Barbara Hamm, PsyD, is Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Instructor ( part-time) in the Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Director of the Transformative Action Project @ the Public Health Advocacy Institute at Northeastern School of Law and an Affiliate at the Center for Mindfulness and Compassion. Additionally, I have a private practice in Harvard Sq. Cambridge where I provide psychotherapy, supervision and consultation. Many formative professional years were spent at the Victims of Violence Program where I held a variety of roles, including, most recently, Directorship of the Program.

Trauma Work and Mindfulness:

Working so closely with highly and chronically traumatized populations taught me the importance of “being with” myself in order to be compassionately attuned to others in the complex process of reconstitution from traumatic fragmentation to integration. Over the years as I became more aware of contemplative practices, in particular , the practice of mindfulness, I began to both recognize the impact such close proximity to human brutality was having on me and to become more proactive in creating time and space for beauty, play and social action initiatives that were not meeting trauma quite so “head on”. Co-facilitating CMC’s MT-PC groups has been a combination of all of those qualities. The curriculum is one from which I learn something new each time I teach, practicing in a group has an energetic synergy that is greater than the sum of each individual's efforts which is supportive beyond words. I augment this group experience with the grant-funded TAP project which supports groups and communities impacted by violence via creative art-making paired with mindfulness practices.