Principles of Trauma- Informed Treatment

These are the principles that inform our thinking about treatment, and that have led to our creation of the Restorative Approach:
· Children and families are doing the best they can
· It is our responsibility to teach them to do better
· Our most powerful tool is our relationships with them
· They have developed their symptoms for a reason, and the symptoms have been life saving in the past
· When afraid and stressed people seek to control
· Abused children are shame based
· Traumatized people often re-enact their trauma shifting between the roles of victim, abuser and ineffective bystander.
· Compassion and empathy are the cornerstone's of our approach
· The families are central to the children's growth
· Children learn to regulate emotions in the presence of regulated adults
· All behavioral problems are and expression of unmet needs and that our job is to help the child/family meet these needs
· When children are having difficulty they need to be closer to reliable adults
· Staff team work is the essential foundation for all our work, which includes trust, responsibility, honesty and self awareness
· If a child or family is not getting better we need to re-assess what we are doing