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Responding to Trauma in Your Classroom

Bad Behavior or Reacting to Trauma?

Think of a student who challenges you. Have you observed any of these behaviors in that student?

Excessive anger

Unusual startle reactions

Loss of appetite

Extreme fatigue

Physical or verbal aggression

Regular tardiness or absence from class

Perfectionistic, controlling or anxious behavior

Difficulty concentrating

Frequent headaches or stomachaches

Low self-confidence

Irritability

Clinginess

Trouble making friends

Self-harm or suicidal ideation

Hoarding

Risky behaviors (including drug or alcohol abuse or sexual acting out)

Panic attacks

Extreme self-reliance

Running away

Defiance

Alienation from peers

If you've observed even some of these behaviors (or other troubling symptoms), you may have a student who is directly or indirectly experiencing trauma. Trauma can be defined as the reaction to a shocking or painful event or series of negative events. Some traumas require immediate intervention and court-mandated reporting; others go by unmarked. Regardless of whether or not you are aware of the details, there are things you can do to mitigate the effects of trauma for individual students and for all students in your classroom.
Source: Mental Health Connection of Tarrant County
What Causes Trauma?

Trauma affects the ways individuals feel, think and behave. It influences self-perception as well as beliefs about other people and the world.

Though this list is not exhaustive, traumatic experiences can include:

Medical crises

Accidents or injuries (like a house fire or car collision that threatens the student's safety)

Bullying or harassment

Family separation (due to incarceration, deployment, divorce, foster placement or death)

Natural disaster

Abuse (emotional, physical or sexual)

Neglect

Observation of domestic, community or school violence

Substance abuse

Mental illness

Terrorism and war

Instability due to being unhoused

Poverty

Overt discrimination or constant microaggressions

Refugee or undocumented status

More students may suffer trauma-or suffer more trauma-than you can see or know. Trauma is difficult to assess and identify; it's also specific to the individual. An event that may traumatize one person may not traumatize another person. Moreover, the same event may lead to different trauma symptoms in different people.
Source: The National Child Traumatic Stress Network
Responding to Trauma

Proactively applying trauma-informed classroom strategies benefits all students. Students respond positively when educators get to know their individual circumstances, affirm their identities and cultivate empathy in the classroom. Here are some ideas to consider incorporating in your teaching practice:

Establish social and emotional safety in your classroom.

Social and emotional safety is the cornerstone of positive classroom outcomes. Research shows that students need to feel both physically and emotionally safe to learn. Students experiencing trauma, including bias, bullying and social isolation, are more likely to feel unsafe.
Strategies

Classroom contracts

Explicit anti-bullying or community-building curricula

Timely interventions in conflicts and hurtful exchanges

Teaching and modeling of empathy and active listening skills

Create a behavior-management plan that focuses on positive reinforcement.

Discipline and behavior management are central to classroom culture and often present unique challenges for students responding to traumatic events or experiences. Foster compassion for and among your students. Focus on praising students for appropriate classroom behavior, not on punishment.
Strategies

Implement student-generated agreements and contracts

Adopt "zero indifference" (NOT zero-tolerance) policies

Seek out training in restorative justice techniques

Explore stress-management strategies to diffuse tense situations and help students process feelings in the moment

Give students opportunities to demonstrate their strengths

Increase your self-awareness and trauma competency.

Increase your knowledge about trauma and how it may manifest for your students. Remember, students respond to trauma in different ways, and their responses may be influenced by cultural traditions, religious beliefs or familial relationships. Connect with students and their families to identify resources and services that can inform how best to support students who experience trauma.
Strategies

Seek professional development on working with specific identity groups

Share support resources with other educators

Connect with community organizations

Engage in ongoing self-assessment and reflection on your trauma responsiveness

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Trauma can have significant and lasting effects on students. This PD Café will help you learn how to recognize the signs of trauma, better understand the causes of trauma, and take steps to establish social and emotional safety in your classroom.

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Many early childhood educators are likely to encounter young children who have experienced trauma on a daily basis.

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In the warren of Brockton Public Schools counseling offices, a police scanner flares. Somewhere in the city, a student's mother, father, aunt or uncle, faces a brick wall, wrists handcuffed behind their back. They're likely not coming home tonight.

But the counselors in these offices, heads tilted to the noise of the street, as well as Brockton's teachers, paraprofessionals, and other educators, are committed to making sure students who suffer traumatic experiences, like a parent's jail time, do not have their own development arrested. For a decade, educators in Brockton, 30 miles south of Boston, have worked to create trauma-informed learning spaces. More recently, NEA and its affiliates, such as the Illinois Education Association (IEA), have carried the issue to the forefront of public education.

The numbers are stark: One in four U.S. students will witness or experience a traumatic event before the age of 4, and more than two-thirds by age 16.

These children do not-they cannot-simply close their eyes to what they've seen or experienced. With each forced eviction, each arrest of an adult in their home, each abuse to their own bodies, an instinctive trigger to "fight or flee" is pulled over and again.

Many educators know intuitively that no matter how hard they work, or all the different things that they try, there are still some children that they struggle to reach. Now, we know the science of why" - Audrey Soglin, Illinois Education Association

Over time, a child's developing brain is changed by these repeated traumatic experiences. Areas that govern the retention of memory, the regulation of emotion, and the development of language skills are affected. The result is a brain that has structurally adapted for survival under the most stressful circumstances-but not for success in school.

"It was like an epiphany," says Brockton teacher Michele Holmes, a veteran of 24 years, when she learned from the Massachusetts-based Trauma and Learning Policy Institute (TLPI) how the traumatic experiences of students affected their brains. "All of a sudden, everything made sense."

In fact, kindergartners who have suffered traumatic experiences score below average in reading and math, even when influential factors like household income and parental education are factored in, according to a 2015 study published in the journal Pediatrics. They also are three times more likely to have problems with paying attention, and two times more likely to show aggression to their classmates and teachers.

Eventually, they become the students who get suspended too often, feeding the school-to-prison pipeline.

Says Audrey Soglin, executive director of the Illinois Education Association, whose trauma-informed trainings have reached thousands of Illinois educators: "Many educators know intuitively that no matter how hard they work, or all the different things that they try, there are still some children that they struggle to reach. Now, we know the science of why."

And now, with resources such as NEA's "Teaching Children from Poverty and Trauma" handbook, NEA members also can know the "how" and "what" of trauma-informed education. And what works for students with trauma also works for non-traumatized students, too.

With a mixture of empathy, flexibility, and brain-based strategies, trauma-informed educators are creating cool, calm classrooms that work for all of their students-a kind of "universal design," says Brockton's head of counseling, John Snelgrove.

The Calming Corner

As a school-based counselor, Snelgrove worked years ago with a student who was quick to rage. "What's going on?" Snelgrove asked. The answer: the student, his mom and his infant brother had lost their home and were sleeping in a laundromat during its closed hours-11 p.m. to 6 a.m.-then showering before school at a friend's apartment.

Another parent told an administrator here, when asked why her child was sprinting home during school hours, that, "he's been very needy since I was shot."

These experiences directly shape your students' brains. Consequently, the disruptive behavior that teachers often see-and punish-isn't willful disobedience or defiance.

It's a subconscious effort to self-protect. Their altered brains are screaming: Fight! Flee! Freeze! "It can look like these children are shutting down [or zoning out], but their brain is telling them, 'you need to be safe,'" says Illinois special educator Kathi Ritchie, the facilitator of the NEA EdCommunities group on trauma-informed classrooms/strategies.

For example, "the behavior of wearing a hoodie pulled tight over their heads, curled up, head down on a desk...is similar to what they have had to do at home. They try to become invisible so that they are not seen by a drunken caregiver or abuser who comes home looking for a punching bag," writes the author of the NEA handbook on teaching children from poverty and trauma.

So what is a trauma-sensitive educator to do? Instead of rushing to "punish, punish, and punish," says Snelgrove, adults should respond in ways that make children feel safe. "Punishment alone, free from treatment and education, doesn't change behavior," says Snelgrove.

"Think before reacting," says Holmes. "When the situation is charged, you have to step back and think 'How can I bring this down and get back to learning?'"

In a corner of Alexandra Kay's kindergarten classroom at the Barrett Russell School in Brockton, there's a small tent where agitated students can curl up on a dimly lit pillow for a few minutes of quiet, and also a sand table, where they can run their fingers through the cool grains. "A sensory break," Kay calls it. For her kindergartners who need a more active break from their desks, Kay also has a small trampoline.

Keeping in mind that the brains of some traumatized students are ill-adapted for language development or memory retention, Kay's room contains lots of visual cues. The day's events are scheduled in advance, routinized, and posted in successive, simply illustrated pictures: first breakfast, then seat work, followed by circle time. Behavioral expectations are illustrated, too: quiet mouths, quiet hands, quiet feet.

Ritchie also recommends teaching strategies that include asking students to repeat verbal instructions, and using more written instructions or visual prompts for multi-step directions, like a sticky Post-it note on a desk. Thoughtful breathing or mindfulness exercises can be helpful, according to the NEA handbook.

At Brockton's George School, every classroom has a "thinking island," where raging or "deregulated" students can retreat, and each island is equipped with a sensory basket that might contain a piece of fleece or satin ribbons, a scented votive candle (wick removed!) and a plastic bottle with colored water and glitter inside. Tip over the bottle, watch the glitter slowly descend, and calm down.

Not long ago, one of Holmes' 7-year-olds asked her for the Play-Doh. "I said, 'you know it's not a toy...' and she said, 'I know! It's a tool to caaaaalm dooooown."

"If the kid needs the putty, let them play with the putty. If they need gum, give them gum! Be flexible!" urges Snelgrove. "We need to provide the materials, or create the conditions, that enable children to be successful."

"Flexibility" is a word or phrase you'll hear often when talking with trauma-informed educators. "Mindset" is another one. "Our kids" is a third.

Three Things You Should Do Now
Learn more with these union-developed resources

1. Download NEA's "Teaching Children from Poverty and Trauma" handbook for information about the symptoms of trauma in students and classroom strategies to build community, teach social skills, and also enhance reading and other academic skills. (One sample tip: Greet every student authentically. Another: Write new vocabulary words in icing on cake!)

2. Join the NEA edCommunities group on trauma-informed classrooms and strategies, so that you can join the discussion with your colleagues and also share in resources, like webinars and presentations.

3. Visit Partnership For Resilience. The partnership, which has IEA at its head, has compiled a wealth of online resources, including explanatory videos and conference presentations.

The Ultimate Goal

The work of a trauma-informed educator isn't about using a special "trauma curriculum," it's about giving students the support they need to access your regular curriculum, says Snelgrove.

"It can't just be, 'open your book, read the questions, and begin.' I have 7-year-olds who think their parents will be deported," says Holmes. They can't learn until their fears are calmed and their attentions [are] re-focused. And they also can't learn if they're suspended or sitting in principals' offices.

"The ultimate goal is to keep them in the classroom," says counselor Kristin McKenna, of Brockton's Arnone School, where the suspension rate fell by more than 40 percent after school-wide TLPI training.

This work also isn't what people might imagine as typical "union work." So why have NEA leaders and affiliates like IEA jumped headfirst into it?

In Illinois, it started with a conversation between IEA's executive director and her pediatrician brother. It continued with IEA-sponsored film screenings of Paper Tigers, a school-based documentary from Walla Walla, Wash., that shows the impact of "one caring adult" in the lives of traumatized teens. Up to 300, 400, or even 500 IEA educators, parents, and community members were mesmerized at each showing, says IEA President Cinda Klickna.

"It was just so powerful-we had one [woman] who went to the screening and said, after 20 years of teaching, that it changed her entire thinking about what she does," says Klickna.

Fueled by that kind of response, IEA's work has rapidly expanded, in part through support from the NEA Foundation, to include three pilot programs in the districts south of Chicago. In those places, IEA's partnership provides members with the professional development they need to be ready to teach, and the services students need to be ready to learn-like restorative dental care and treatment for asthma.

"I say, and I keep saying, advocacy for our members includes professional development. And when you find a topic that really resonates, and this resonates, it's very exciting. It's what they need to be able to do their jobs better.

"To us, it's about leading the profession," says Klickna.

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How Schools Are Helping Traumatized Students Learn Again

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In the warren of Brockton Public Schools counseling offices, a police scanner flares. Somewhere in the city, a student's mother, father, aunt or uncle, faces a brick wall, wrists handcuffed behind their back. They're likely not coming home tonight.

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According to the Children's Defense Fund, one in three African-American boys and one in six Latino males born in 2001 will end up imprisoned sometime in his lifetime. These staggering numbers are tragic beyond words. But in order to change them, we have to change how we perceive the children behind the statistics.

One of us (Joyce) helps teachers and administrators do just this. Joyce works with the San Francisco Unified School District's Student, Family, Community Support Department and several underserved San Francisco schools through her award-winning UCSF Healthy Environments and Response to Trauma in Schools (HEARTS) program. While educators sometimes see a misbehaving child as a bad kid or a mean or oppositional kid, Joyce helps them to see that this is a scared kid. In other words, the child's behavior is the result of chronic exposure to traumatic events beyond their control.

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In addition to impacting behavior, trauma can wreak havoc on a student's ability to learn. Scientists have found that children who have been subjected repeatedly to trauma suffer from other social, psychological, cognitive, and biological issues, including difficulty regulating their emotions, paying attention, and forming good relationships-all of which make it very difficult for a child to succeed in school.

But trauma exposure does not seal one's fate. As the UCSF HEARTS program teaches, there are things that educators and other caring adults can do to mitigate the effects of trauma-and help at-risk students flourish rather than fail.
The scourge of complex trauma
Most of us have experienced some kind of traumatic event in our lives when a situation so overwhelmed us that our brain and body were unable to cope with it. Depending on our internal and external resources, most of us were probably able to recover. However, children who live in under-resourced communities-where domestic and neighborhood violence, racial discrimination, and poverty are more prevalent-can develop post-trauma difficulties after experiencing what is called complex trauma.

Complex trauma occurs through repeated and prolonged exposure to trauma-inducing situations, most of which take place in a care-giving situation. When a child can't rely on a close caregiver for comfort and safety-whether due to the caregiver's own emotional suffering or because the caregiver is the source of trauma-that young person's ability to metabolize and recover from toxic stress gets seriously hampered.

The metaphor Joyce uses in her work with schools to explain the effects of complex trauma is that of a vinyl record. When a song is played again and again, a groove is worn into the record. If, when playing a different song, someone accidentally knocks the record player, the needle will skip across the record and land in the deepest groove, playing that song yet again. Even when you reach the end of the song, sometimes the groove is so deep the needle skips back to play it once more.

Like a needle on a record player, complex trauma wears a groove in the brain. So when something non-threatening happens that reminds us of a traumatic incident, our bodies replay the traumatic reaction-mobilizing us to either run from or fight the threat, while shutting down other systems that help us think and reason. If this happens over and over, we become more easily triggered into that fear response mode, never giving our bodies time to recover. After awhile, as we adapt to this chronic triggering, our behavior can seem crazy or rude when taken out of the context of trauma.

