Partner for Healing

I would like to invite all followers of this blog to join me at:

Please join our new community.

Partner for Healing

We are dedicated to supporting you with usable tools to solve problems, assist in training, and increase the effectiveness of the treatment that you offer to trauma survivors.

Already we have offered a checklist for how administration can support trauma-informed care, and another one for support staff. We have shared a training tool for tackling staff resistance. We provided an infographic about what trauma-informed care really is, and another providing steps for beginning your transformation. We just added a blog post about how being a trauma survivor affects being a parent. More valuable resources will be coming on topics like trauma-informed treatment planning, behavior management in foster care, and vicarious traumatization. 

 

You can't afford to miss all these free tools! Please head to:

 

Partner for Healing

and join us now.

We have developed an online support service to help you offer the effective and powerful healing that you want to provide.

We are on your side as you do the difficult work of offering hope and healing to survivors of trauma. 

We offer you practical information about:

• Treatment
• Program design
• Team dynamics
• The latest brain research and how to apply it
• Vicarious traumatization
• Vicarious transformation
• More 

Our mission is to translate current science and theory into practical tips that you can apply immediately in your job as a healer. 

We are there with you, like an adviser sitting on your shoulder, giving you tools to deal with the complex problems you encounter every day. 

You will learn practical techniques and know what to do next. Your team will receive tools and training materials to help you become a positive and effective team. We will share skills that are useful both professionally and personally. 

Programs experience less turnover when workers feel competent, successful, and are an appreciated member of a cohesive team. We will help you get there!

Our website will contain free information and tools to help you. Our subscribers will receive additional resources. Soon we will also offer courses and membership options for agencies and individuals.

Partner for Healing 

 I hope to see you there!

Aren't We Just Putting a Band-Aid on the Problem?

On 3/31/13 I wrote a post "A Small Thought About Band Aids" (http://tinyurl.com/phgvsmv)

Now I have written a poem in response to the concern that certain interventions are "just putting a band aid on the problem".

Before I share the poem with you, I want to mention that we are VERY CLOSE to opening our new service. It is entitled "Partners for Healing" and will be your tool for more compassionate and effective healing.

After the poem I will give you an opportunity to sign up to learn more about your Partners for Healing, and receive a free infographic of the poem.

Aren't We Just Putting a BandAid on the Problem?

Let me be your band aid

Stretch over you

Protect you

Keep out the dirt and germs

Strengthen you

Cushion you - imperfectly-

From that jolt of pain 

When your wound hits the world. 

Let me cling to you

Faithfully

Enclosing you

As you heal.

As your skin knits together.

As your pain subsides.

As you become whole. 

I'd be very interested in your reactions to this poem. Click on "comment" below and tell me what you think.

Click here to receive your infographic of the poem.

Get Ready for an Entirely New Service

We at the Traumatic Stress Institute have been working hard for six months or so on an entirely new service to better support you, all our friends in trauma informed care. In order to do this right, I am learning all sorts of new web skills. I'm having a great time.

Just to make sure we respond to your most important needs, can you take this one question survey?

One Question Survey

I've also created an infographic on beginning trauma informed care. Get your free copy here:

Click here to join our community and recieve a free infographic.

And here is the link to a list for updates about our new service.

Get updates on upcoming new service

Stay tuned- I think you are going to be delighted with this new product!

What Does a Trauma-Informed Culture Look Like?

We just finished a Joint Commission survey. We did very well. One of my best moments was when the surveyor remarked that this was a special agency. A staff member asked him what he saw that made it special. He replied, "many agencies teach their staff about trauma-informed care. In this agency, that approach is deep in the culture."

So I have been thinking: what did the surveyor observe that enabled him to know that?

He experienced:

The outpatient therapist talking about how the mother of her client had suffered early trauma, and how this was complicating her response to her daughter.

An in depth discussion of a diabetic girls' eating a large muffin snack at school, that included systems issues, peer issues, biological factors, her loneliness and hopelessness, and the pediatrician's personal experience with diabetes and eating muffins.

A group home therapist who was worried that a client who was " doing everything right" still wasn't letting any one get close to her.

Leadership response to discovered problems that focused on systems issues rather than scapegoating.

A discussion of whether a girl with a self- harm history should be allowed to work with knives in the kitchen that reject the simplistic solution of trying to keep her away from any sharp objects.

Group home staff sharing the pain of watching a girl make plans to live with her father and being afraid he will disappoint her.

