The body keeps the score

The main goals of this ESL lesson plan are to:

• – Explore trauma vocabulary including PTSD symptoms and treatment terms like EMDR while understanding trauma responses such as “fight,” “flight,” and “freeze” in this c2 proficiency lesson.
• – Analyze addiction concepts through Dr. Gabor Mate videos and comprehension exercises about the relationship between trauma and addiction for advanced esl lessons.
• – Discuss therapeutic approaches by examining famous quotes about recovery and engaging in conversations about collective trauma using these english teaching materials for adult english lessons.

This C2 ESL lesson centers around useful expressions and phrases used in speaking about trauma and addiction.

Introduction

The student reads a brief explanation of trauma and answers some questions related to it.

Video: The body keeps the score

The student’s task is to create a definition of trauma based on the video The body keeps the score.
Then, they match names of trauma responses (fight, flight, freeze, fawn) with their descriptions.

Vocabulary

The student looks for synonyms of the phrase inflict trauma in a word cloud. 

Next, to complete a list of disorders, the student matches the names to the descriptions (cumulative trauma disorder, acute stress disorder, etc.) This is followed by a discussion about collective trauma.

Then, they learn about PTSD, choose PTSD symptoms from a list, and underline the positive ways of coping with it.
The student also learns about EMDR as a type of trauma treatment by completing the text with the missing words.

Video: What is addiction?

The student listens to Dr. Gabor Mate’s explanation of what addiction is and how it’s related to trauma. Then, they answers video comprehension questions.

In the final part of the lesson, the student reads and discusses famous quotes about addiction and trauma.