For a child in a classroom, something as simple as the teacher raising their voice to get everyone's attention or accidentally getting bumped by another classmate can steer that child into this groove. When triggered, the child's out-of-proportion emotional and sometimes physical reaction often makes no sense whatsoever to the teacher, making it difficult for the teacher to respond appropriately.
Strategies for teachers
So what can teachers do to help students in their classrooms who have experienced complex trauma? In her work with educators, Joyce offers the following four strategies.

1) Recognize that a child is going into survival mode and respond in a kind, compassionate way. When you notice that a child might be having a difficult time, start by asking yourself, "What's happening here?" rather than "What's wrong with this child?" This simple mental switch can help you realize that the student has been triggered into a fear response, which can take many forms. For example, the student might:

Get a "deer-in-the-headlights" look

Turn red and clench their fists

Breathe more rapidly

Begin moving because their body is getting ready to run or react

Burst into tears or look as if they are about to cry

It's worth noting that not all kids will act out. However, for those who do, once you recognize the trigger, kindly and compassionately reflect back to the child: "I see that you're having trouble with this problem," or "You seem like you're getting kind of irritated," and then offer a couple choices of things the child can do, at least one of which should be appealing to them. This will help the child gain a sense of control and agency and help them to feel safe once more. Over time, if a student who is experiencing something that is frightening or harmful sees that you really care and understand, then they will be more likely to say, "I need help."

2) Create calm, predictable transitions. Transitions between activities can easily trigger a student into survival mode. That feeling of "uh oh, what's going to happen next" can be highly associated with a situation at home where a child's happy, loving daddy can, without warning, turn into a monster after he's had too much to drink.

Some teachers will play music or ring a meditation bell or blow a harmonica to signal it's time to transition. The important thing is to build a routine around transitions so that children know: a) what the transition is going to look like, b) what they're supposed to be doing, and c) what's next.

3) Praise publicly and criticize privately. For children who have experienced complex trauma, getting in trouble can sometimes mean either they or a parent will get hit. And for others, "I made a mistake" can mean "I'm entirely unlovable." Hence, teachers need to be particularly sensitive when reprimanding these students.

To use Rick Hanson's words in his presentation at the GGSC Summer Institute of Educators: "Nurture the hell out of these children." Capture those moments when the student is doing really well and point it out to build their self-worth: "Wow, I love how you sat at your desk for a whole five minutes" or, "Thank you for helping your classmate." When you need to re-direct the behavior, do so privately and in as calm a voice as possible.

4) Adapt your classroom's mindfulness practice. Mindfulness is a fabulous tool for counteracting the impact of trauma. However, it can also be threatening for children who have experienced trauma, as the practice may bring up scary and painful emotions and body sensations.

If you use mindfulness in your classroom, you might consider using the following adaptations that the UCSF HEARTS program and Mindful Schools created:

Tell students that, if they wish, they can close their eyes at the beginning of the practice. Otherwise, they should look at a spot in front of them so that no one feels stared at.

Instead of focusing on how the body feels, have students focus on a ball or other object they're holding in their hands-what it feels like and looks like in their palm.

Focus on the sounds in the room or of cars passing outside the classroom-something external to the body.

By breaking mindfulness practice down into these elemental components, the child is more likely to have a successful experience-and thus be more willing to practice in the future.

5) Take care of yourself. This actually should be number one! The metaphor of putting on your own oxygen mask first before putting it on the child is very true in this situation.
Next week's article will focus on what both teachers and administrators can do to take care of themselves and build a healthy school environment in the face of chronic trauma.
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How to Help a Traumatized Child in the Classroom

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Exposure to chronic trauma is having tragic effects on some of our students. How can educators help?

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Alysia Ferguson Garcia remembers the day two years ago that ended in her making a call to Child Protective Services. One of her students walked into drama class with what Garcia thought of as a "bad attitude" and refused to participate in a script reading.

"I don't care if you've had a bad day," Garcia remembers saying in frustration. "You still have to do some work."

In the middle of class, the student offered an explanation for her behavior: Her mom's boyfriend had been sexually abusing her. After the shock passed, the incident provided an opportunity for the class-and Garcia-to provide the student with comfort, and to cry.

When Garcia first started teaching, she wasn't expecting the stories her students would share of physical and sexual abuse, hunger, violence, and suicide. The stories seemed to haunt her all the way home, she says, recalling nightmares and sleepless nights spent worrying about her students. They also dredged up deep-seated memories of her own experiences with abuse.

"When you're learning to be a teacher, you think it's just about lesson plans, curriculum, and seating charts," said Garcia. "I was blindsided by the emotional aspect of teaching-I didn't know how to handle it. I was hurt by my students' pain, and it was hard for me to leave that behind when I went home."

The Real Costs of Trauma

Data shows that more than half of all U.S. children have experienced some kind of trauma in the form of abuse, neglect, violence, or challenging household circumstances-and 35 percent of children have experienced more than one type of traumatic event, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). These adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can have impacts that extend far beyond childhood, including higher risks for alcoholism, liver disease, suicide, and other health problems later in life.

Trauma in children often manifests outwardly, affecting kids' relationships and interactions. In schools, the signs of trauma may be seen in a student acting out in class, or they could be more subtle-like failure to make eye contact or repeatedly tapping a foot. (To learn more about how trauma impacts students, read " Brains in Pain Cannot Learn! ")

For teachers, who are directly exposed to a large number of young people with trauma in their work, a secondary type of trauma, known as vicarious trauma, is a big risk. Sometimes called the "cost of caring," vicarious trauma can result from "hearing [people's] trauma stories and becom[ing] witnesses to the pain, fear, and terror that trauma survivors have endured," according to the American Counseling Association.

"Being a teacher is a stressful enough job, but teachers are now responsible for a lot more things than just providing education," says LeAnn Keck, a manager at Trauma Smart, an organization that partners with schools and early childhood programs to help children and the adults in their lives navigate trauma. "It seems like teachers have in some ways become case workers. They get to know about their students' lives and the needs of their families, and with that can come secondary trauma."

When you're learning to be a teacher, you think it's just about lesson plans, curriculum, and seating charts. I was blindsided by the emotional aspect of teaching-I didn't know how to handle it.

Vicarious trauma affects teachers' brains in much the same way that it affects their students': The brain emits a fear response, releasing excessive cortisol and adrenaline that can increase heart rate, blood pressure, and respiration, and release a flood of emotions. This biological response can manifest in mental and physical symptoms such as anger and headaches, or workplace behaviors like missing meetings, lateness, or avoiding certain students, say experts.

Yet many teachers are never explicitly taught how to help students who have experienced trauma, let alone address the toll it takes on their own health and personal lives. We reached out to trauma-informed experts and educators around the country to get their recommendations for in-the-moment coping strategies and preventative measures to help teachers process vicarious trauma. We share their tips below.

Talking it Out

Garcia, now a teacher of eight years, says she's found that confiding in others-either a therapist, her boyfriend, or colleagues-helps her process students' trauma and her own emotions.

Connecting with colleagues to talk through and process experiences can be invaluable for teachers coping with secondary trauma, according to Micere Keels, an associate professor at the University of Chicago and founder of the TREP Project, a trauma-informed curriculum for urban teachers.

"Reducing professional isolation is critical," said Keels. "It allows educators to see that others are struggling with the same issues, prevents the feeling that one's struggles are due to incompetence, and makes one aware of alternative strategies for working with students exhibiting challenging behavior."

It doesn't serve anybody to pretend that we're teacher-bots with no emotions, which I think sometimes teachers feel like they have to be.

Finding a wellness-accountability buddy-a peer who agrees to support and keep you accountable to your wellness goals-or using a professional learning community as a space to check in with other teachers are also ways to get that support, offers Alex Shevrin, a former school leader and teacher at Centerpoint School, a trauma-informed high school in Vermont that institutes school-wide practices aimed at addressing students' underlying emotional needs.

At Centerpoint, time for a monthly wellness group-where teachers, administrators, and social workers support each other on their personal wellness goals like exercising and creating work-life balance-is built into the professional development schedule. Staff also use in-service time to focus on taking care of their health together, by hiking, biking, going to the gym, or even learning to knit.

"If I had one wish for every school in the country, it would be that they made time for teachers to really sit down and talk about how they're feeling in the work," said Shevrin. "It doesn't serve anybody to pretend that we're teacher-bots with no emotions, which I think sometimes teachers feel like they have to be."

Building Coping Strategies

Students affected by trauma can have combative personalities and learn which buttons to press to upset you in class, says Garcia. When a student acts out in class, Garcia takes a few deep breaths, drinks coffee, or goes to a different part of the classroom to help another student.

"If I get upset, it never goes anywhere," Garcia said. "When you try to have a battle in class, you automatically lose as the teacher."

That's a good approach, says Keck, who suggests developing proactive coping strategies to address stressful situations in advance. A strategy may be counting to five, visualizing a calming place, or responding with an opposite action-like talking to a student quietly when you want to yell. Waiting until you're actually in a stressful situation means you're likely to overreact or to say or do something unhelpful.

Keck also recommends mapping out your school day and taking note of the times of day you feel most stressed, and then integrating scheduled coping strategies into your daily routine. If you feel stressed when students start to lose focus midday, for example, guide your students in a quick group stretch and some deep breathing to shift energy before getting back to work.

"Look at your schedule. If you see a stressful pattern, don't wait for it to happen. Don't wait to feel overwhelmed and stressed," urges Keck.

The important part is customizing the strategy to meet your needs.

Garcia applies this strategy when she's at home. She knows that after she puts her daughter to sleep, the worry for her students creeps in-so she makes sure to take time for things she enjoys, like watching movies and playing video games.

While many teachers say they don't have time for self-care, experts insist that it's necessary to develop long-term self-care practices-and stick to them-to build up your overall well-being and resilience. These self-care activities could be going for a walk, reading, watching a movie, practicing mindfulness, or talking with a friend-whatever invigorates you.
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Establishing Coming Home Rituals

It can be hard to leave work at work, but to address vicarious trauma, teachers need to create clear boundaries between work and home life. Part of that can be developing a ritual or routine that signifies the end of a work day, either before you head home, on the way home, or at home.

"For me, sometimes it's just as simple as turning off my work phone before I go into my house," Shevrin says. "I hear the sound of my phone turning off and then I know that I'm home."

After an emotionally difficult day, many teachers will write about their experiences before they leave, or sit down with a colleague to help process it, Keck told us.

Others organize their desk or create a to-do list for the next workday so they can let go of worry before heading home. While driving home, teachers listen to audiobooks, call a friend, or sit in silence to decompress. A ritual could even be as simple as changing clothes or taking a bath once you get home.

For Garcia, it's about putting her daughter's needs first and making the most of the time she has with her.

"It's very easy to get overwhelmed and let the job consume you. But teaching is about balance," she said. "When I come home, I try to just focus on my kid so she gets as much of me as she can. It's not always easy, but I've learned to put my life and my daughter's life first."

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When Students Are Traumatized, Teachers Are Too

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Trauma in students' lives takes an emotional and physical toll on teachers as well. Experts weigh in on the best ways to cope.

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How Trauma Affects Kids in School - Child Mind Institute

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Learn how trauma from ongoing neglect, abuse, homelessness or violence causes children to have problems with learning and behavior. How to help these kids.

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With grief, sadness is obvious. With trauma, the symptoms can go largely unrecognized because they mimic other problems: frustration; acting out; or difficulty concentrating, following directions, or working in a group. Students are often misdiagnosed with anxiety, behavior disorders, or attention disorders rather than understood to have trauma that drives those symptoms and reactions. However, learning can also be a big struggle for children who have experienced trauma, and trauma-informed teaching can help.

Here are 10 tips for understanding kids who have been through trauma, plus strategies to help them build resilience so they can bounce back and overcome their challenges.

1. Kids who have experienced trauma aren't trying to push your buttons

If a child is having trouble with transitions or turning in a folder at the beginning of the day, remember that children may be distracted because of a situation at home that causes them to worry. Instead of reprimanding students when they're late or forget homework, affirm and accommodate them by establishing a visual cue or verbal reminder.

"Switch your mindset and remember the kid who has experienced trauma is not trying to push your buttons," says Caelan Soma, PsyD, chief clinical officer with Starr Commonwealth, an organization that offers resources to help schools build trauma-informed, resilience-focused communities.

These positive interactions might seem small, but they can build resilience in students, rewiring areas of their brains that have been impacted by trauma. On the other hand, starting the day with a reprimand can cause a child to shut down.

2. Kids who have been through trauma worry about what's going to happen next

A daily routine in the classroom can be calming, so try to provide structure and predictability whenever possible. Since words may not sink in for children who go through trauma, they need other sensory cues, says Soma. Besides explaining how the day will unfold, have signs or a storyboard that shows which activity-math, reading, lunch, recess, etc.-the class will do and when. Knowing what to expect lets kids feel secure enough to focus on learning. With time, that can show kids that they have the resilience and power to do well in school.

3. Even if the situation doesn't seem that bad to you, it's how the child feels that matters

Trauma is highly individual. A situation that one person can easily recover from can cause trauma for another person. As caring teachers, we may unintentionally project that a situation isn't really that bad, but how the child feels about the stress is what matters most, says Soma.

For some children, it may not be a singular event but rather the culmination of chronic stress. For example, a child who lives in poverty may worry about the family paying rent on time, keeping their jobs, or having enough food.

"Anything that keeps our nervous system activated for longer than four to six weeks is defined as post-traumatic stress," says Soma.

The good news is that the opposite is true, too: small positive interactions, like greeting a student in the hall, might seem insignificant to you but can foster resiliency in your students.

4. Trauma isn't always associated with violence

Trauma is often associated with violence. Yet, kids experience trauma from a variety of situations-like divorce, a move, or being over-scheduled or bullied.

"All kids, especially in this day and age, experience extreme stress from time to time," says Soma. "It is more common than we think."

You never know which student-or how many-can benefit from trauma-informed teaching.

5. You don't need to know the cause of trauma to help

Instead of focusing on the specifics of a traumatic situation, concentrate on the support you can give children who are suffering.

"Stick with what you are seeing now-the hurt, the anger, the worry," Soma says, rather than getting every detail of the child's story.

Privacy is a big issue in working with students suffering from trauma, and schools often have a confidentiality protocol that teachers must follow. You don't have to dig deep into the trauma to be able to effectively respond with empathy and flexibility. Instead, focus on trauma-informed teaching to create a classroom community that builds connections with students and lets them know you're there to help them succeed.

6. There's a direct connection between stress and learning

When kids are stressed, it's tough for them to learn. Create a safe, accepting environment in your classroom by letting children know you understand their situation and support them.

