Support vulnerable individuals and communities in healing from trauma, restoring health, and building resilience using holistic healthcare and education.
Healing Trauma
To be a first response care provider means that you are providing service during or
immediately after a crisis.
This is a time when there is often actual urgency, or active threat to a person or group of people.
Most will be experiencing a state of hyper- arousal, and their needs will be mostly physiological and safety.
This is a time when there is often actual urgency, or active threat to a person or group of people.
Most will be experiencing a state of hyper- arousal, and their needs will be mostly physiological and safety.
As such, they will be at risk for developing shock trauma, vicarious trauma, and/or secondary trauma.
During a first response, our #1 goal at Inner Ocean is to help physically stabilize the individuals we are working with.
We can do that by providing support to the most immediate needs of the individual or community:
Moving them to safety and providing first aid as well as food, water, and shelter.
These are the supports that will reinforce a sense of safety for an individual going through a potentially traumatic experience.
Our teams have provided first response care to the following communities:
- King Soopers Mass Shooting, Boulder, CO 2021
- Frontline Workers through COVID-19 Pandemic, Boulder County 2020
- Landslide and Flood Disaster in Sindhupalchok, Nepal 2019
- Orphanage for Children with Disabilities, Kathmandu, Nepal 2018
- Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Sex Trafficking, Kathmandu, Nepal 2017
- Nepal Earthquake Disaster, Sindupalchok, Nepal 2016
- Dakota Access Pipeline protests, Standing Rock Reservation, SD 2016
- Planned Parenthood shooting, Colorado Springs, CO 2015
- Burmese Refugee Birth Center and Camps, Mae Sot, Thailand 2015
- Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Sex Trafficking, New Delhi, India 2014
- Tibetan Refugee Camps, Mustang, Nepal 2014
- 100 Year Flood Disaster, Boulder County, CO 2013
- Century 16 movie theater shooting, Aurora, CO 2012
Restoring Health
To be a second response care provider means that you are responding after a crisis is over and the threat to a person’s life is minimized. At this stage, first responders have mostly completed their work and we can now assess the degree to which someone has experienced trauma after the event. Often there is still a felt sense of urgency, even though the emergency of the crisis has passed. This felt sense can last for days, months, and even years after an event.
As such, this is the vulnerable stage where PTSD can develop in an individual and the collective trauma can be held in the field of the community.
Therefore, second response – while it is not directly lifesaving – is a vital service to provide and is often overlooked by disaster response teams.
During the second response, our #1 goal at Inner Ocean is to support an individual as they move from outside of their Window of Tolerance, to back within their Window of Tolerance.
This is the stage where we can help with actually repairing the nervous system by providing attuned, skillful guidance into psychological safety and building personal resources.
How we respond at this pivotal time can help determine how this extremely stressful experience impacts the person for the rest of their life.
Our teams have provided second response care to the following communities:
- King Soopers Mass Shooting, Boulder, CO March 2021 to present
- Frontline Workers through COVID-19 Pandemic, Boulder County October 2020 to present
- Rural Mothers in Sindhupalchok, post-earthquake, Nepal 2016 to present
- Orphanage for Children with Disabilities, Kathmandu, Nepal 2018
- Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Sex Trafficking, Kathmandu, Nepal 2017
- Nepal Earthquake Disaster, Sindupalchok, Nepal 2016
- Burmese Refugee Birth Center and Camps, Mae Sot, Thailand 2015
- Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Sex Trafficking, New Delhi, India 2014
- Tibetan Refugee Camps, Mustang, Nepal 2014
Building Resilience
To be a third responder means that you are responding to a crisis long after it has completed and at a time when we can begin to see the underlying, foundational vulnerabilities in the individuals and in the communities that allowed for the trauma to happen in the first place.
During the third response, the #1 goal at Inner Ocean is to support the strengthening and building of resilience in the community so that they can become less vulnerable to traumatic experiences and eventually even begin to prevent them from happening.
Third responding often takes more time to understand the needs of an individual and community and provide service to the community that has experienced a crisis.
The ultimate goal of third responding is developing leadership in the individuals so that those within the community can now work for their own betterment.
This develops a sense of empowerment from within the community, leaving them more resilient than before.
Our teams have provided third response care to the following communities:
- King Soopers Mass Shooting, Boulder, CO March 2021 to present
- Frontline Workers through COVID-19 Pandemic, Boulder County October 2020 to present
- Rural Mothers in Sindhupalchok, post-earthquake, Nepal 2016 to present
Join the Inner Ocean Community!
Bring awareness to and nurture your global community by following along with our nonprofit’s trauma healing and prevention focused international projects. Learn about ways to get involved whether through joining in one of our service projects, volunteering locally, or donating..