Tsunami Recovery Story Portrays Healing Power of Compassion

OKLAHOMA CITY - Dec. 24, 2014 - PRLog -- As we note the ten year anniversary of the Asian Tsunami, a new book, Tsunami Effect by Timothy L. Trujillo, vividly tells the story of the tsunami’s aftermath. In January 2005 Trujillo led a recovery project in several South Indian coastal fishing villages. In cinematic detail, he reports the impact of the destructive waves on communities and individuals’ lives. His unique storytelling places the reader in the environment, experiencing sights, sounds, smells, and the feelings of the victims and the recovery team members. It is a story of devastation, loss, and the indomitable nature of the human spirit.

Trujillo is founder of First Medicines, an organization with a mission to reduce suffering and enhance health worldwide through traditional and integrative therapies. The project began through a series of self-hypnosis workshops for persons living with HIV/AIDS in Los Angeles in 1996. The mission eventually expanded to one of global outreach, both geographically and therapeutically, incorporating multiple mind/body methods to help individuals in need. Central to the program’s effectiveness are tools that help with the distress and trauma of coping with serious health challenges.  It was this that led to the broader scope of disaster recovery.

In the pages of Tsunami Effect, Trujillo recounts his efforts to tailor the program to international communities through meetings at the United Nations. As he was on the threshold of conducting a pilot project in Guatemala, the world was shaken by the earthquake and tsunami. Through a series of circumstances, the team found itself as part of a grass-roots community support project in Tamil Nadu, India. What followed was an odyssey of discovery and fulfillment, wrapped in the mystique of South India.

In addition to relaying multiple personal reports of trauma and grief recovery during the project, Trujillo uses the book’s epilogue to discuss subsequent relief projects and the general impact of loss and trauma, the “Tsunami Effect”. He reports that since 2004, the term tsunami has become synonymous with overwhelming circumstances of many types. Tsunami Effect tells of one man’s personal endeavor to help people in crisis and portrays the true restorative power of compassion, purpose, and the perceptions of strength and support.

“Timothy's writing takes the reader on an amazing journey to a place most of us have never been and along the way shows what the word compassion really means.”