"Kids who have experienced trauma have difficulty learning unless they feel safe and supported," says Soma. "The more the teacher can do to make the child less anxious and have the child focus on the task at hand, the better the performance you are going to see out of that child. There is a direct connection between lowering stress and academic outcomes."

7. When kids feel they're good at something and experience success, it builds their resilience

Find opportunities that allow kids to set and achieve goals, and they'll feel a sense of mastery and control, suggests Soma. Help build resilience by assigning classroom jobs students can do well or letting them help peers.

"It is very empowering," says Soma. "Set them up to succeed, and keep that bar in the zone where you know they are able to accomplish it and move forward."

Rather than saying a student is good at math, find experiences to let them feel it. Because trauma is such a sensory experience, kids need more than encouragement-they need to feel worth through concrete tasks.

8. Self-regulation can be a major challenge for students suffering from trauma

Some kids with trauma grow up with emotionally unavailable parents. The result is the inability to self-soothe. They may develop distracting behaviors and have trouble staying focused for long periods. To help them cope, you can schedule regular brain breaks and promote social-emotional learning. Tell the class at the beginning of the day when there will be breaks for free time, to play a game, or to stretch.

"If you build it in before the behavior gets out of whack, you set the child up for success," says Soma.

A child may be able to make it through a 20-minute block of work if they know there will be a break to recharge before the next task.

9. It's OK to ask kids point-blank what you can do to help them make it through the day

For all students with trauma, you can ask them directly what you can do to help. They may ask to listen to music with headphones or put their head on their desk for a few minutes. If a child isn't able to name what will help them, try offering options: having a snack, going for a walk, or taking deep breaths, for example.

"We have to step back and ask them, 'How can I help? Is there something I can do to make you feel even a little bit better?'" Soma says.

10. You can support kids with trauma even when they're outside your classroom

Loop in the larger school, creating an ecosystem of trauma-informed teaching. Share trauma-informed strategies with all staff-from bus drivers to parent volunteers to crossing guards. Tell them how small interactions, like complimenting a student or offering a smile, can help kids with trauma build resilience.

Remind everyone: "The child is not his or her behavior," says Soma. "Typically, there is something underneath that's driving that to happen, so be sensitive. Ask yourself, 'I wonder what's going on with that kid?' rather than saying, 'What's wrong with the kid?' That's a huge shift in the way we view kids."

Looking for more ways to build resilience in your students?

Transform the lens through which you view and react to student behavior. Trauma-Informed Certification for Teachers offers strategies for helping kids cope with stress while building their resilience.
LEARN MORE ABOUT TRAUMA-INFORMED CERTIFICATION

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10 Things About Childhood Trauma Every Teacher Needs To Know

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With grief, sadness is obvious. With trauma, the symptoms can go largely unrecognized because they mimic other problems: frustration; acting out; or difficulty concentrating, following directions, or working in a group. Students are often misdiagnosed with anxiety, behavior disorders, or attention disorders rather than understood to have trauma that drives those symptoms and reactions.

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Shawn Ginwright Ph.D.
From time to time, researchers, policy makers, philanthropy and practitioners all join together in a coordinated response to address the most pressing issues facing America's youth. I've been involved with this process for long enough to have participated in each of these roles. I recall during the early 1990s experts promoted the term "resiliency," which is the capacity to adapt, navigate and bounce back from adverse and challenging life experiences. Researchers and practitioners alike clamored over strategies to build more resilient youth.

In the early 2000's the term "youth development" gained currency and had a significant influence on youth development programs, and probably more importantly how we viewed young people. Youth development offered an important shift in focus from viewing youth as problems to be solved to community assets who simply required supports and opportunities for healthy development. Since that time, a range of approaches have influenced how we think about young people, and consequently our programmatic strategies. I have, for the most part, attempted to nudge and cajole each of these approaches to consider the unique ways in which race, identity and social marginalization influence the development of youth of color.

More recently, practitioners and policy stakeholders have recognized the impact of trauma on learning, and healthy development. In efforts to support young people who experience trauma, the term "trauma-informed care" has gained traction among schools, juvenile justice departments, mental health programs and youth development agencies around the country. Trauma informed care broadly refers to a set of principles that guide and direct how we view the impact of severe harm on young people's mental, physical, and emotional health. Trauma informed care encourages support and treatment to the whole person, rather than focusing on only treating individual symptoms or specific behaviors.

Trauma-informed care has become an important approach in schools and agencies that serve young people who have been exposed to trauma, and here's why. Some school leaders believe that the best way to address disruptive classroom behavior is through harsh discipline. These schools believe that discipline alone is sufficient to modify undesired classroom behavior, but research shows that school suspensions may further harm students who have been exposed to a traumatic event or experience (Bottiani et al., 2017). Rather than using discipline, a school that uses a trauma informed approach might offer therapy, or counseling to support the restoration of that student's well-being. The assumption is that the disruptive behavior is the symptom of a deeper harm, rather than willful defiance, or disrespect.

While trauma-informed care offers an important lens to support young people who have been harmed and emotionally injured, it also has its limitations. I first became aware of the limitations of the term "trauma-informed care" during a healing circle I was leading with a group of African American young men. All of them had experienced some form of trauma ranging from sexual abuse, violence, homelessness, abandonment or all of the above. During one of our sessions, I explained the impact of stress and trauma on brain development and how trauma can influence emotional health. As I was explaining, one of the young men in the group named Marcus abruptly stopped me and said, "I am more than what happened to me, I'm not just my trauma". I was puzzled at first, but it didn't take me long to really contemplate what he was saying.

The term "trauma informed care" didn't encompass the totality of his experience and focused only on his harm, injury and trauma. For Marcus, the term "trauma informed care" was akin to saying, you are the worst thing that ever happened to you. For me, I realized the term slipped into the murky water of deficit based, rather than asset driven strategies to support young people who have been harmed. Without careful consideration of the terms we use, we can create blind spots in our efforts to support young people.

While the term trauma informed care is important, it is incomplete. First, trauma informed care correctly highlights the specific needs for individual young people who have exposure to trauma. However, current formulations of trauma informed care presumes that the trauma is an individual experience, rather than a collective one. To illustrate this point, researchers have shown that children in high violence neighborhoods all display behavioral and psychological elements of trauma (Sinha & Rosenberg 2013). Similarly, populations that disproportionately suffer from disasters like Hurricane Katrina share a common experience that if viewed individually simply fails to capture how collective harm requires a different approach than an individual one.

Second, trauma-informed care requires that we treat trauma in people but provides very little insight into how we might address the root causes of trauma in neighborhoods, families, and schools. If trauma is collectively experienced, this means that we also have to consider the environmental context that caused the harm in the first place. By only treating the individual we only address part of the equation leaving the toxic systems, policies and practices neatly intact.

Third, the term trauma-informed care runs the risk of focusing on the treatment of pathology (trauma), rather than fostering the possibility (well-being). This is not an indictment on well-meaning therapists and social workers many of whom may have been trained in theories and techniques designed to simply reduce negative emotions and behavior (Seligman 2011). However, just like the absence of disease doesn't constitute health, nor the absence of violence constitute peace, the reduction pathology (anxiety, anger, fear, sadness, distrust, triggers) doesn't constitute well-being (hope, happiness, imagination, aspirations, trust). Everyone wants to be happy, not just have less misery. The emerging field of positive psychology offers insight into the limits of only "treating" symptoms and focuses on enhancing the conditions that contribute to well-being. Without more careful consideration, trauma informed approaches sometimes slip into rigid medical models of care that are steeped in treating the symptoms, rather than strengthening the roots of well-being.

What is needed is an approach that allows practitioners to approach trauma with a fresh lens that promotes a holistic view of healing from traumatic experiences and environments. One approach is called healing-centered, as opposed to trauma-informed. A healing centered approach is holistic involving culture, spirituality, civic action and collective healing. A healing-centered approach views trauma not simply as an individual isolated experience, but rather highlights the ways in which trauma and healing are experienced collectively. The term healing-centered engagement expands how we think about responses to trauma and offers more holistic approach to fostering well-being.

A shift from trauma informed care to healing centered engagement (HCE) is more than a semantic play with words, but rather a tectonic shift in how we view trauma, its causes and its intervention. HCE is strength based, advances a collective view of healing, and re-centers culture as a central feature in well-being. Researchers have pointed out the ways in which patients have redefined the terms used to describe their illnesses in ways that affirmed, humanized and dignified their condition. For example, in the early 1990s AIDS activists challenged the term "gay-related immune deficiency" because the term stigmatized gay men and failed to adequately capture the medical accuracy of the condition. In a similar way, the young men I worked with offered me a way to reframe trauma with language that humanized them, and holistically captured their life experiences.

A healing centered approach to addressing trauma requires a different question that moves beyond "what happened to you" to "what's right with you" and views those exposed to trauma as agents in the creation of their own well-being rather than victims of traumatic events. Healing centered engagement is akin to the South African term "Ubuntu" meaning that humanness is found through our interdependence, collective engagement and service to others. Additionally, healing centered engagement offers an asset driven approach aimed at the holistic restoration of young peoples' well-being. The healing centered approach comes from the idea that people are not harmed in a vacuum, and well-being comes from participating in transforming the root causes of the harm within institutions. Healing centered engagement also advances the move to "strengths-based' care and away from the deficit based mental health models that drives therapeutic interventions. There are four key elements of healing centered engagement that may at times overlap with current trauma informed practices but offers several key distinctions.

Communities, and individuals who experience trauma are agents in restoring their own well-being. This subtle shift suggests that healing from trauma is found in an awareness and actions that address the conditions that created the trauma in the first place. Researchers have found that well-being is a function of the control and power young people have in their schools and communities (Morsillo & Prilleltensky 2007; Prilleltensky & Prilleltensky 2006). These studies focus on concepts such as such as liberation, emancipation, oppression, and social justice among activist groups and suggests that building an awareness of justice and inequality, combined with social action such as protests, community organizing, and/or school walk-outs contribute to overall wellbeing, hopefulness, and optimism (Potts 2003; Prilleltensky 2003, 2008). This means that healing centered engagement views trauma and well-being as function of the environments where people live, work and play. When people advocate for policies and opportunities that address causes of trauma, such as lack of access to mental health, these activities contribute to a sense of purpose, power and control over life situations. All of these are ingredients necessary to restore well-being and healing.

The pathway to restoring well-being among young people who experience trauma can be found in culture and identity. Healing centered engagement uses culture as a way to ground young people in a solid sense of meaning, self-perception, and purpose. This process highlights the intersectional nature of identity and highlights the ways in which culture offers a shared experience, community and sense of belonging. Healing is experienced collectively, and is shaped by shared identity such as race, gender, or sexual orientation. Healing centered engagement is the result of building a healthy identity, and a sense of belonging. For youth of color, these forms of healing can be rooted in culture and serves as an anchor to connect young people to a shared racial and ethnic identity that is both historical grounded and contemporarily relevant. Healing centered engagement embraces a holistic view of well-being that includes spiritual domains of health. This goes beyond viewing healing only from the lens of mental health, and incorporates culturally grounded rituals, and activities to restore well-being (Martinez 2001). Some examples of healing centered engagement can be found in healing circles rooted in indigenous culture where young people share their stories about healing and learn about their connection to their ancestors and traditions, or drumming circles rooted in African cultural principles.

Healing centered engagement offers an important departure from solely viewing young people through the lens of harm and focuses on asset driven strategies that highlight possibilities for well-being. An asset driven strategy acknowledges that young people are much more than the worst thing that happened to them, and builds upon their experiences, knowledge, skills and curiosity as positive traits to be enhanced. While it is important to acknowledge trauma and its influence on young people's mental health, healing centered strategies move one step beyond by focusing on what we want to achieve, rather than merely treating emotional and behavioral symptoms of trauma. This is a salutogenic approach focusing on how to foster and sustain well-being. Based in positive psychology, healing centered engagement is based in collective strengths and possibility which offers a departure from conventional psychopathology which focuses on clinical treatment of illness.

Adult providers need healing too! Healing centered engagement requires that we consider how to support adult providers in sustaining their own healing and well-being. We cannot presume that adulthood is a final, "trauma-free" destination. Much of our training and practice is directed at young peoples' healing but rarely focuses on the healing that is required of adults to be an effective youth practitioner. Healing is an ongoing process that we all need, not just young people who experience trauma. The well-being of the adult youth worker is also a critical factor in supporting young peoples' well-being. While we are learning more about the causes and effects of secondary on adults, we know very little about the systems of support required to restore and sustain well-being for adults. Healing centered engagement has an explicit focus on restoring, and sustaining the adults who attempt to heal youth- a healing the healers approach. Policy stakeholders should consider how to build a systems that support adult youth worker's well-being. I have supported organizations in creating structures like sabbaticals for employees or creating incentives like continuing education units for deeper learning about well-being and healing.

Marcus's comments during our healing circle "I am more than what happened to me" led me to question our approach to trauma. What blind spots do we have in our approaches to supporting young people who experience trauma? How might the concepts which are enshrined in our language limit rather than create opportunities for healing? What approaches might offer "disruptive" techniques that saturate young people with opportunities for healing and well-being?

The fields of positive psychology and community psychology offers important insight into how policy makers, and youth development stakeholders can consider a range of healing centered options for young people. Shifting from trauma informed care or treatment to healing centered engagement requires youth development stakeholders to expand from a treatment-based model, which views trauma and harm as an isolated experience, to an engagement model which supports collective well-being. Here are a few notes to consider in building healing centered engagement.

Healing centered engagement begins by building empathy with young people who experience trauma. This process takes time, is an ongoing process and sometimes may feel like taking two steps forward, and three steps back. However, building empathy is critical to healing centered engagement. To create this empathy, I encourage adult staff to share their story first, and take an emotional risk by being more vulnerable, honest, and open to young people. This process creates an empathy exchange between the adult, and the young people which is the foundation for healing centered engagement (Payne 2013). This process also strengthens emotional literacy which allows youth to discuss the complexity of their feelings. Fostering empathy allows for young people to feel safe sharing their experiences and emotions. The process ultimately restores their sense of well-being because they have the power name and respond to their emotional states.

An important ingredient in healing centered engagement is the ability to acknowledge the harm and injury, but not be defined by it. Perhaps one of the greatest tools available to us is the ability to see beyond the condition, event or situation that caused the trauma in the first place. Research shows that the ability to dream and imagine is an important factor in fostering hopefulness, and optimism which both of which contributes to overall well-being (Snyder et al. 2003). Daily survival and ongoing crisis management in young people's lives can make it difficult for them to see beyond the present.

The greatest casualty of trauma is not only depression and emotional scares, but also the loss of the ability to dream and imagine another way of living. Howard Thurman pointed this out in his eloquent persistence that dreams matter. He commented, "As long as a man [woman] has a dream, he [she] cannot lose the significance of living" (p. 304). By creating activities and opportunities for young people to play, reimagine, design and envision their lives this process strengthens their future goal orientation (Snyder et al. 2003). These are practices of possibility that encourage young people to envision what they want to become, and who they want to be.

