Mini Workshop 12 - Inner Resources for Stress: Mindfulness and Meditation for Trauma Resilience and Recovery for Diverse Clients in Community Settings

Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) are increasingly used to address stress and trauma, but they are not “one size fits all.” Although MBIs require cultural adaptations, several groups at heightened risk for traumatization have been largely underrepresented in MBI research and practice, including Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, LGBTQ+ individuals, and those with serious mental health issues. This workshop will address implementation and cultural adaptation of Inner Resources for Stress (IR) for diverse groups and settings. IR is a manualized, group-based intervention using mindfulness, mantra, and meditation to promote trauma resilience and recovery. These time-tested techniques are used to promote capacities for attention, emotion, cognitive, and behavior regulation that are deficit in diverse manifestations of trauma, to overcome avoidance, regulate stress reactions, and encounter and resolve trauma material. A distinguishing feature of IR is the use of a variety of mindfulness and meditation techniques that are matched to the needs and capacities of individual clients. This flexibility within manualization is conducive to a transdiagnostic, developmentally informed, and culturally responsive approach. In this workshop, we will use didactic presentation, clinical vignettes, and interactive demonstrations to illustrate ways to culturally adapt IR based on setting, client, and intervention factors. Special attention will be given to recruitment and retention of clients in healthcare, community mental health, and disaster settings.