Trauma and Moral Injury Recovery Coach Sharmin Prince will spearhead a suicide prevention training seminar dubbed ‘safeTALK’ on Thursday, January 30, at the National Library. The seminar will equip persons with the necessary tools to understand the nuances of suicide prevention and how to react if someone is having suicidal thoughts.
Sharmin has been doing consultancies in the US for many years that saw her being involved in at least four seminars a year. She spent a total of 20 years in the human services area and served in all capacities. She worked for Volunteers of America for more than 18 years. Her many years of experience have made her one of the most qualified persons to lead the seminar, which she is eagerly looking forward to doing. While Sharmin’s qualifications make her highly qualified to talk on such issues, nothing beats personal experience. The woman confided that she herself had contemplated suicide, not once but on two occasions.
When asked to share some of the things persons consider when wanting to commit suicide, she said, “I don’t like the word commit. Most times when persons decide to do so, they are looking for someone to talk to and they feel hopeless. safeTALK will be informing persons on several basic things when dealing with someone contemplating suicide. The first is recognizing signs of persons contemplating suicide; also, learning how to prevent it, how to speak to someone and how to get to a safe space.
“Go to Facebook and see how insensitive we are to people who take their lives or attempted suicide. There is a dire need for this training to fill the gap of lack of education.”
Considered to be someone with a deep passion for what she does, Sharmin provides mentoring, coaching and counselling for individuals and groups, and has coached many survivors of child sexual abuse in the Caribbean, Guyana, Trinidad and United States of America.
In 2017, she started a petition for a 13-year-old boy who was sodomized and murdered in Guyana and obtained more than 10,000 signatures. It was sent to the Guyana government requesting a special court for sexual abuse because of its prevalence. Today Guyana has several special courts.
Sharmin’s training portfolio includes TRE® (Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercise), safeTalk, Case Management, Leadership vs Management and DBSA (Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance) Mental Health Peer Support Specialist. She is an activist who has hosted her own television and radio shows in the past, where she spoke publicly to raise awareness of child sexual abuse, suicide and domestic violence. In April 2018, she spoke at the “Stop the Violence Against Women March,” in Guyana. Then in April of the following year, Sharmin did a series of Trauma Releasing and Moral Injury workshops with members of the Guyana Defence Force, City Council workers as well as appeared as a guest lecturer speaking on Moral Injury at the University of Guyana.
Her qualifications include a Master of Science Degree from Nyack College in Organizational Leadership, A Bachelor of Science in Psychology from CUNY and a Diploma in Social Work from University of Guyana. She also began her dissertation to complete her PhD in General Psycho-logy, with an emphasis in Cognition and Instruction at Grand Canyon University but has not yet completed the same. However, she is allowed up to three years to complete her thesis.
There is a fee attached to the seminar, but Sharmin said it is not too costly. The fee will cover the safeTALK booklets and the accommodation at the National Library. The workshop is expected to run for 4 hours. For more information on the workshop, Sharmin can be reached via her Facebook page at Sharmin Prince or contacted via phone at 622-0689.
