Gumbaynggirr Healing Smoking Ceremony, Water Blessing and Paddle Out.

Sharyn wrote, ‘Here’s a few of my drone shots from today’s ceremony. My daughter, Lucy, and son in law, Dan, were in the paddle out. When Lucy got out of the water I told her it was so nice that they formed a heart. She responded, ‘We were forming a circle!’

Articles and supportive posts popped up over the following weeks on the local community Facebook page, offering much needed care and also practical information.

Emerald Beach psychologist, Lisa Brown, posted an article about the impact of trauma on our lives.

“There is much pain and trauma in our community connected to Tim’s death on Shelley’s Beach two weeks ago…There are many different responses and needs in this time. Coming together as a community offers support, unspoken and spoken, to those whose lives have been forever changed and traumatised, at whatever level.

Trauma is a natural human response when we witness or hear stories of a violent death, or when we feel we could die or someone we love could die. Our nervous system responds and is activated with fight, flight, freeze or overwhelm, our relaxation response is overridden, and it becomes difficult to be still. This physiological response is normal, but there are things we can do to support our body, mind and heart to return to a balanced state and prevent serious issues that can arise when post-traumatic stress becomes chronic.

Our challenge is that many of us have also experienced other traumas throughout our lives. As a community, we also faced devastating bushfires; we are living through a pandemic, separated from family and friends and witnessing a world changing at a rapid rate.

Stress accumulates in our nervous system and post-traumatic stress can show up as sleep disturbance, intrusive thoughts, feeling anger, guilt or shame, irritability, substance abuse, addictions, nightmares. There can be avoidance of things we may have previously enjoyed including swimming and surfing, visiting family and friends and feeling emotionally numb or a re-experiencing of the trauma which can happen vicariously, even if you weren’t there but heard stories of the incident.

The nervous system can become chronically activated and you may forget how to relax, to be still and present. As a psychologist, many of the referrals I receive for people experiencing depression and anxiety are frequently underpinned by trauma that happened years before. Left unresolved, this can contribute to relationship breakdowns, substance abuse, addiction to social media, and chronic health problems. All these things can be prevented with relatively simple practices that support the body, mind and heart to heal and re-balance.

Following trauma, you will never again be the same yet you can heal, and reconnect to life by developing skills and tools that help you to manage your experiences and in doing so, prevent poor outcomes in your health and relationships.

This simple diagram relates to trauma. If you find yourself in the red zone or the grey zone, please recognise this as an indicator to act – know you are not alone, reach out to family and friends and/or seek professional help. The green zone is where we can heal and integrate our experiences.

In these moments in time, we’re called to be the best, balanced versions of ourselves we can be – this is how we take care of each other.”

Lisa Brown, Psychologist, Mindfulness and Yoga Teacher. With Wendy Haynes. Graphic by Halliday Quinn Limited.

I also wrote and posted an article for the community called, ‘Talking with Children about Traumatic Events’.

A few weeks later, local surfer, Christopher Farmer, wrote an article that offered support and care to the surfers and, most importantly, information about taking precautions in the water.

“Just spotted a large shark around 3m chasing bait in the break zone (waist deep) at Serenity’s Beach. Couldn’t tell the species, but just letting you all know. Stay close together surfers, don’t let it stop you enjoying the ocean. But keep an eye on behaviour, such as finning on the surface, circling you or fast bursts towards you and try to avoid putting yourself amongst schools of bait, especially Australia salmon. Not all sharks will bite a human and, it’s important to remember, that each individual animal has its own personality and hunting methods. Most sharks prefer not to bite, but as we all know from the recent incident it can very very rarely happen by mistake. Know they are always going to be there every day, respect them and know when to move away. Understanding behaviour is key to avoiding any further accidental tragedies. Stay safe legends.”

The support needed and the healing for post traumatic stress and the grieving journey will be different for everyone. See Resource Support List below after these photographs.

Photographs by Norm Farmer