Community Resiliency Model (CRM)® Wellness Skills

Practical skills to reset your nervous system and cultivate well-being.

Start Date: August 21, 2023
Duration: 4 weeks
Cost: $40 U.S.
Facilitator: Kelly Purcell

Course Format: Take this four-week self-paced course at your convenience according to your schedule. There will be two optional live Zoom sessions to review and practice the course material to enhance your journey with the course.

Live Zoom Practice Session Dates: 

Tuesday August 29 and Tuesday September 12 at 3:00 pm Pacific, 6:00 pm Eastern. These live sessions will be one hour in duration. Zoom links will be provided during the course. Use this date/time converter to check for other local times. 

Registration: Opening Early August

Course Description:

 The internationally used Community Resiliency Model (CRM)® written by Elaine Miller-Karas and developed by the Trauma Resource Institute teaches skills to help reset the nervous system before, during, and after highly stressful or traumatic experiences while also supporting well-being during activities of daily living. The wellness skills model is based on the biology of the nervous system and can be learned and shared by anyone because we all have a nervous system. The model teaches a common language to help identify and communicate when experiencing stress. It is a powerful tool to increase compassion and communication among people and communities. Individuals can learn the skills for themselves first and then they can also be shared with their family, children, students, parents, friends, neighbors to expand well-being and resilience. 

Course Method of Delivery:

The course is self-paced with two live Zoom practice sessions included and highly encouraged to dive deeper into the skills. The course material for each week will be uploaded to the course site so you can access it anytime, any day at your convenience. Students can and are encouraged to post comments and engage in ‘discussions’ on the discussion board which will be accessible and active for the whole month. 

Course Outline:

Week 1: Overview and Introduction to the internationally used wellness skills model developed by the Trauma Resource Institute. 

• Learn the common language and visual representation that can create an awareness to be used to help recognize and communicate before, during, and after highly stressful or traumatic experiences.
• Understand why these skills are essential and deeply support the trauma-informed movement through the perspective shift and that there are and common reactions to stress and trauma. 
• Learn and utilize the resiliency pause questions that can be used immediately to help support yourself and the people around you.

Week 2: Introduction to the foundational skills and the important neuroscience for resetting and rebalancing your nervous system. 

• Learn and practice the foundational skills for resetting the nervous system to be able to respond from a place that feels like you instead of reacting in ways you know are not your best self. 
• Understand the basic brain science behind stress and trauma and how it relates to our reactions and behaviors. 
• Understand and apply why it’s important to have a biological model to regulate the nervous system to create real change in your life. 

Live Zoom: Dive deeper into the common language of the Resilient Zone and learn about Common Reactions to Stress and Trauma and practice the basic 3 skills. 

Week 3: The wellness skills and defining trauma and resilience and 3 other skills. 

• Understand more about trauma and resilience and why it’s important we have a deeper understanding and skills to regulate our nervous system.
• Learn the strategies of the skill Help Now that works quickly to help you rebalance and reset your nervous system. 
• Learn and practice the final two skills to support well-being. 

Week 4: Embodying the ripple effect and expanding the well-being to others 

• Learn and understand the basics about memory and how our experiences impact us and how we can intentionally use the skills to create a greater sense of well-being. 
• Practice the fundamentals of being a CRM guide by being able to conversationally utilize the skills to help others reset and rebalance their nervous system. 
• Plan and implement practical, easy to integrate ways to bring the skills into your daily life.

Live Zoom: Practice the other three skills and integrate all six skills while learning how to easily integrate them into your everyday life. Practice being a CRM guide and how to share the skills with others to reset and rebalance their nervous system. 

Disclaimer: This is an educational course/workshop and is not a replacement or substitute for therapy or mental health services. Trauma and stress have touched many of our lives and learning the skills can elicit somatic systems so learning and practicing the skills is always a choice. 

Facilitator Bio: 

Kelly Purcell has a Masters Degree in Teaching with 10 years of experience as an educator in a variety of school settings and an elementary school instructional coach. She is a certified Community Resiliency Model (CRM)® teacher and a certified trauma-informed yoga instructor with a certification in crystal singing bowl sound healing. She is the founder of the well-being company Ground. Connect. Empower. that provides workshops, trauma-informed yoga, and sound healing to teach people science-based skills to be their best self with compassion for themselves and others. Kelly has done work with and collaborated with initiatives and organizations working to create trauma-informed, healing centered and equity focused systems including PACEs Connection and local resiliency initiatives in North Carolina. 

Kelly completed her CRM teacher training in 2019, and since has taught CRM workshops for educators, social workers, Guardian ad Litem volunteers and staff, foster parents and grandparents, community leaders, and community members. She has taught workshops locally, nationally, and internationally. Kelly has contracted as facilitator with the Trauma Resource Institute to support several CRM teacher trainings and was part of a team to provide a CRM teacher training for educational leaders in Ukraine during the war in September 2022. Kelly has also presented the Community Resiliency Model® at the Darkness to Light National Prevention Conference in 2021 and the Regional Medical Assistants Conference in 2022 in Wilmington, NC. 

 Kelly has personally felt the incredible life-changing impact of these practical wellness skills and is deeply passionate about not only teaching individuals the CRM skills to help themselves rebalance, reconnect, and re-engage but to create the ripple effect that can deeply impact their families, their communities, and our world, one person at a time.