I am blogging on a new platform; well, new to me. Our very own website for the Institute for Community and Family Resilience. And since we bill ourselves as a trauma-informed/trauma responsive organization, I thought I should explain exactly what that means in this context:
- A trauma informed organization realizes the widespread impact of trauma and understands the potential paths for recovery.
- Responds by fully integrating knowledge about trauma into policies, procedures and practices.
- Recognizes the signs and symptoms of trauma in staff, families, clients and others involved with the various systems in the community.
- Resists re-traumatizing staff and consumers.
- Resilience has to do with recovery.Resiliency supports and develops the capacity of staff and consumer to recover post trauma and regain and/or exceed in navigating their daily functioning and goal attainment.
Our postings will cover different aspects of trauma including the trauma experienced by children who are fostered and adopted. So we will include trauma-responsive parenting ideas.
About Author
I have been a social worker for 31 years. My work has been with families and children first in the area of Child Protective Services and then as a therapist working with the same population. I have worked with divorcing and divorced parents teaching co-parenting techniques, supervised therapists and have been a social worker for emotionally challenged children and adolescents in an inner city school system. About 7 years ago I was introduced to the work of Bryan Post and, as a friend and colleague said at the time…I went Post-al. All of my previous assumptions and indeed my work using behavioral interventions, got pushed aside. And along came the realization that none of the interventions, meant to change behaviors, had anything in common with helping children heal from the trauma they had experienced. My best work these days is as a coach/consultant for parents, other caregivers, and teachers. The services I provide are parent education, coaching, consulting and supervising. I am the mother of five adult children and grandmother to five. I am both a bio mom and an adoptive mom.
