Resilience and Mental Health in Humanitarian Response (with Paula Ramírez)

"How is it that those individuals who are in the front line, in the first response, can bring that awareness, that connection to their own selves through their own nervous system, owning again a quality of spaciousness in their body?"

My wonderful guest for this episode, Paula Ramírez, supports mental health in contexts of war and displacement. In this work, she has learned a lot about that process of reconnection and nervous system regulation, and about the spaciousness that can become accessible even in difficult situations.

It's clear that Paula has cultivated her own spaciousness and presence, practicing what she has been teaching in humanitarian contexts around the world.

Our conversation moved me deeply. Click Play to hear about:

• Paula's commitment to supporting the mental health of first responders in humanitarian aid contexts, and especially her dedication to introducing connection with the body as part of that mental health support
• A powerful story about working with men digging graves in south Sudan, and what becomes possible when we slow down and become more present
• How all of us - whether in a conflict zone or in a place of currently more peace and privilege - can navigate the two extremes of being overwhelmed by intense emotion, or being disconnected from emotion. (Paula gives some beautiful guidance and tools during the conversation. I really enjoyed feeling the shift in myself as she spoke, and I think you will too.)
• Paula's own story, from growing up in Colombia in the 1980s when there was an intensification of armed conflict and drug trafficking, through health challenges and healing, and questions she had about violence and war, which led her to study anthropology, peacebuilding and conflict transformation, and Somatic Experiencing

I'm so happy to bring Paula's voice to you. There's a lot she's very clear about, in a powerfully helpful way - and she also invites me into the truth of how much we don't know. We don't know yet how to handle the situations humanity faces right now - and I invite you into that with us, into this conversation with a beautiful fellow human being in these times.

Paula Ramírez Diazgranados is Co-Director of Emerge International, formerly called Breathe International, an organization which combines peacebuilding and mental health driven by the restoration of human resilience. Working with humanitarian teams deployed around the globe, with a focus in mindfulness and somatic (body-based) perspectives, Paula bridges traditional understandings of the human and more-than-human world with contemporary crisis work and trauma integration. This has brought her into work with organizations including the UN and the Tibetan Government in exile, supporting populations in contexts of war and displacement. Paula´s guiding vision is the embodied and universal dignity of all beings. 

Turning Season Podcast brings you heartening doses of Active Hope in this Great Turning toward life-honoring, life-sustaining ways of being human. This is a series of deep conversations with people who are rising to their own unique roles in this worldwide shift. It's for every one of you who's aware of our multiple crises, feels your love for life on earth, and is finding your way to participate in cultivating ways of life we can believe in, making a life honoring present, even in the face of an uncertain future.

Show notes with links to connect with Paula: turningseason.com/episode42