IOA Live Webinar

Trauma-Informed Ombudsing 

Presented by: Laura Smythe 

Never before in recent history, for most of us, have we been called upon to have more resilience, more self-compassion and more need for understanding our differences within a context of social deprivation, social isolation and fear. The shared experiences of the global pandemic and ongoing global political upheaval and environmental challenges could have brought us together like never before.

Unfortunately, many of us have experienced great chasms of misunderstanding about sense of safety, interpretation of scientific data and life choices among our friends, our families and our colleagues. In addition to all of this, neurobiologists tell us that we lost critical social intelligence skills during the pandemic which it will take us years to recover. We are friable and weary. It is more important than ever to make sure we are practicing trauma-informed ombudsing for our visitors AND equally important to practice trauma-informed self-care for ourselves!

Learning Objectives:

1. Gain an understanding of what trauma is and how it may manifest in you and your visitors.
2. Identify practices that will help to ensure your visitors feel safe.
3. Learn how to care for yourself when your visitor's story activates your own trauma.

This course is presented in English. Captions are available in English by default. Individual participants may choose to see their captions translated into one of the following languages: Arabic, Bangla (beta), Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Czech, Danish (beta), Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French (France), German, Hebrew (beta), Hindi (beta), Hungarian,  Italian,  Japanese, Korean, Malay, Norwegian (beta), Polish, Portuguese, Romanian (beta), Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Tamil (beta), Turkish, Ukrainian, or Vietnamese.

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Presenter Bio:

Laura C. Smythe, M.A., M.A., J.D.

Laura C. Smythe, is University Ombuds at Iowa State University where she serves graduate and professional students, staff, faculty, and administrators to manage conflict and build respectful, ethical and inclusive cultures.  She works with individuals and entire units and departments on respectful and ethical communication, inclusivity and ethical leadership.  She also serves as Owner/Founder of Communication Connections, LLC and works in that role as an Organizational Culture Diagnostician building upon her years of experience as a mediator, attorney, ombuds, professor, coach and trainer to consult with for-profit and non-profit industries both nationally and internationally.  In this capacity she works with leaders to design ethical and inclusive organizations that value their employees and the communities in which they work.

Registration is now closed. All IOA webinars are recorded and available to members on-demand within a few days of the live webcast.

Webinar Pricing:

• IOA Members: Free + Access to the Recording 
• Non-Members: $225 (Live Webinar Only)

This course has been submitted for 1.5 Professional Development Hours that can be used for maintaining a Candidate for CO-OP® or CO-OP® Credential pending approval. 

View the IOA Online Learning & Virtual Event Policies.