Healing and well-being are fundamentally political not clinical. This means that we have to consider the ways in which the policies and practice and political decisions harm young people. Healing in this context also means that young people develop an analysis of these practices and policies that facilitated the trauma in the first place. Without an analysis of these issues, young people often internalize, and blame themselves for lack of confidence. Critical reflection provides a lens by which to filter, examine, and consider analytical and spiritual responses to trauma. By spiritual, I mean the ability to draw upon the power of culture, rituals and faith in order to consistently act from a place of humility, and love. These are not cognitive processes, but rather ethical, moral and emotional aspects of healing centered engagement.

The other key component, is taking loving action, by collectively responding to political decisions and practices that can exacerbate trauma. By taking action, (e.g. school walkouts, organizing peace march, or promoting access to healthy foods) it builds a sense of power and control over their lives. Research has demonstrated that building this sense of power and control among traumatized groups is perhaps one of the most significant features in restoring holistic well-being.

I ran into Marcus at a street fair in Oakland not long ago. He was excited to see me and wanted to share with me that he was in a new relationship so he introduced me to his girlfriend. "This is my friend Michelle"! He introduced her with a sense of pride, and accomplishment. He also shared with me that he had enrolled in a program that was training him to become a medic. As we chatted for a while in the warm sun, dodging children, and fast walking parents, he leaned toward me and whispered, "yeah Dr. G, I'm not entirely healed, but I'm hopeful". I smiled, gave him a "brotha hug" and we departed ways.

I suppose, that if we had more time to chat he would have explained that healing is a process that we navigate for a lifetime. He might have shared with me that the future of his healing journey had just begun. Seeing him again, holding hands, sipping a soda with his new girlfriend was a powerful reminder, that he was so much more than the trauma he had experienced. As practitioners, researchers and policy stakeholders we need to listen and learn from young people who have insights that can advance how we think about trauma and healing. Shifting to healing centered engagement offered new questions, and strategies about how to support young people who experience trauma. Healing centered engagement is just a step toward a more holistic, and humanistic framework to support young people who have been harmed. Such an approach encourages us to think and act more boldly about how to restore young people and create places where they can truly flourish.

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The Future of Healing: Shifting From Trauma Informed Care to Healing Centered Engagement

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From time to time, researchers, policy makers, philanthropy and practitioners all join together in a coordinated response to address the most pressing issues facing America's youth. I've been...

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Teaching With Strengths in Trauma-Affected Students: A New Approach to Healing and Growth in the Classroom by Tom Brunzell, Lea Waters, and Helen Stokes

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Why would I choose the image of an iceberg to present this material? Self-Care Like Your Life Depends on it www.MahalYoga.com/trauma-informed Compassionate & Holistic Practices for Ourselves and Those We Serve Community Wellness & Resiliency What do we think could have been some

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It is no secret that America has deep political and economic challenges, despite the decadelong expansion since the end of the Great Recession. Politically, the country has split into red and blue tribes, but members on both sides are finding it increasingly impossible to talk with each other. Economically, although the economy's expansion is in its ninth year, the prospects for upward mobility-earning more than your parents, as one measure -have diminished markedly over several decades, due to the widening of income and wealth inequalities not seen since before the Great Depression. The result is anxiety, anger, and incivility that has infected our politics and our lives.

Political leaders, academic and think tank scholars, journalists, and pundits across the political spectrum have offered all sorts of remedies for these political and economic ills. I have a very different prescription, not only to begin to heal our political and economic rifts, but to improve American education and students' interest in learning: Require all students in high school, or earlier, to take one semester of debate, and ideally incorporate debate into humanities and possibly some science classes as well.

Healing a divided America with debate

I know it's unconventional and possibly counterintuitive, what with all the partisan shouting matches we see on cable TV or (if you can bear them) in congressional floor speeches. But those are not the skills taught by competitive debating in school, namely how to: research; think critically and do it on your feet; back up arguments with evidence (not fake news!); work collaboratively with partners; speak persuasively in a civil fashion; and, perhaps most importantly, being able to argue both sides of most any issue or subject. These are also precisely the skills that all students, not just the less than 1 percent who participate in competitive debate, should acquire to be good citizens and to be successful in the workforce.

One county in America, Broward County in Florida, recognized this to be the case in 2013, when it became the first and only county-so far-to require all high schools, middle schools, and even elementary schools (beginning with fourth grade), to offer speech and debate classes. After getting off to a slow start, this "Broward Initiative" is now thriving, with over 12,000 students currently participating. The county proudly touts how its debate initiative is improving educational performance of its student-participants.

It should be no surprise, therefore, that two of the leaders of movement for gun control who emerged after the February 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County, David Hogg and Jaclyn Corin, debated competitively. Several other students from the school had been preparing for debates over gun control before the tragic shooting took place.

Hundreds of thousands of former competitive debaters know the value of debate from their own experiences. Nonetheless, the fact that many successful politicians, actors, and business leaders were once debaters doesn't prove that debate made a difference in their lives; many of them may have been predisposed to be good researchers and speakers, and that's why they enrolled in debate. This may have been true for some, but also somewhat beside point. Even the most naturally gifted people can and do benefit from formal instruction in any activity, practice and hard work. Just ask Michael Jordan, Serena Williams, or Bryce Harper, or any other highly successful athlete.

In my own case, "selection bias" clearly wasn't an issue. Until the age of 15, I had a severe stutter, and my mother (on the suggestion of a friend) had to more than twist my arm to persuade me to enroll in a speech and debate class in my sophomore year in high school. Thank goodness she did. Competitive debate not only cured the stutter that up to that point made me reluctant to speak up in class-and which years of formal speech therapy was unable to fix-but it also taught me research and thinking habits and gave me confidence to succeed in school, opening the door to a successful professional career thereafter.

In any event, controlling for selection bias has become essential in social science to prove that any kind of educational or policy intervention "works" or adds value-and thus to convince policymakers, educators, or school boards to implement a new idea. Removing selection bias is relatively easy for policy interventions that can be randomized, like clinical trials of drug discoveries, and the results from one group, randomly chosen, that gets the "treatment" compared to a control group that does not. Randomized control trials have not yet been used for competitive debate so far, however, because schools understandably have let any student who wants to enroll in a speech and debate class in high school (or earlier) to do so.

An alternative statistical technique for controlling for selection bias is to use multiple regression analysis to separate out the contributions of different possible variables, including a variable designed to test for selection bias, to the performance of a dependent variable, like educational performance. In the debate context, one study published in 2011 by Professor Briana Mezuk, an epidemiologist at the University of Michigan (then at Virginia Commonwealth University) and three co-authors, has done this. It compared the educational performance of debaters and non-debaters in the Chicago Public School district at the same schools that participated in the Chicago Urban Debate League-a national competitive debate network for mostly minority students-from 1997 through 2006. The authors controlled for self-selection by calculating a debate propensity score based on eighth grade standardized test scores. They find that even after accounting for the influence of self-selection, debaters were "more likely to graduate from high school, performed better on the ACT, and showed greater gains in cumulative GPA relative to similar comparison students."

At the very least, the Chicago study-coupled with the anecdotal evidence I have learned in interviews for a book I am doing on this topic-suggests that more students should be encouraged to participate in competitive debate purely for educational reasons, as Broward county has done. One noteworthy activity is the Matthew Ornstein Summer Debate Institute, held in Washington, D.C., which provides debate training for minority students as early as sixth grade. Started several years ago with just 30 campers, last summer the program hosted over 150, and is getting stronger and more influential every year.

The case for debate-centered instruction

I believe there is a case for doing even more without putting every student through the rigors of competitive debate-which admittedly is not for everyone-even in school districts like Broward County that have made the activity much more popular. That idea is to "debatify" (a term coined by Les Lynn, featured shortly below) other parts of high school and lower school curriculum and classes. By that, I mean structure at least some of these classes around student debates on key questions raised by their literature, history, civics, and even science classes.

Students are much more likely to remember what they researched and debated than some or even much of the material that is delivered to them in lecture format and then regurgitated on an exam. It is often said that the best way to learn something is to teach. Debate-centered education takes this adage up a notch, requiring students not only to teach, but also to be persuasive on both sides, requiring anticipation of questions and counter-arguments, activities that teacher-delivered lectures do not promote.

As Professor Mark Roche, the former dean of arts and sciences at Notre Dame, has written, famous scholar-educators through the years-notably Socrates and Rousseau-have recognized that students learn more when they are "actively engaged in the learning process (instead of simply receiving answers)." ¹ Debate is perhaps the purest form of "active learning" one can imagine.

Moreover, it is a good way to engage students in the fun of learning, especially for those who are bored or may be a grade level or two behind where they should be. Educator Lucy Crehan-whose book, "Cleverlands," provides an authoritative survey of why school systems in other countries are out-performing ours-observes that the "motivation of students plays a huge part in whether they succeed." ² Having to prepare for and participate in a debate in class, perhaps first in small groups and later before the entire class, should be an ideal way to motivate students who are at an age where they want to express themselves. Structured debate formats make that possible, through civil discourse, and should make learning enjoyable and worth pursuing.

Widespread exposure to and participation in debate-centered education could also make students who go on to college more willing to tolerate others' points of view, and also to be more tolerant themselves, issues which have been highlighted by a number of authors, most recently by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt in "The Coddling of the American Mind." "Trigger warnings" that reflect students' hypersensitivity to potentially offensive speech that have cropped up on some campuses might become a thing of the past. Many college campuses could become more like what they are supposed to be: environments for broadening students' knowledge and preparing them for the rough-and-tumble of the real world.

Debate-centered education should also be attractive to teachers, many of whom may be initially skeptical of the idea. It reduces the number of lectures teachers must give-too often before a class of largely bored students (the most frequent complaint I have heard from teachers at all levels, including college)-and turns them more into mentors. (At least this could occur during "debate month" or other times during the semester when debates are used as the main instructional vehicle.) Many teachers, I suspect, would enjoy this mentorship function as much, if not more than, delivering lectures.

Prioritizing debate in classrooms

Debate-centered education will work best if all students are required, in either middle or high school, to take an introductory course in forensics and debate. Who will teach these courses? If a school already has a competitive debate team, its coach may not be able to teach the subject to all the students in the school and to coach the competitive team as well. An alternative idea is to pay existing debate coaches a supplement to run mini-debate teaching seminars-probably a week over the summer would suffice-to teach other teachers in their schools, and other schools (especially those in rural areas without a local college debate program), how to teach introductory debate. This is essentially how Broward County accommodated the increased student demand for competitive debate after the county required all schools under its jurisdiction to offer such programs.

Certifications of satisfactory completion of these teacher instruction programs should be permitted in lieu of a formal year or more of master's level communications classes. Admittedly, school districts would have to come up with a modest amount of extra money for these training sessions, but given the potential educational, civic, and work benefits of debate, the investments should be worth it.

Fortunately, three educational pioneers already have been implementing debate or argument-centered instructional techniques. One is Les Lynn, a former champion debater at Northwestern University, who has a website with teaching resources and maintains a consulting practice helping teachers introduce and refine argument-centered instructional techniques. Over a 20-year period, Lynn has taught over 2,500 public school teachers in Chicago and elsewhere around the country.

Another pioneer is Eric Tucker, living proof of the power of debate to transform a life. Tucker grew up in Iowa in a low-income household with multiple learning issues and self-admitted behavioral issues, who was enticed into competitive debate in middle and high school by the prospect of traveling and hanging out with cool kids. Debate gave Eric a purpose in life, helping overcome his learning difficulties (which clearly were greater than my own) to gain an Ivy League education and then a Ph.D. in social science at Oxford, after which he joined with Lynn to help run the National Urban Debate League. Thereafter, Tucker and his wife, Erin Mote, founded the Brooklyn Laboratory Charter School, serving students from grades six through 10. At this writing, the school has over 800 students, almost all minority, many with learning disabilities (like those Tucker overcame).

Notably, Brooklyn Lab not only teaches debate, but also incorporates debate-centered instruction throughout its humanities curriculum, and that's one of the elements to which Eric attributes the school's educational success. In this respect, Brooklyn Lab and similar schools are ahead of even Broward County in making debate a central part of the learning process.

Meagan Kowaleski, another former debater who cut her teeth as a debate coach working in Korea, is a third pioneer. She is now working to integrate debate into the curriculum of the Success Academy charter school network in New York, whose student bodies are also mostly minority, while coaching the academy's competitive debate teams.

Experimenting with debate-centered education in classrooms

The efforts to introduce argument- or debate-centered educational techniques should be expanded. Ideally, the education philanthropic community-which historically has shown great interest and financial support for education reform-will turn its attention to this agenda. Areas to focus on include: supporting more research, development, and experimentation of ways to introduce debate-centered techniques into elementary, middle, and high school classes; launching a summer institute for training public school teachers (with scholarships) in debate-centered techniques; and funding academic evaluations of the various experiments in debate-centered education adopted by different localities.

I believe that debate-centered education not only would improve educational performance of the students who are exposed to these teaching methods, but expansion of debate in schooling could have much broader social and political benefits. If all Americans had the skills that debate imparts, I believe many more of us would be more open-minded and thus less politically divided. Many more workers would have the communications, critical thinking, and research skills that employers say they want, in turn making them and our entire economy more productive, translating to higher and more evenly distributed wages. One rigorous evaluation of a democracy-oriented charter school network that makes use of debate as part of its instruction does show significant benefits to civic outcomes, which should at the very least suggest that debate-centered instruction might have a role to play in this positive result.

Once philanthropies are involved and more teachers are given the instruction suggested here, more teachers and their principals are likely to become advocates before local school boards, especially once they are armed with studies which are likely to further document the link between debate participation and a range of positive student outcomes. In this way, the idea would spread far beyond the limited locations where this kind of teaching is now being used.

An important element of the reform agenda I describe here is that it is not a top-down, one-size-fits-all prescription imposed by the federal government, which is inconsistent with the historical local control of education in America (and now politically impossible in any event). That may make it slower to penetrate the educational system, but it also fits with the need for experimenting with and refining techniques for introducing debate techniques into varying types of classes with different student populations.

Another advantage of debate-centered reform is that it is aimed at all public schools. Thus, it need not pit conventional public and charter schools against each other, an issue which has generated increasing controversy in recent years as it unfortunately has been caught up in partisan warfare.

President John F. Kennedy, although not formally trained as a debater, turned out to have great debating and speaking skills. Nonetheless, he made the case for the kind of educational reform I am suggesting here, when he stated in August 1960:

I think debating in high school and college is most valuable training whether for politics, the law, business or for service on community committees such as the PTA and the League of Women Voters. ... I wish we had a good deal more debating in our educational institutions than we do now.

