[Video] When the World Feels Unsafe: Toxic Stress, Dysregulation, and Clinical Care (Raymond Rodriguez, LCSW, Rev.)

As we know so many in our community are working to support clients — and resource themselves — in the midst of social and global upheaval, we wanted to share this grounding, empowering, and illuminating dialogue featuring Raymond Rodriguez, LCSW, Rev., in conversation with Clarissa Cigrand, PhD.

In this 14-minute dialogue, excerpted from a workshop we hosted last month, they explore how toxic stress and moral injury affect the body, mind, and nervous system, especially in the context of broader systemic and sociopolitical stress. They also reflect on the role of therapists in recognizing dysregulation, naming larger systemic realities, and supporting clients without reducing collective suffering to individual pathology.

On-Demand Workshop with Raymond Rodriguez, LCSW, Rev.

For those who would like to explore further, we invite you to check out our On-Demand workshop we recorded live last month with Raymond Rodriguez, LCSW, Rev. on Working with Trauma in Unsafe and Uncertain Times Somatic Tools for Systemic Stress, Collective Threat, and Nervous System Care

In this 90-minute On-Demand workshop, Raymond Rodriguez invites clinicians to explore clients’—and their own—individual stress and trauma responses when the present moment itself feels unsafe. In times of systemic stress, sociopolitical violence, and collective threat, clients may be responding not only to past trauma, but to real and ongoing conditions of uncertainty and harm.

Drawing on somatic and trauma-informed approaches, this workshop supports clinicians in staying present with clients amid the complexity of this moment while remaining centered, attuned, and supported themselves.

This session also addresses the parallel process clinicians face when they, too, are living within the same conditions as their clients. Through embodied awareness and self-regulation practices, participants will learn how to meet urgency with presence, compassion, and agency, supporting sustainable care for both clients and themselves.

In this workshop you will:

  • Learn how to differentiate and work with both trauma memory reactivation and somatic responses to present-day, objective threat
  • Apply body-based approaches for addressing systemic stress such as racism, transphobia, sociopolitical violence, and moral injury, while honoring individual responses to collective harm
  • Track and work with the parallel process by attending to your own embodied responses as a clinician living within the same conditions as your clients
  • Support clients and yourself in responding to urgency with regulated awareness, grounded action, and sustained compassion
  • Gain lifetime access to the workshop recording and typed transcript

Learn more and register for the On Demand Workshop >>

About Raymond Rodriguez

Raymond Rodriguez, LCSW, Rev. (he/him), is an Afro-Latino Clinical Social Worker with over twenty years of experience in working with community-based programs and private practice. He received his Social Work degree from Columbia University School of Social Work. He is a family therapist with clinical interests in the areas of immigration, diversity, LGBTQAI+ empowerment, spirituality, and working with marginalized communities.

In the last decade he specialized in trauma therapy assisting clients with complex psychological trauma, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and dissociative disorders. He is certified in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy and in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). He has extensive training and practice in Internal Family Systems (IFS), family systems therapy, and psychodynamic psychotherapy. He has held faculty positions with Columbia School of Social Work, Smith College School of Social Work, Hostos Community College of the City University of New York, The Trauma Studies Center of the Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy, and The Integrative Trauma Studies Program of the National Institute for Psychotherapy. He currently teaches at The Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute. He formerly served on the Boards of the National Association of Puertorrican and Hispanic Social Workers and the No More Fear Foundation. He lives in Westchester, NY with his partner, son, and dogs.