a God, but rather as an extension to suffering.
What Led to the Specialization of Trauma?
Elaine shares an early story of her experience as a young Lamaze teacher. She talks about the time when two of the families she’d been working with experienced the death of their unborn children. This experience inspired Elaine, who at the time was certainly not prepared to handle such suffering, to create a support network to help other families going through the same ordeal.
A Crucial Early Mistake
Elaine shares an early experience of when she was working with a young client and caring more about her client's recovery from drugs than the client did, and perhaps not being present to what this young woman wanted and needed instead.
Elaine’s Why
What keeps me doing day to day is the hope. Because there’s so much inaccessibility to care, I was inspired to help others learn about the their own power and potential within the human nervous system to heal.
Elaine’s advice
Understand that learning about trauma can be a gift to help people in so many ways.
Get trained in many different modalities and interventions.
Follow your dreams with regards to where your learning takes you!
Elaine’s go-to books
Building Resilience to Trauma: The Trauma and Community Resiliency Models, Elaine Miller-Karas