I do not claim that requiring debate and introducing debate-centered education in non-debate courses will completely solve both the political and economic problems of the country, or even most of the challenges confronting K-12 education. Former Education Secretary Arne Duncan makes a powerful case in his new book, "How Schools Work," that major increases in teacher pay, coupled with true accountability and multiple measures for reducing gun violence in schools, stand at the top of any to-do list to improve American education.

My argument, rather, is that much wider use of debate-centered education belongs high on the education reform agenda, too. The evidence and the logic behind the idea suggests that it will work not only to improve educational performance, but could help produce a better society and healthier democracy. Let the experiments begin.

1. Mark William Roche, "Why Choose the Liberal Arts?" (University of Notre Dame Press, 2016).

2. Lucy Crehan, "Clever Lands: The Secrets Behind the Success of the World's Education Superpowers." (London: Unbound, 2016), p. 200.

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A counterintuitive proposal for improving education and healing America: Debate-centered instruction

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It is no secret that America has deep political and economic challenges, despite the decadelong expansion since the end of the Great Recession. Politically, the country has split into red and blue tribes, but members on both sides are finding it increasingly impossible to talk with each other.

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Working with trauma-affected students is a difficult balancing act.

We acknowledge the harmful impacts of the past, and hold out hope for a future of healing. We create a safe environment for students to share their lives, yet maintain professional boundaries. We provide our caring and our help to others, but have to pay attention to our own well-being, too. We work in our classrooms but depend on the support of our community.

These were the clear takeaways for teachers who participated in Edutopia's recent Twitter chat on the topic of trauma and social and emotional learning (SEL). Two parallel ideas emerged in the back and forth. First, as teachers we need to focus on the individual student and the strong, one-to-one relationships that support our trauma-affected kids. And second, creating these bonds requires a broader cultural adjustment and reprioritization, where the whole community works together to cultivate a space in which students, educators, and staff members thrive.

What about classrooms without a lot of trauma? It's risky to assume that our students haven't experienced trauma-according to a seminal study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, childhood trauma is far more pervasive than previously believed and is often invisible. And chat participants asserted that trauma-informed and SEL practices benefit all children, building critical skills like self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, and an openness to teamwork and cooperation. Adopt a "universal approach," suggested the nonprofit Zero to Three, and "assume all children are trauma-affected and need social and emotional learning instruction and support."

An emerging body of research backs that stance. A 2017 metastudy of over 97,000 K-12 students, for example, found that SEL practices boost academic success, decrease disruptive behavior, and reduce emotional distress in the long term.

So how do we balance the individual focus with a community commitment to trauma-informed SEL? Luckily, our Twitter chat participants had some great advice to share.

Know Your Students

To support students who have experienced trauma, start by flipping the traditional classroom paradigm: Relationships have to come before content, insisted dozens of educators.

It's a simple enough rule, but it runs against the grain and needs to be constantly reinforced: "If you're not addressing the trauma, and the students are distracted, checked out, and falling increasingly behind, even the best curriculum won't matter," explained Wendy Clark, reflecting on the order of events that drive real learning. If that point wasn't a settled matter by the end of the thread, Bill Waychunas cut straight to the heart of the issue by inverting the original proposition entirely: "Better question," he wrote, turning Edutopia's opening salvo around: "How do you teach academics WITHOUT having SEL embedded throughout your teaching and classroom?"

Excellent question. Wish we'd thought of it.

Still, if teachers agreed that one-to-one relationships were the critical building blocks of good SEL-and good trauma-informed practice-how can that effort be scaled to 20 or 30 unique students, each of whom experiences trauma differently? The good news is that it's not all on the individual teacher; system-wide supports are required to distribute the work and create a broader culture of belonging and mutual support (more on that below). Within that context, though, all educators need to row in the same direction: The trick, according to Mathew Portell, principal of the trauma-informed school Fall-Hamilton Elementary in Nashville, is to never lose sight of the individual student: "Trauma affects children in so many different ways. Some kids are reactive while others are reserved. It is key to know the students' stories in order to know how to support them."

With so much pain in the classroom, educators should be mindful that traumatic life experiences can sometimes emerge as behaviors that we might otherwise label as challenging. "Trauma can manifest in so many behaviors! Hypervigilance can masquerade as hyperactivity," offered Sarah MacLaughlin, recasting a child's nervous disposition as a possible response to a difficult home environment. "Fear can look like aggression: flight, freeze, or fight."

And it's not just very young children whose behavior may mask an underlying challenge. Math teacher Kareem Farah sees a connection between anger and trauma in his high school kids: "Students in poverty have been conditioned to suppress their pain. It often manifests as anger. It is critical to recognize that frustrated students are often those that have experienced the highest levels of trauma and need the most loving attention."

The Whole School Model

So relationship-building in the classroom is essential-the one-to-one with students is indispensable-but the impact of the work is amplified and reinforced only when it occurs within the broader contexts of the school and community.

Many teachers in the chat highlighted the need for a consistent, team-based approach. As Carmen Zeisler put it, "Being trauma-informed is not a checklist, but a mindset change. It is critical that everyone in the building is working towards being trauma-informed." Other educators agreed, adding that administration and school board support is needed to sustain these changes.

Teachers recommended ways to develop staff buy-in: Sarah Giddings shared that colleagues at her school meet in small groups to stay accountable to one another, and that extends to support staff like computer technicians. Lindsey Mattingly's school, Valor Collegiate in Nashville, engages all staff in restorative circles so teachers get firsthand experience of the social and emotional skills required of students in that model-with powerful results: "When teachers fully understand trauma and its manifestations, the mindset will shift from one more thing to do to THE thing we must do."

Understandably, there's bound to be pushback. Acknowledging that there is sometimes skepticism about broad, new programs is helpful-teachers and administrators won't all jump onboard enthusiastically. Several educators recommended connecting trauma-informed practices to the existing compassion and empathy among teachers: "You show them what they are already doing. Then they realize they are already partly there," says English teacher Alison Killy. And Joe LaCasse agreed that the foundations of trauma-informed practices were already embedded in many classrooms, and it was really a matter of emphasis: "Deep down, all teachers care about kids. So, this really gets at the core of being a teacher. It's not just something 'extra.'"

What About Me?

Well exactly. What about you?

The teaching profession is intellectually and emotionally challenging. Many educators in the chat recognized that the social and emotional work has to start with themselves. Educators who see the value of a practice in their own lives are more likely to be passionate advocates, and the learning ecosystem is only truly healthy when all members of the community are thriving. In other words, helping teachers feel emotionally grounded and supported is helping students, too. "Don't forget that teachers have SEL needs! Concentrate on teacher well-being and empower them to address their own needs," suggested the organization Move This World. In a school culture that focuses on wellness for all, teachers can practice and then model positive social and emotional skills for their students more authentically.

Social and emotional support for teachers also helps buffer the effects of secondary traumatic stress and vicarious trauma-when teachers experience symptoms similar to post-traumatic stress disorder because of the stress of bearing witness to others' trauma. Supportive peer connections are an important part of that prevention: "Don't let teachers with struggling students feel alone," recommended Rosa Derricott. "It should be a school-wide approach where everyone's supporting each other."

In the end, of course, we can't rely on our schools alone to address systemic issues of poverty, violence, or drug addiction. The net of responsibility must be cast more widely. "A trauma-informed approach to social emotional learning requires partnership between counselors, teachers, parents, and other trusted adults to help guide students through short and long-term challenge," suggested the chat participant Mom of All Capes. Not to put too fine a point on it, but perhaps it was user Belinda Talonia who said it all most succinctly: "SEL belongs to all of us."

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The How and Why of Trauma-Informed Teaching

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In an extraordinary Twitter chat, educators discuss building trauma-informed social and emotional learning environments.

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Poverty, violence, hunger, abuse, and an unstable world are causing chronic stress for our nation's kids. And that sad truth is that prolonged exposure to stress can damage the centers of the brain associated with learning, cause behavioral problems, and increase the cycle of violence. Nearly half of the children in the United States, or almost 35 million kids, have experienced "at least one or more types of serious childhood trauma," according to a survey by the National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH).

As teachers are the adults who see students for the longest periods of time throughout the day, they play a critical role in recognizing the symptoms of trauma and treating it at the classroom level. After reading our brief synopsis on trauma, check out the tips below that are absolutely essential for anyone working with trauma.

What is trauma?

Trauma can be broken down into these eight categories, according to the work of Bonnie L. Green, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at Georgetown University (Wilson & Sigman, 2000/Green, 1993):

1. Threat to life or limb.

2. Severe physical harm or injury, including sexual assault.

3. Receipt of intentional injury or harm.

4. Exposure to the grotesque.

5. Violent, sudden loss of a loved one.

6. Witnessing or learning of violence to a loved one.

7. Learning of exposure to a noxious agent.

8. Causing death or severe harm to another.

For young students, traumatic stress can severely impact a student's ability to learn, function in social environments, or manage their emotions and behaviors. Becoming a trauma-informed educator means becoming more acutely aware of how trauma alters the lens through which its victims see their world, and building practices that honor that reality. The good news: beyond these tips below, there are professional development opportunities that can greatly help you support your students (and yourself).

Implementing trauma-informed best practices in the classroom

Know the signs

According to the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, children experiencing traumatic stress can have difficulty self-regulating emotions, may be aggressive, skittish, impulsive, or require extra attention while simultaneously remaining fearful of new or unfamiliar situations or people. Teachers may also notice physiological symptoms of trauma such as appetite issues, weight changes, exhaustion, frequent illness, or poor hygiene. When these changes are sudden, it's especially telling that a student may be experiencing traumatic life events. A comprehensive list of traumatic stress symptoms can be found in the NCTSN Toolkit for Educators. Are any of your students exhibiting one or more of these signs?

Provide consistency and structure

Students who experience trauma can feel triggered by a lack of clear structures, boundaries, and routines. As we're sure you can imagine, providing classroom consistency, daily structures, clear expectations, and reliable warmth and love help stressed students feel safe. Normalcy is profoundly healing and comforting, particularly for students who do not feel in control of their lives.

Implementing even small classroom systems can greatly alleviate emotional stressors and prevent behavioral incidents. For example, sharing a clear agenda for the day's learning makes a student aware of what's ahead and expected, giving them time to get comfortable. This decreases the stress and uncertainty caused by classroom activity transitions and the roll-out of assignments. Additionally, offering a student some choices throughout the day gives them a sense of dominion, developing a mending sense of self-control over their environment.

Get serious about social-emotional training

Traumatized students require explicit emotional training to regulate their emotions, process stress, and heal from their experiences. Ideally they should receive counseling, but on the classroom level, social-emotional learning can include things like meditation, breathing exercises, and mindfulness practices that provide students with time to pause and reflect on their emotional state.

Teaching students to recognize negative emotions, pause, and process them before they manifest into negative behaviors also builds coping skills and reduces the need for disciplinary measures. "When well taught and when practiced regularly, [mindfulness] has been shown to be capable of improving mental health and well-being, mood, self-esteem, self-regulation, positive behavior, and academic learning," according to research by Katherine Weare, Professor Emeritus of Education at the University of Southampton (2013).

Use restorative practices over zero tolerance policies

Students with traumatic backgrounds benefit from clear boundaries and limitations, coupled with a restorative approach to discipline, rather than a punitive one. Restorative practices rebuild a traumatized student's relationship to authority and to the adults and peers in their daily lives. Restorative circles, team-building exercises, meditations, and counseling can all reform a traumatized student's belief in fairness, as well as their capacity for conducting themselves with integrity.

"Restorative Justice is particularly impactful for traumatized students because it prioritizes de-escalation. It's about getting to the root of a student's triggers, underlying issues, and motives, teaching healthy communication skills," says Gina Angelillo-Farieri, a Restorative Justice Coordinator in the New York City Department of Education. "Relying solely on punishment leaves out the important and healing lessons that students of trauma so desperately need."

Take care of yourself

Working with individuals who have experienced a traumatic event can make someone more susceptible to secondary traumatic stress. In other words, if you're working with kids who are coping with trauma, there's a chance it could affect you too. That's why it's so important to take care of yourself - a healthy teacher is a more effective teacher. According to the Treatment and Services Adaptation Center, awareness is the key to managing secondary traumatic stress. They recommend regular small group check-ins, regular exercise, a healthy diet, and sufficient sleep.

For more on trauma-informed teaching, check out these resources:

Tags: Professional Development, Trauma and Resilience

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Trauma-Informed Teaching Tips for Educators & Traumatized Students

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Poverty, violence, hunger, abuse, and an unstable world are causing chronic stress for our nation's kids. And that sad truth is that prolonged exposure to stress can damage the centers of the brain associated with learning, cause behavioral problems, and increase the cycle of violence.

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Thanks for participating in the 1st National Conference for Creating Trauma-Sensitive Schools! We hope to see you next year!

February 17-19, 2019 | Washington Hilton | 1919 Connecticut Avenue Northwest | Washington, DC 20009

Each presentation has a .pdf formatted Certificate of Attendance.
Digital handouts are provided by many of the presenters at our Conference.
Please contact them directly with any questions about content.
Conference Grid Schedule
Keynote: Trauma-Sensitive Schools: Keeping the Momentum Going

Susan Craig, Ph.D.
Susan Craig TSS February Keynote 2018
1 OPEN KEY COA
Keynote: Educators as Agents for Post-Traumatic Growth

Robert Hull, Ed.S.
3 D2 KEY COA
Lunch Banquet: Exploring the Best in Trauma-Informing Education

Lara Kain

ATN Trauma Informed Communities
Video Links- http://marc.healthfederation.org/community/videos

Keynote: Surviving or Thriving? The Intentional Practice of Workplace Wellness

Dr. Mona Johnson
4 CLOSE KEY COA
1A- The Trauma-Informed School Implementation Systems and Strategies

Jim Sporleder, retired Principal of Lincoln High School and National Trauma-Informed School Consultant, Walla Walla, WA.

1B -She is -A Place of Recovery

Maureen Spataro
1B COA
1C - Joy Starved? Self-Care is NOT All About You

Janis Bozowski, MA, M.Ed.

ATN 2018 Joy Starved
ATN 2018-JOY STARVED-MY PLANS FOR A MONTH OF SUNDAYS
ATN2018 Joy in 5 minutes Handout
Self-Care Wheel
Self-Care Wheel template
1C COA

1D-Beyond the Basics: Creating Trauma-Informed Classrooms

Karen Doyle Buckwalter, MSW, LCSW, Director of Program Strategy, Chaddock, Quincy, IL
Cory Powell, M.S., Ed.S. Director of Education, Chaddock, Quincy, IL

1E-An Introduction into the Sanctuary Model

Maxine Reddy, Ed.D.

1F - Integrating Compassionate Trauma-Sensitive School Practices into PBIS Framework

Pamela Black, MA, MA

1G -Shame-Spotting: Helping Kids Feel Valued and Valuable

Tiffany Sudela-Junker

1H- Words Matter: Impacts of Trauma on Language & Language-Based Learning in Children

Carole Soucaze, MS, Ed.S., & Susan Ward, LPC

2A - Washington St. Compassionate Schools Initiative

Ron Hertel & Mona Johnson, Ed.S.

