THE SILENT EPIDEMIC: Medical Trauma Awareness, Support & Prevention

A Three-Part Recorded Workshop Series Watch Anytime

Three hours of practical, trauma-informed training on medical trauma, delivered by a social worker, nurse, and speech-language pathologist. Instant access, watch at your own pace.

Why this workshop matters

Medical trauma is far more common than most people realize and most people don’t even have language for what they’ve experienced. Patients, families, and clinicians are often left to navigate the emotional and physical aftermath alone.

This workshop brings together a social worker, nurse, and speech language pathologist to help change the culture of care.

Across three sessions, you’ll learn what medical trauma is, how to support yourself and others, and how we can reduce harm within healthcare systems.

What You Will Learn

Workshop 1 — Understanding Medical Trauma

  • What medical trauma really is

  • How common it is (and why most people haven’t heard of it)

  • The emotional and physical symptoms of trauma

  • What PICS (Post-Intensive Care Syndrome) is and how it affects survivors

  • Common medical experiences that can create trauma

  • Stress, trauma, and PTSD through a clinical lens

Workshop 2 — Supporting Yourself & Your Loved Ones

  • How to care for yourself before, during, and after medical encounters

  • How to support children and adults through medical stress

  • Trauma-informed communication skills

  • How to support loved ones during and after hospitalization

  • When and how to seek mental health support

  • Trusted resources, books, and provider directories

Workshop 3 — Prevention & Systems Change

  • The cognitive science behind behavior change

  • How healthcare systems increase the risk of trauma

  • Low-cost interventions that reduce distress (ICU diaries, explanations, informed consent done well)

  • Sensory supports (Butterfly Pig toys & app)

  • Encouraging a “pause” and healing huddles after difficult events

  • Strategies to advocate for safer, more compassionate care

What's Included

Instant Access — $47

  • All three workshop recordings (3 hours of content total)

  • Watch anytime, at your own pace

  • Ongoing access

Looking for CE credit hours? This recording is a great starting point, and a deeper clinician training with CE credit is coming soon. The $47 you pay today will count as credit toward that course.

Who This Workshop Is For

This workshop is designed primarily for clinicians who want to deepen their understanding of medical trauma and integrate trauma-informed practices into their care.

It’s ideal for:

  • Nurses, SLPs, OTs, PTs, MDs, PAs, NPs

  • Mental health providers supporting medically complex patients

  • Allied health professionals working in hospitals, clinics, and home health

  • Rehab and ICU teams

  • Behavioral health and crisis response teams

  • Students and trainees in health and allied health programs

  • Patient experience, care coordination, and social work teams

  • Child life specialists and pediatric providers

We also welcome caregivers, parents, and patient advocates who want to better understand medical trauma and how to support healing—your insights are an essential part of this conversation.

Meet Your Facilitators

Mary Jenner, RN

Pediatric Nurse & Trauma-Informed Care Advocate
Founder, The Butterfly Pig

Mary is a pediatric nurse and trauma-informed care advocate with deep experience supporting children and families through stressful and often overwhelming medical experiences. With years of bedside nursing across a range of pediatric settings, Mary brings a compassionate, patient-centered perspective to understanding how medical trauma develops and how small, intentional shifts in care can reduce fear and improve emotional safety.

As founder of The Butterfly Pig, Mary helps families and clinicians use play, sensory tools, coping strategies, and child-centered communication to soften difficult procedures and create a more supportive environment for young patients. Her work blends practical bedside wisdom, developmental insight, and trauma-informed practices to empower both clinicians and caregivers to make medical care feel safer and more connected.

Mary is dedicated to reshaping the culture of medical care by elevating empathy, communication, and emotional attunement as essential components of healing.

Sarah Stasica, LMSW

Social Worker & Medical Trauma Specialist
Founder of Medical Trauma Support and the Befriend Your Body Community

Certified Mental Health Peer Specialist (MHPS) • Trauma-Informed Yoga Teacher (RYT-200)

Sarah is a medical trauma survivor, peer specialist, and educator who supports individuals and families navigating the emotional and nervous-system impact of medical experiences. Through Medical Trauma Support, she provides peer-based education, community support, and trauma-informed resources, helping people understand how their bodies respond to medical stress and how to rebuild safety and connection after medically traumatic events.

As a Certified Mental Health Peer Specialist and trauma-informed yoga teacher, Sarah integrates somatic awareness, grounding practices, and nervous-system education to create accessible, non-clinical learning spaces. She is also an LMSW practicing under supervision and brings a trauma-informed, patient-centered perspective rooted in both lived experience and clinical training.

Her work combines peer support, nervous-system education, somatic tools, and trauma-informed advocacy to empower patients, caregivers, and clinicians to recognize and respond to medical trauma with compassion and clarity.

Vanessa Abraham, MA, CCC-SLP

Speech-Language Pathologist, Author & PICS Survivor
Founder, A Neu Healing

Vanessa is a speech-language pathologist, author, and survivor of Post-Intensive Care Syndrome (PICS) whose lived experience profoundly shapes her work. After spending time as a patient in the ICU and temporarily losing her ability to speak, Vanessa developed a deep, firsthand understanding of the emotional, cognitive, and communication challenges that patients face during and after medically traumatic events.

Through her platform, A Neu Healing, Vanessa blends clinical expertise with lived wisdom to support children, adults, and families navigating recovery, communication changes, and nervous system dysregulation after medical trauma. Her work helps clinicians and caregivers recognize how trauma and PICS impact communication, participation in care, and the ability to advocate for oneself during vulnerable moments.

As an author, Vanessa shares her experience to empower others and to highlight the urgent need for trauma-informed, patient-centered care. She brings a compassionate, brain-based, and experience-informed lens to every conversation, making her guidance both clinically grounded and deeply human.

What's Included

Instant Access — $47

  • All three workshop recordings (3 hours of content total)

  • Watch anytime, at your own pace

  • Ongoing access

Looking for CE credit hours? This recording is a great starting point, and a deeper clinician training with CE credit is coming soon. The $47 you pay today will count as credit toward that course.

Frequently Asked Questions

Join Us!

Watch this powerful and practical workshop series on your own time.

Learn how to understand medical trauma, support healing, and reduce harm, together.