About Us
Mission
At Taming Trauma, our mission is to foster healing, empathy, and understanding within communities impacted by harm. We aim to bridge the divide between individuals who have caused harm and those who have been harmed, creating spaces for meaningful communication that leads to transformation and public safety.
Our Vision
We believe that open dialogue and shared understanding empower individuals to collaborate on solutions for crime prevention rooted in lived experiences. By nurturing empathy, accountability, and healing, we address the root causes of harmful behaviors, paving the way for lasting change.
Our Goals
Taming Trauma has three main goals:
- To facilitate dialogue between people who have been harmed and people who have harmed.
- To encourage "healing pods" within communities around the United States where people in pain can share, support, and heal one another
- Initiate annual legislative or social campaigns that prevent trauma and harm.
Our Beliefs
We fervently believe the path to healing is through dialogue. We believe dialogue can bring understanding, generate empathy, and produce mutual paths of healing for those who have been harmed first, and subsequently those who have harmed.
We believe our approach has the potential to be a valuable and effective component toward public safety. Survivors of harm have informed us that they want to know why the offense occurred; they want to know that the person who harmed them understands the impact of their actions, and that the person(s) has transformed themselves into a contributing and law-abiding citizen. Except in rare occasions, our criminal legal system does not provide these answers.
Transforming Trauma into Healing
Furthermore, as taxpaying citizens, we believe everyone should desire to know what motivates people to harm others. We believe hearing directly from people who have transformed themselves can offer context and patterns that better inform us for the purposes of public safety protocols. We also believe what's most important is normalizing dialogue, creating a culture of humanizing and healing.
Our Founder
Taming Trauma is a community-managed organization, and is the brainchild of Dortell Williams. Williams is an incarcerated person in California who aims to make amends, encourage his peers to make amends, and to foster a community of empathy, harm reduction, and healing through dialogue.