2B- A Therapeutic Preschool's Journey from Trauma-Aware to Trauma-Informed

Gail Knipshild, MA, Kateri Chapman-Kramer, LCSW & Jennifer Blevens, LCSW

2C- Trauma-Informed Pedogogical Practices & Strategies

Tina Newton, David Meloche, MA & Jennifer Kurta

8 Executive Function Skills
Slides for TIPPS Initiative Washington Participants
TIPPS Summary
trauma sensitive school checklist
2C COA

2D- Trauma-Sensitive Math Instruction

Janyne McConnaughey, Ph.D. & Melinda McConnaughey, MS

2E- Innovative Neurodevelopmental Assessments & Family/Educational Interventions for
Adoption Trauma Cases

Ron Federici, Psy.D.,President/CEO of Care for Children International and Developmental Neuropsychologist, Manassas, VA
Dr. Leslie Moon, Sterling, VA

2F - Generating Resilience, Outcomes, and Wellness: Exploring the Role of School Counselors in Creating Trauma Sensitive Schools through a State-Wide Implementation Project

Cassie Yackley, Psy.D., Anne Barach, MA, Doug Bonnema, MA, & Kaitlin Gallagher, M.Ed.

2G -A Hybrid Approach to Trauma-Informed Restorative Practices

Joe Brummer & Miguel Cardona, Ed.D.

2H -Revealing Resilience through Whole-School Change

Martha Merchant, Psy.D.
2H COA
3A- From the Perspective of the Trauma-Impacted Student Panel

Melissa Sadin, Moderator
3A COA
3B- Advanced Trauma-Sensitive Approaches via Learning Community Models: Changing Daily Practices, Mindsets and Culture in Our Schools

Karen Johnson, MSW, LCSW and Pamela Black, MA, MA

3C - Partner, Build, Grow: Building Trauma-Informed Environments through Aligned School-Connected Initiatives

Linda Sheriff,M.Ed., Olga Acosta Price, Ph.D. & Rachel Sadlon, MPH

3D - Responding vs. Reacting: Helping Your Students Understand the Importance of Self-Regulation Begins with You!

James Moffett, M.Ed. & Cindy Blasi LMSW, CCTP

3E- Overview of SITCAP Model

Kimberly Hodges, Ed.S.
3E COA
3F -The Principal Principle of Trauma-Sensitive Schools

Ralph Rothacker, Principal St. Anne's School and ATN Creating Trauma-Sensitive Schools Trainer, Albany, NY

3G- Promoting a Paradigm Shift in Metro Nashville Public Schools: Our Process Towards Becoming Trauma-Sensitive

Mary Crnobori, Ph.D., BCBA

3H - Best Practices in Behavior Management and Emotional Regulation for Students Affected by Trauma

Jerry Yager, Ph.D. & Mathew Bennett, MA, MBA

4A- Trauma-Focused Schools From the Top Down - From Policy to Practice

Melissa Sadin, MAT, M.Ed.
4A COA
4B - Enhancing Safety, Regulation and Resilience - The Sunshine Model

Kay Schieffer, MA, M.Ed. & Catherine Tucker, Ph.D., LMHC, RPT/S
4B COA
4C- Trauma-Informed Special Education Advocacy

Julie Beem, MBA, Nicole Tuchinda, MD, JD
4C COA
4D - A Trauma-Informed Lesson Plan: How to design a learning experience that will support all students' learning

Shannon Meyer
4D COA
4E - Writing with Kids from Hard Places

Nathan Levy
4E COA
4F-Trauma and the Healing Power of Empathy

Nicole Cecchini, MA and Sarah Mushlin

4G -Trauma & Learning in Higher Education - Identifying, Articulating and Enacting Trauma-Informed Practices in a Post-Secondary -Classroom

Jeanie Tietjen, Ph.D. & Meredith Watts

4H - Mindfulness: Ways to Keep Calm and Carry On

Ann Aubuchon, MS

5A-Trauma-Informed Schools and Classrooms: What Youth-Serving Adults Need to Know

Lara Kain, MPA
5A COA
5B-A Recipe for Creating a Trauma-Sensitive Elementary School Classroom

Julie Simmons & Ilene Pawlak

5C - Creating a Trauma Toolkit: Practical Exercises from Prince George County
Lisa Weed Phifer, D.Ed., NCSP 5C COA
5D-What to Do About Homework

Natalie Montfort, Psy.D.

5E- What Trauma-Informed Parents Wish that Teachers Knew

Tiffany Sudela-Junker, Stephanie Garde, JD
Junker Garde Feb_2018_Presentation 5E COA
5F-Rewriting the Script: Trauma-Informed Problem Solving and Conflict Resolution at School

Alex Shevrin, M.Ed

5G- Trauma: The Impact on Mind Body and Behavior

Cheryl Turner, MA, LIMHP, LPC, Center on Children, Families, and the Law - University of Nebraska - Lincoln, NE

5H - Healthy Relationships 101: Lessons that Last a Lifetime

Michael Jascz, Founder, The Relationship Foundation, New York, NY

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Handouts - Creating Trauma Sensitive Schools

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Thanks for participating in the 1st National Conference for Creating Trauma-Sensitive Schools! We hope to see you next year! February 17-19, 2019 | Washington Hilton | 1919 Connecticut Avenue Northwest | Washington, DC 20009 Conference Handouts Certificates of Attendance (COA) Available until 9/1/2018 Each presentation has a .pdf formatted Certificate of Attendance.

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Trauma Sensitive School Checklist

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Mission

The Trauma and Learning Policy Initiative's (TLPI) mission is to ensure that children traumatized by exposure to family violence and other adverse childhood experiences succeed in school. To accomplish this mission, TLPI engages in a host of advocacy strategies including: providing support to schools to become trauma sensitive environments; research and report writing; legislative and administrative advocacy for laws, regulations and policies that support schools to develop trauma-sensitive environments; coalition building; outreach and education; and limited individual case representation in special education where a child's traumatic experiences are interfacing with his or her disabilities.

Genesis

Our work has its roots in the school exclusion crisis that arose in Massachusetts in the mid-1990's. Massachusetts Advocates for Children (MAC) noticed a pattern of violence in the lives of many of the children who had been expelled or suspended from school. Working together with parents and experts across the disciplines of education, psychology, law, and neurobiology, MAC organized the Task Force on Children Affected by Domestic Violence, which produced five working papers on the impact of domestic violence on education, family law, and other matters. These papers laid the foundation for later research and a growing recognition that traumatic experiences were impacting children at school in specific ways, including their ability to perform academically; manage their behavior, emotions and attention; and develop positive relationships with adults and peers. Building on the recognition generated by the Task Force's work, MAC successfully advocated at the Massachusetts legislature for the creation of the Safe and Supportive Learning Environments grant program (MGL c. 69, sec. 1N (b)) that gave small amounts of money to school to experiment with trauma sensitive approaches.

In 2000, MAC joined in partnership with Lesley University's Center for Special Education to hold the first ever conference on the impact of trauma on learning. From that point on the work on trauma's impact on learning at school gained momentum as MAC worked with an interdisciplinary group of psychologists, educators, and attorneys to draft what would later be published as Helping Traumatized Children Learn (HTCL). This publication introduced the Flexible Framework-an organizational tool for creating trauma sensitive schools-developed by MAC in collaboration with those schools that had received funding from the legislature.

In 2004, MAC entered into a formal partnership with Harvard Law School called the Trauma and Learning Policy Initiative (TLPI). In addition to advocacy at the state and national levels, the Education Law Clinic operated by TLPI teaches Harvard law students advocacy and litigation skills on behalf of this population of vulnerable children.
Since the publication of HTCL in 2005, over 95,000 copies have been distributed.
Since the publication of HTCL in 2005, over 95,000 copies have been distributed. Schools in Massachusetts and across the country have used the Flexible Framework to create trauma sensitive environments structured to help all children learn. The second volume of HTCL, Creating and Advocating for Trauma-Sensitive Schools, shares the experiences of these trauma sensitive educators with other schools that are considering addressing the impact of trauma on learning.

Ongoing Activities

Helping schools create trauma-sensitive environments;

Advocating for laws, policies and funding streams that will enable schools to create trauma sensitive learning environments

Improving trauma sensitive approaches to meeting the needs of individual children at school in both regular and special education;

Engaging in a public education campaign to teach policymakers, educators, administrators, health and mental health providers and parents about the impact of trauma on learning and the need for trauma sensitive schools

For further background about TLPI, please read the Harvard Law Bulletin cover-story from the Fall 2014 issue.

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About the Trauma and Learning Policy Initiative - (TLPI)

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The Trauma and Learning Policy Initiative's (TLPI) mission is to ensure that children traumatized by exposure to family violence and other adverse childhood experiences succeed in school.

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Research has made clear that the damaging effects of trauma are not saved until adulthood. It starts early and it affects students and teachers. And some experts claim that as much as 30 percent of students suffer from the effects of trauma.

How can an educator help? Create a trauma-sensitive classroom where kids can feel safe and build resilience. Here are some quick ideas from a recent neatoday.org article How Trauma is Changing Children's Brains.

Trauma-sensitive teachers often offer a "comfort zone" to their students, a safe space where kids can retreat and calm down. Sometimes it's as simple as a beanbag chair. Their classrooms also are neat and uncluttered. Think about how you feel coming home to a messy house, says John Snelgrove, head of guidance services for Brockton (Mass.) Public Schools. A little overwhelmed, right? It's worse for hyper-aroused children. Cool colors reign on the walls.

Illinois special education teacher Kathi Ritchie recommends teaching strategies that include:

predictable classroom routines with advance warning to students of any changes

asking students to repeat verbal instructions

using more written instructions

using visual prompts for multi-step directions, like a sticky post-it note on a desk.

All students can also benefit from short "movement breaks" every 30 minutes to "reframe the brain," she says.

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Research has made clear that the damaging effects of trauma are not saved until adulthood. It starts early and it affects students and teachers. And some experts claim that as much as 30 percent of students suffer from the effects of trauma. How can an educator help?

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Trauma Sensitive Practices and Resources

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National Child Traumatic Stress Network SAMHSA CPI Top 10 Online Resources ​ Trauma Informed Project ​Trauma Informed Care Online Training (Texas) Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction...

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Creating Trauma-Sensitive and Culturally Responsive Classrooms

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Compassionate Schools Project | Compassionate Schools Project

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Compassionate Schools Project | Compassionate Schools Project

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Trauma Informed Classrooms and Transformational Schools

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The paradox of trauma-informed care | Vicky Kelly | TEDxWilmington

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How childhood trauma affects health across a lifetime | Nadine Burke Harris | TED

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Creating Cultures of Trauma Informed Care

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What Trauma Taught Me About Resilience | Charles Hunt | TEDxCharlotte

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Part Two: A Journey Towards Trauma-Informed Schools

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A trauma-informed approach ensures that students feel safe, supported, and nurtured-to improve their chances of academic success.

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Kelly Glick Darlene Mack: Trauma Informed and Caring Dispositions Matter

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Kelly Glick and Darlene Mack, both graduates of Bowling Green State University, are co-leaders of the Findlay City Schools Trauma-Informed Care Initiative. In this Talk, Kelly and Darlene discuss the importance of having a trauma-informed disposition in the field of education and beyond.

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How America’s public schools keep kids in poverty

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Why should a good education be exclusive to rich kids? Schools in low-income neighborhoods across the US, specifically in communities of color, lack resources that are standard at wealthier schools -- things like musical instruments, new books, healthy school lunches and soccer fields -- and this has a real impact on the potential of students. Kandice Sumner sees the disparity every day in her classroom in Boston. In this inspiring talk, she asks us to face facts -- and change them.

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Over the last four years I have had the amazing opportunity to be in positions where it was my job to research, implement, and practice a trauma-informed approach in schools and collect resources. In this post you will find some of my favorite resources to use in professional development, or to share with educators in their own pursuit of educating themselves. This is by far not an exhaustive list of what is out there. My intention was to keep the resource list to what I would suggest to an educator if I was sitting across from them and pointing them in the direction of some trauma-informed care resources for themselves or to share with colleagues.

I will be going over these resources in more detail individually in the future. For now, this is what I have for you...

An investment in knowledge pays the best interest. ~Benjamin Franklin

Implementation of Trauma-Informed Care in Schools

This is such an important resource! In the film Paper Tigers, Jim Sporleder talks about how he was searching and searching for a curriculum on implementing trauma-informed care practices in schools, but he couldn't find any. For so long trauma-informed implementation tools have been aimed at the mental health settings. Sporleder and Heather T. Forbes (author of Help for Billy) have put together an amazing, must have resource. "The Trauma-Informed School is an all-inclusive guide designed to give school administrators of any school (elementary, middle or high school), step-by-step instructions on how to turn a school of any size into a trauma-informed school."

Broken into two volumes, these are available as a free eBook download or for purchase as books. Volume One is a report and policy agenda laying the groundwork for the need to change. Volume Two serves as a guide for creating a trauma-informed school. " Grounded in theory and practice in schools and with families, the Guide is intended to be a living document that will grow and change as more schools become trauma sensitive and add their ideas."

A highly recommended free eBook download (244 pages of PDF). I have found this very helpful in designing professional development for teachers. " The Heart of Learning: Compassion, Resiliency, and Academic Success is a handbook for teachers written and compiled by OSPI and Western Washington University staff. It contains valuable information that will be helpful to you on a daily basis as you work with students whose learning has been adversely impacted by trauma in their lives."
Creating Cultures of Trauma-Informed Care (CCTIC): A Self-Assessment and Planning Protocol
A paper that is often referenced in the world of trauma-informed care. It is not specific to an educational setting, however the content is very applicable. This is where I discovered the core trauma-informed values of safety, trustworthiness, choice, collaboration, and empowerment that have influenced my practices in implementation of a trauma-informed culture and approach in schools.

Books

I was first introduced to this book by a parent who had given it to the administrator of her child's school. When asked by an educator what one book I would recommend looking through a trauma-informed lens, this would have to be it. Highly recommended for book studies, there is also a study guide written with Jim Sporleder available for purchase. "This easy to read book, with tables, outlines and lists, clears the way for a better understanding of the true nature regarding traumatic experiences affecting the brain and learning. It is a must read for anyone working with a child in the classroom." Study Guide for Help for Billy is a great resource to get the conversation moving along if you are using it for a book study with staff.
Also see the follow-up Lost and Found
This book applies Dr. Greene's Collaborative & Proactive Solutions model to education. The non-punitive, non-adversarial approach and philosophy has guided my career for the last four years. "This book does not bash or blame educators. Nor, for that matter, does it bash or blame challenging kids or their parents. It's about the need to make dramatic changes in a system that isn't working for teachers, parents, or challenging kids, and how to go about making those changes."
Study guide for book studies found here
The go to book on gaining an understanding on complex trauma in children. Not education specific, but essential in the field of trauma-informed care. "Child psychiatrist Bruce Perry has treated children faced with unimaginable horror: genocide survivors, witnesses, children raised in closets and cages, and victims of family violence. Here he tells their stories of trauma and transformation."