An in home service discussing their struggles to implement an evidence based practice while maintaining the provision of concrete help they know makes such a difference to families- even when getting new beds is nowhere in the formula.

The longevity of staff at the agency.

The willingness of a program to take a kid back after a lengthy hospitalization despite their doubts to save her from placement in a shelter.

Foster parents who readily related the behavior of their foster son to his past experiences of being hurt.

The warmth and connection between staff, and staff with clients.

And there are probably many more things. I felt proud observing all this. It was one of those times when I could appreciate all that we have accomplished.

My Head is Spinning!

I have recently attended two high powered conferences in a row. The first was Bessel van der Kolk’s 25th Annual International Trauma Conference: PSYCHOLOGICAL TRAUMA: Neuroscience, Attachment, and Therapeutic Interventions on May 28 - 31, 2014 in Boston. The theme was What We Have Discovered Over The Past Quarter Century About Traumatic Stress and Its Treatment.

Then I presented at Bruce Perry’s Neurosequential Model of Treatment Inaugural Symposium:

Brain Development and Trauma: Implications for Interventions and Policy, June 10 – 12, 2014 in Alberta, Canada at the Banff Centre. What a lovely place!

So my head is spinning with new ideas and new takes on old ideas, which I will be sharing with you in the upcoming weeks.

First let me focus on a basic premise of the Neurosequential Model. We cannot think when we are dysregulated. We can think best when we are in relationships to others. So, in every situation, for us and for our clients, follow the sequence:

Regulate

Relate

Reason

We can use many methods to regulate ourselves and our clients. The best are “bottom up”; that is, using the body and rhythmic, repetitive activities. This includes rocking, walking, petting animals, doodling, jumping, music, throwing a ball back and forth, etc. Regular small doses of such activity can keep us regulated throughout the day and avert many crisises.

Once someone is regulated, emphasize relationship. Connected people are at their best. People who feel noticed, heard and safe can think creatively.

Then, and only then, problem solve.

And as soon as problem solving becomes stressful, return to regulation and repeat the sequence again.

More to come….

Five Benefits of Risking Connection© Training

This week I taught a Risking Connection© Basic three-day training for a Connecticut agency. 

This agency provides various types of home-based services, school-based mental health clinics, out patient clinics, parent resource centers, and day care. It was a joy to teach such caring and thoughtful people. At the end of the training we did an exercise that involved people saying what they would keep from the training. Here are the top five things staff will keep:

1. I learned tools that help me understand my clients’ behaviors in a new way
2. I have new ideas for how to help my clients more effectively.
3. I feel more connected to my agency and the individuals within it.
4. I feel more valued by my agency.
5. I learned it is okay to be a human being with human feelings, and how to take care of myself to remain energized and hopeful.

It is always inspiring to participate in the increase of hope and energy that this training creates.

Participate in Improving our Field

My colleagues and I are engaged in an effort to develop a reliable and validated measure of beliefs favorable to trauma-informed care. When complete, this measure will help establish the effects of training, will assist in agency self-assessment, may be used in hiring decisions, and could have many other uses. As part of the process we are asking many professionals in the field to take a longer version of the survey, which will help us determine which questions work best. Would you like to join us?

Dear Colleague,

At this time, there are no reliable and valid measures of trauma-informed care. For this reason, we are working on an instrument to measure staff beliefs related to TIC. When finished, this could be used to measure such things as the extent to which a school or agency is trauma-informed or the outcome of trauma-informed change interventions.

We need your help. We need as many health and education professionals as possible to participate in a brief online survey. The online survey takes 20-30 minutes and has been approved by the Tulane University Institutional Review Board. All participants who complete the online survey will have the option to enter their name into a raffle. After the study is over, four participants will be randomly selected to win a $25 giftcard to Barnes & Noble.

If you are interested in participating, please click on the appropriate link below.

Please also distribute to other listservs or to health care and education providers in your agencies.  

I work in HEALTH CARE or HUMAN SERVICES:  https://qtrial.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_9vGkmqaAckMxbiB

OR

I work in EDUCATION:  https://qtrial.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_6hAQFLH7cssAh9j

Thanks in advance for your help.

Sincerely,

Steve Brown, Psy.D.

Director, Traumatic Stress Institute

Coordinator, Risking Connection Training Program

Courtney N. Baker, Ph.D.

Research and Methodology Consultant, Risking Connection Training Program

Assistant Professor

Tulane University