This book is an easy read that challenges the reader to stop and reflect, quizzing them as they progress through the book. Includes strategies a classroom teacher can put into practice right away. "Through clear and readable explanations of current research and enlightening vignettes, educators will understand how violence and other forms of trauma affect the key elements of a child's school and social success, including behavior, attention, memory, and language."

Films & Videos
Nadine Burke-Harris Ted Talk: How childhood trauma affects health across a lifetime.
This Ted talk is not education specific, but is very applicable when seeking to understand how Adverse Childhood Experiences impact the brain and behavior. "Childhood trauma isn't something you just get over as you grow up. Pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris explains that the repeated stress of abuse, neglect and parents struggling with mental health or substance abuse issues has real, tangible effects on the development of the brain."
KPJR Films Paper Tigers and Resilience
Over the last two years I have hosted over a half dozen screenings of the film Paper Tigers as professional development. This film is so thought provoking and inspirational it is not a surprise that it has become a rallying cry for the movement of trauma-informed schools. It is now available for digital download or rental in the iTunes and Google Play stores, as well as DVD on Amazon.

Resilience looks at the science and ACEs movement from a variety of fields. The bonus content is a fantastic way to get a short view inside these films and the concepts. I have found them very beneficial to use with professional development.

The Effect of Trauma on the Brain and How it Affects Behaviors | John Rigg | TEDxAugusta

This video is queued up to when Dr. Rigg starts talking about how traumatic stress affects behavior long after the experience. A great example of how the primitive animal brain, where we are at the stage of fight or flight, does not know geography.

Online Training Trauma-Informed Care Resources
Trauma Training for Educators.
This resource comes from the Community Schools of Central Texas. This can be used as professional development with a group, or by individuals. I have used pieces in day long professional development. After sharing with a former colleague who teaches at a local university, I'm told that all of their new teacher candidates now view this training. "This is a free training resource designed to give anyone who works with children important trauma-focused information about how student learning and behavior is impacted by trauma and how educators and support staff can help students develop a greater sense of safety at school and begin to build new emotional regulation skills."
Trauma-Sensitive Schools Learning Modules
This wealth of information comes from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. It consists of 14 modules that can be completed online. These modules can be accessed individually. It follows a PBIS format, "focusing first on universal practices (Tier 1), followed by strategies for students who need additional support (Tier 2), and intensive interventions for students who require ongoing support (Tier 3)."

On the Web Trauma-Informed Care Resources
Lives in the Balance and Dr. Greene's approach.
A non-punitive, non-confrontational approach to working with children with challenging behavior, the CPS approach and philosophy is what has guided my work for the last four years. In that time I have witnessed it drastically reduce seclusion & physical restraint, critical incidents, and build relationships while working with adults to implement the practice in conjunction with a trauma-sensitive approach in school and residential settings. A lot of free information, I suggest clicking through to the "educators tour" to get started.
Child Trauma Toolkit forEducators
The National Child Traumatic Stress Network has developed tools to help educators respond to the specific needs of traumatized children. This toolkit is available to be downloaded as a comprehensive packet, or as individual sections. I have found it useful to use in designing professional development as well as passing on as a resource when educators want to share with colleagues.
A Trauma Informed Approach to Behaviors in the Classroom
This is an excellent handout written as a letter from a therapist who specializes in attachment and trauma to a teacher. I have received a lot of "ah-ha" moments from educators when I have shared it with them. It is, " short, simple, and steeped in science- on why behavior management systems don't usually work for children with a history of trauma, and what the teacher can do instead!"
ACESTooHigh.com & ACEs Connection
ACEs Too High is the first place I would go to see what is current with ACEs. I would recommend the ACEs Science 101 as a great rundown of the Adverse Childhood Experiences study and the impact of the findings, that is packed with applicable links. ACEs Connection is, "the most active, influential ACEs community in the world. Connect with people using trauma-informed/resilience-building practices. Stay current with news, research, events."

The home of Dr. Sandra Bloom's Sanctuary Model. There is a lot of information here. If you look under the Publications tab you can find education specific articles. I highly suggest the material on mental models as we consider what it takes to make change.

Bloom, S. L. (1995). Creating Sanctuary in the Classroom. Journal for a Just and Caring Education, 1(4):403-433.
Adverse Childhood Experiences Study.
Here is where the home of the ACEs study is found on the internet. You will find the study, data, resources, and journal articles.

Thank you for what you do!

If you have more resources that you would like to share with readers, please drop them in the comments.

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Over the last four years I have had the amazing opportunity to be in positions where it was my job to research, implement, and practice a trauma-informed approach in schools and collect resources. In this post you will find some of my favorite resources to use in professional development, or to share with educators in their own pursuit of educating themselves.

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Copied from my own blog, edited for profanity: theduramater.wordpress.com

You guys... I had the most serendipitous day yesterday (Oct 28th), you wouldn't even believe it. I kid you not, by the end of the day I was seeing rainbows. Jake and I went to TEDx Charlotte, held this year at Central Piedmont Community College's Halton Theater, in the Overcash building, and it was an incredible experience. We couldn't get a babysitter for A, our youngest, so we chose which talks we were most interested in, brought her along, and swapped off during breaks. The food was great, the people were great, the weather was great, I couldn't have asked for more, and yet I got so much more.

First of all, I made a few new friends. The diversity of the TEDx crowd was heartwarming, and there was this sprinkle of magic in the air that made all of our differences our strengths, and our similarities these invisible ties. It was lovely! The woman who sat next to me turned out to be right about the same age as me, married, no kids, working in the corporate world. While I tried to ask others "what brought you to this talk?" as opposed to "what do you do?" or "where do you work?", I still got asked those a fair bit. I was there simply for the awesomeness of TED, but I decided this was my opportunity to pitch my latest idea to the world. My answer was, "Right now I run the house and take care of the girls, and I'm also working on this new trauma-informed parenting peer group idea I have." I don't know what response I expected, but that phrase, "trauma-informed parenting peer group" made everyone lean in. Their eyes widened, "Tell me more...".

Anyway, that's the reaction I got from this first new friend of mine, and we talked a lot about personal growth, and adversities. She told me she happens to be at the beginning of her own journey of self-discovery, thinking about how the past and her upbringing has influenced her, and suddenly we were elbow-deep in psychobabble. Then, she posed a question that made me stop in my tracks, she asked me: "Why do you think our generation is so determined to dig into our pasts and our traumas to fix ourselves, and why didn't past generations prioritize it?" I know, the "generationl faults" talk is a sensitive one. Don't run away yet! Stay, please. I thought about it for a minute, and then said, "Well, maybe it's just because we can. Many of us now have the luxury of having our base survival needs met, so we're not in constant fight or flight mode. Maybe it's just Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs." And we both froze. She knew the term, but for those who don't, the Hierarchy is a pyramid of human needs, which goes from bottom to top like this: physiological (air, food, water, clothing, shelter, sex [for the survival of species - don't have it if you don't want to] ), safety (absence due to war, domestic violence, abuse, PTSD, personal security, financial security, health & wellbeing), love & belonging (family, friends, intimacy), esteem (confidence, self worth, respect of others, self-respect), and the top, self-actualization (realizing one's full potential).

So, the idea is, if you can't build the bottom of the pyramid, you will have a hard time moving up it, and if your base is unstable but you still make it to the top, you'll be much more likely to have the entire thing collapse on you. I mean seriously, would you stand at the top of a shotty pyramid? It just makes sense that you'll struggle to realize your full potential if you don't have food or security or other human connections, because those foundational needs will be your brain's major focus. Some of the Western world is seeing that they're closer to the next step in the pyramid, so they're reaching for it. Granted, poverty stunts this, and we have a system that keeps the lowest down, but for those of us above the poverty line, the idea that we could build our way to the top of the pyramid is starting to feel more tangible. Gen X and the Millennials are raising kids now, and thanks to the evolution of society, we are moving up the pyramid. The thing is, we're only, by my estimation, just coming out of making "safety" our highest priority.

The Greatest Generation had it rough: When you're worrying about the government taking your sons in the draft, or losing a child to polio, you don't really have time for, "Hmmm, how do I make sure my child has enough fulfilling experiences today?" They yelled and probably beat the snot out of them to keep them safe, because "Children, we didn't manage to keep you alive through all of that to have you go do something stupid and end it early!!!" Was it right? Nope, but that's the level they were working on. Then, you get a generation that was raised to believe you must hit and suppress kids to teach them and keep them safe, but they don't quite know why. They faced their own issues as adults, like suffering through multiple financial crises, large-scale terrorist attacks, the invention of the 24hr news cycle (don't kid yourself, that exposure is damaging and devisive), and a few of their own enlistment (yet highly expected and pressured) wars. On top of that, they fought to get us the human rights we have today. We wouldn't be talking about anyone repealing Roe v. Wade without those actually involved. So now, those aren't our (the middle-class Western world's) problems anymore. Today, we're worried about proper nutrition, but thankfully we don't have to worry about a national shortage of food. We're worried about safe brain development for our kids, but thankfully we don't have to worry about having them eaten or mauled by lions. Hey, there was a time.

I'm not trying to dismiss the things our current generation is fighting for - just the opposite, I want to encourage them - which brings me right back to my new friend's question: "Why do you think our generation is so determined to dig into our pasts and our traumas to fix ourselves, and why didn't past generations prioritize it?" Because our generation can, and their generations couldn't, but they got us to the point where we can, so we absolutely should. AND because, in lieu of the draft and famine and lions, our fight or flight brains are identifying and targeting new threats to our society and our children. To us, our own traumas feel just as threatening as polio or a lion because they're working on the same pathways in our brains. For those not worrying regularly about actually being able to eat and feed our families, abuse is our lion. Those just trying to make ends meet can absolutely raise their children in a calm, gentle, trauma-free way, but they have far more obstacles to overcome, simply because their brains are prioritizing things like keeping a roof over everyone's head, as they should be. Sadly, there are still too many people living that way.

My analogy about the lion comes from my new idol, Dr Nadine Burke Harris, a pediatrician in California, and quite frankly, a superhero. Dr Burke Harris is fighting tooth and nail to bring something called ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) to the forefront of Western medicine. Very briefly (because she explains it better), in the late 90s, the CDC and Kaiser Permanente sent predominantly white, middle- and upper-class, college-educated, health-insured Americans a survey about their upbringings.

**Trigger warning, all the triggers, and I'm not trying to be funny**

They created a way to measure 10 ACEs:

1) Physical, 2) sexual and 3) verbal abuse.

4) Physical and 5) emotional neglect.

6) A family member who is depressed diagnosed with other mental illness; 7) addicted to alcohol or another substance; 8) in prison.

9) Witnessing a mother being abused.

10) Losing a parent to separation, divorce or other reason.

From Dr Burke Harris' website, "The results of the ACE Study had two striking findings. First, ACEs are incredibly common-67 percent (2 out of 3 people) of the study population had at least one ACE and 13 percent (1 out of 8 people) of the population had four or more ACEs. Secondly, there was a dose-response relationship between ACEs and numerous health problems. This means that the more ACEs a child has, the higher the risk of developing chronic illnesses such as heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), depression and cancer." Let that sink in. They've since added many more factors. The study also found that the negative effects on one's health are not necessarily due to the fact that these individuals might drink, smoke, overeat, or do other drugs at a higher rate. No, it's because, as you'll see in Nadine Burke Harris' TED Talk (yes, you will watch it), if you experience those things regularly as a child, your brain is stuck in survival mode, being pumped full of fear hormones, making your heart race, tensing up your body, and getting you ready to fight or run... as if you're being chased by a lion. Every day.

There are also resilience factors that help mitigate the effects of ACEs.

1) Believing your mother loved you as a child

2) Believing your father loved you as a child

3) Having people other than mother and father, who you believe loved you, take care of you sometimes as a child

4) Hearing stories that when you were an infant, others enjoyed spending time with you, and that you also enjoyed it

5) You had relatives who made you feel better if you were sad or worried as a child

6) Neighbors or parents' friends seemed to like you as a child

7) Teachers, coaches, youth leaders, or ministers were there to help you as a child

8) Someone in your family cared how you were doing in school

9) Family, neighbors, and friends talked often about making life better

10) You had rules in your house you were expected to abide by

11) When you felt bad, you could almost always find someone you trusted to talk to

12) People noticed you were capable and could get things done as a youth

13) You were an independent self-starter

14) You believed that life is what you make it

These are things we all need to be highly aware of because our ACEs are our new lions, our new triggers, our new threats. They will kill us young if we don't deal with them ourselves, and we risk repeating the cycle with our children. It's a hard road to go down, but if you can, you should. You can get your ACE and Resilience scores here.

Right, so that was all a product of one interaction I had. One. I had about six other conversations that were equally as enriching, and moved me more towards implementing this trauma-informed parenting group. I talked a LOT of trauma talk, which has been happening more and more with friends and strangers lately, and I think that's a very healing, cathartic thing. Jake met another Canadian, who introduced me to his wife, who works with mental health and substance dependence patients to help them through their trauma, due to her own traumatic past. A (the toddler) befriended a bunch of young college students, guys and girls, who absolutely turned to mush when they saw her. They talked about their nephews and nieces and cousins and parenting, and they said how important they think it is to do it right and to know how to parent effectively and treat your child with respect. I was shocked! They held A, huge smiles pasted across their faces, and she was totally content. I ran into an old acquaintance who works at CPCC's main campus, and told him about someone else's idea for a course we want to collaborate on. He walked A and I up to an office that he thought would like to hear the pitch, and they were intrigued so they sent me to another guy, who put down what he was doing and walked us over to a woman he really thought might want to hear what I had to say. She wants to get this other idea off the ground in the Spring, but more to come on that later.

Easily, the most incredible conversation I had was with one of the presenters. I got to talk to (well, ermm, I was pretty persistent) Charles Hunt, who was the only one to silence the entire auditorium with the power of his talk on resilience through childhood adversity. Charles founded Audacity Firm, where he does coaching and workshops to help people grow (either individually or for corporations bettering employee relations) through resilience, teaching you to have the AUDACITY to not let your trauma own you. Pretty awesome, no? He took pictures of my notes, saying he was humbled, and that it would help him know what was really resonating with people. Smart guy. I'd been telling him about my course and I said, "One of the portions is going to include working through Nadine Burke Harris' ACEs." He looked at me, then shook his head a little. "Do you... know what ACEs are?" I asked him. He did not. Suddenly, I had something to offer HIM, something he didn't know, but that wasn't even the most... well, humbling part. When I explained it all and it sunk in, he said, "Wow, that would explain my [health problem, because I don't even think he expected to say that, and it's not my place to put it here]." Yeah, he may incorporate the statistics from ACEs into his strategy to help others, and that would be great, but I may have just opened a whole new path for him to research his own health, and change his life trajectory, so that he can live longer to help others, and continue to heal his own trauma. Now THAT was flipping amazing. Plus, he's willing to collaborate, or help me a little with this parenting project. At the very least, we'll pay him to be a speaker. So, there's that.

Whew, I think that's all I have to say right now. Here's a link to all the talks. All of the speakers are local, and all are looking to share ideas and collaborate. Seriously, I talked to about 1/3 of them and they're really amazing people. I know I'll definitely be attending another TEDx, because it's full of idea people waiting to share and collaborate. Now that I've dropped that huge mind bomb theory on you, try not to contemplate it too hard, and have a great week!

I love your energy and the mission you have set yourself upon to build us all higher! I am working with a band of teachers in a school that recently had it boundaries changed. So, many kids and families now attend there that are experiencing the bottom part of the pyramid. I am working with these teachers as we figure out a way to build a parental outreach model that will connect with parents that are on the fringe right now.

Your work is inspiring. I am going to keep it on the top of my resource list. I am grateful for you.

Thanks so much for posting this, Barbara. I also think that this generation is exploring our trauma because we now have ACEs science, which is only about 20-25 years old, which is leading us to be able to solve our most intractable problems.

ACEs science = the epidemiology of ACEs...the CDC-Kaiser Permanente ACE Study you mention and the dozens of subsequent ACE surveys; how toxic stress affects the brain (neurobiology); how toxic stress affects the body (biomedical effects of toxic stres) and how it's passed down through generations (epigenetic effects of toxic stress), and resilience research -- what we're learning about how to mitigate and prevent ACEs, from how cognitive behavior therapy helps teens with high ACE scores, to how trauma-informed/resilience-building schools help students have higher grades, higher test scores and higher graduation rates.

Thanks Jane, I agree! As much as it shocks me how long these data laid dormant, I love what's being done with them. The physiological effects of toxic stress is causing an epidemic health crisis! The Millennials are the first generation predicted to have a shorter life expectancy than the previous generation. Not good. The epigenetic effects of stress scare the heck out of me. I wonder what my biological mother's hard life in a developing country did to me, and what her mother's did to me, and what my own toxic stress did to my children genetically. Hopefully, I can mitigate as many as possible with all of the knowledge I gain, and pass on the info along the way.

Thank you for sharing your amazing day with us, Barbara! I could feel your excitement and the energy from the room. Your writing expresses the power that we have in our community - to share information about ACEs (it continues to surprise me still how few people know about the ACE study) every opportunity we have. And you had a great opportunity and it sounds like you made some huge impacts.

And thank you for your thoughts on tieing the movement to Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs. I had a very similar discussion with a friend a few months ago... sure seems to ring true in my mind - would love to hear what others in our community think.

Finally, I want to be sure you know about the Parenting with ACEs group on ACEsConnection - you will find kindred spirits talking about the need for trauma-informed (and ACEs-specifically informed) parenting support that is desperately needed.

Thanks for the response, Gail! Glad you enjoyed it. I really couldn't contain myself! I'm reaching out to all of my connections today, and hoping to e-mail Dr. Burke Harris to ask her a few questions of my own.

I'd really love to hear what others think about the Hierarchy, too. It feels like it all just clicks together, and the look on the other woman's face when I said it gave me the impression she agreed. And then she said so! She was talking about her previous employee training job, and saying that the company she was working for tried to implement this self-improvement aspect of training without understanding the neighborhoods/backgrounds that their employees were coming from. She said, "You're never going to get them to give a d*mn about how their childhood framed their adult life when you're paying them minimum wage. Introspection is not their number one concern right now, immediate survival is! Don't you get this?" They didn't, but she did, and she was so glad that I'd said it.

I just joined the Parenting with ACEs group, and I'm excited to exchange ideas and collaborate with others! I'm going to post a link to my current project, and also e-mail it out to a few of those contacts I made.

Looking forward to reading more of your blog posts :-)

Barbara thanks for sharing your wonderful experience. Isn't wonderful when we make connections with those we have put on a pedestal and come to find out we have something they can use.

Wendie

Thanks so much for posting this, Barbara. I also think that this generation is exploring our trauma because we now have ACEs science, which is only about 20-25 years old, which is leading us to be able to solve our most intractable problems.

ACEs science = the epidemiology of ACEs...the CDC-Kaiser Permanente ACE Study you mention and the dozens of subsequent ACE surveys; how toxic stress affects the brain (neurobiology); how toxic stress affects the body (biomedical effects of toxic stres) and how it's passed down through generations (epigenetic effects of toxic stress), and resilience research -- what we're learning about how to mitigate and prevent ACEs, from how cognitive behavior therapy helps teens with high ACE scores, to how trauma-informed/resilience-building schools help students have higher grades, higher test scores and higher graduation rates.

Thank you for sharing your amazing day with us, Barbara! I could feel your excitement and the energy from the room. Your writing expresses the power that we have in our community - to share information about ACEs (it continues to surprise me still how few people know about the ACE study) every opportunity we have. And you had a great opportunity and it sounds like you made some huge impacts.

And thank you for your thoughts on tieing the movement to Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs. I had a very similar discussion with a friend a few months ago... sure seems to ring true in my mind - would love to hear what others in our community think.

Finally, I want to be sure you know about the Parenting with ACEs group on ACEsConnection - you will find kindred spirits talking about the need for trauma-informed (and ACEs-specifically informed) parenting support that is desperately needed.

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My TEDx Day: Trauma, Resilience, ACEs, and Life

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Copied from my own blog, edited for profanity: theduramater.wordpress.com You guys... I had the most serendipitous day yesterday (Oct 28th), you wouldn't even believe it. I kid you not, by the end of the day I was seeing rainbows.

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Trauma Informed | United States | The PersonBrain Model

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Trauma Informed | United States | The PersonBrain Model

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The PersonBrain Model is a trauma-informed care and Positive Behavior Support relational training for at-risk children and youth in schools, residential and foster care.

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Core Areas of a Trauma-Informed School

A trauma-informed school recognizes that trauma affects staff, students, families, communities, and systems. Thus organizational support, partnerships, and capacity-building are essential. The following represent 10 Core Areas for a trauma-informed school system and relevant tiered approaches within each area.

1. Identifying and Assessing Traumatic Stress

2. Addressing and Treating Traumatic Stress

3. Trauma Education and Awareness

4. Partnership with Students and Families

5. Creating a Trauma-Informed Learning Environment (Social/Emotional Skills and Wellness)

6. Cultural Responsiveness

7. Emergency Management/Crisis Response

8. Staff Self-Care and Secondary Traumatic Stress

9. School Discipline Policies and Practices

10. Cross System Collaboration and Community Partnerships

National Child Traumatic Stress Network, Schools Committee. (2017). Creating, supporting, and sustaining trauma-informed schools: A system framework. Los Angeles, CA, and Durham, NC: National Center for Child Traumatic Stress.

For a more in depth information please see Creating, Supporting, and Sustaining Trauma-Informed Schools: A System Framework

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A trauma-informed school recognizes that trauma affects staff, students, families, communities, and systems. Thus organizational support, partnerships, and capacity-building are essential. The following represent 10 Core Areas for a trauma-informed school system and relevant tiered approaches within each area.

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Page not found – The Center For Safe and Resilient Schools and Workplaces

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How Trauma-Informed Schools Help Every Student Succeed

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Trauma-informed schools are in the spotlight as research continues to affirm the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and academic failure. Learn how trauma-informed schools can enhance the potential of all students.

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A resource collection compiled by and for Parent Centers.
Coordinated by the Region 2 Parent Technical Assistance Center @ ECAC

September 2018
What does it mean to be a trauma-informed school? This part of the collection identifies resources that answer that question; includes information for educators about creating a trauma-informed classroom for their students; shares tools and training resources for schools to use in professional development; and ends with a sampling of self-assessment instruments for organizations, especially schools.
This web page of resources is one part of the larger Resource Collection on Trauma-Informed Care, a mini-library put together through a collaboration of RPTAC 2 @ ECAC, CPIR, and a review and development team of Parent Center staff.

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A resource collection compiled by and for Parent Centers. Coordinated by the Region 2 Parent Technical Assistance Center @ ECAC September 2018 What does it mean to be a trauma-informed school?

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Break out sessions details

FEBRUARY 17-19, 2019 AGENDA

◇

Sunday, February 17, 2019

4:00-6:00pm - Registration/Check In
4:00-6:00pm - Exhibitor Set Up
6:00pm - 8:00 pm - Kick-Off Reception with Special Guest, Dr. Allison Jackson

Monday, February 18, 2019

7:00am- Registration/Check in opens
7:30 am - Exhibits open/continental breakfast
8:15 - 9:00 am - Opening Session - Main ballroom
9:00 - 9:30 am - Break
9:30-10:45 am - Workshops -Session 1 details
10:45-11:15 am- Power Up Break
11:15 am - 12:30 pm - Workshops - Session 2 details
12:30-2:15pm - Luncheon and Keynote - Dr. Mona Johnson
2:30 -3:45 Workshops - Session 3 details
3:45-4:15pm - Break
4:15 - 5:30 - Workshops - Session 4 details
5:30 - Exhibits close
6:30-8:00 pm - Special Evening Events

Tuesday, February 19, 2019

7:30 am - Registration/Check-in opens
8:15 - Exhibits open - continental breakfast
9:00 -10:15 - Workshops - Session 5 details
10:15 - 10:45- Break
10:45 - 12:00 Workshop Breakouts -Session 6 details
12:00 - 1:30 -Lunch on Your Own
1:30 - 2:45 - Workshop Breakouts - Session 7 details
2:45-3:15 - Power Up Break
3:15 - 4:30 - Workshop -Session 8 details
3:15 - Exhibits close

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TSS 2019 Conference Details - Creating Trauma Sensitive Schools

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Break out sessions details FEBRUARY 17-19, 2019 AGENDA ◇ Want to see full the workshop schedule? Click on the Session Details for each Session below! All 2019 workshops & presenters have been selected. Learn more about our "Deep Dive" sessions here - Eleven 3-hour sessions designed to help attendees "go a little deeper" in importantRead More...

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Beyond Consequences Institute, LLC | Heather T. Forbes, LCSW

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Trauma-Informed School Conference | Heather T. Forbes, LCSW

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A trauma-informed conference designed to give you the understanding, knowledge, and tools you need to successfully create a trauma-informed classroom.

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What ACEs do you have?

There are 10 types of childhood trauma measured in the CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences Study. (There are many others...see below.) Five are personal - physical abuse, verbal abuse, sexual abuse, physical neglect, and emotional neglect. Five are related to other family members: a parent who's an alcoholic, a mother who's a victim of domestic violence, a family member in jail, a family member diagnosed with a mental illness, and experiencing divorce of parents. Each type of trauma counts as one. So a person who's been physically abused, with one alcoholic parent, and a mother who was beaten up has an ACE score of three.
There are, of course, many other types of childhood trauma - racism, bullying, watching a sibling being abused, losing a caregiver (grandmother, mother, grandfather, etc.), homelessness, surviving and recovering from a severe accident, witnessing a father being abused by a mother, witnessing a grandmother abusing a father, involvement with the foster care system, involvement with the juvenile justice system, etc. The ACE Study included only those 10 childhood traumas because those were mentioned as most common by a group of about 300 Kaiser members; those traumas were also well studied individually in the research literature. The most important thing to remember is that the ACE score is meant as a guideline: If you experienced other types of toxic stress over months or years, then those would likely increase your risk of health consequences, depending on the positive childhood experiences you had (see below).

Prior to your 18th birthday:

1. Was your mother or stepmother:
Often or very often pushed, grabbed, slapped, or had something thrown at her? or Sometimes, often, or very often kicked, bitten, hit with a fist, or hit with something hard? or Ever repeatedly hit over at least a few minutes or threatened with a gun or knife?
No___If Yes, enter 1 _ _

2. Was a household member depressed or mentally ill, or did a household member attempt suicide? No___If Yes, enter 1 _ _

Now add up your "Yes" answers: _ This is your ACE Score

__________________________

Now that you know your ACEs, what does it mean?

First....a tiny bit of background to help you figure this out.....(if you want the back story about the fascinating origins of the ACE Study, read The Adverse Childhood Experiences Study - the largest, most important public health study you never heard of - began in an obesity clinic.)

The CDC's Adverse Childhood Experiences Study ( ACE Study) uncovered a stunning link between childhood trauma and the chronic diseases people develop as adults, as well as social and emotional problems. This includes heart disease, lung cancer, diabetes and many autoimmune diseases, as well as depression, violence, being a victim of violence, and suicide.

The first research results were published in 1998, followed by more than 70 other publications through 2015. They showed that:

childhood trauma was very common, even in employed white middle-class, college-educated people with great health insurance;

there was a direct link between childhood trauma and adult onset of chronic disease, as well as depression, suicide, being violent and a victim of violence;

more types of trauma increased the risk of health, social and emotional problems.

people usually experience more than one type of trauma - rarely is it only sex abuse or only verbal abuse.

A whopping two thirds of the 17,000 people in the ACE Study had an ACE score of at least one - 87 percent of those had more than one. Thirty-six states and the District of Columbia have done their own ACE surveys; their results are similar to the CDC's ACE Study.

The study's researchers came up with an ACE score to explain a person's risk for chronic disease. Think of it as a cholesterol score for childhood toxic stress. You get one point for each type of trauma. The higher your ACE score, the higher your risk of health and social problems. (Of course, other types of trauma exist that could contribute to an ACE score, so it is conceivable that people could have ACE scores higher than 10; however, the ACE Study measured only 10 types.)

As your ACE score increases, so does the risk of disease, social and emotional problems. With an ACE score of 4 or more, things start getting serious. The likelihood of chronic pulmonary lung disease increases 390 percent; hepatitis, 240 percent; depression 460 percent; attempted suicide, 1,220 percent.

(By the way, lest you think that the ACE Study was yet another involving inner-city poor people of color, take note: The study's participants were 17,000 mostly white, middle and upper-middle class college-educated San Diegans with good jobs and great health care - they all belonged to the Kaiser Permanente health maintenance organization. Prior to the ACE Study, most research about effects of abuse, neglect, etc., involved poor people of color who live in the inner city. And so the notion was that it was inner-city people of color who experienced abuse, neglect, etc., not white middle-class or white upper-class people....that somehow white people of means were immune from the kinds of problems affecting people who were poor. That's not only ridiculous, but it was just another way to perpetrate racism and classism. The ACE Study quashed that notion. So, it's not that I'm saying that the ACE Study is credible because it was done on white people, I'm saying that the ACE Study opened the door to an understanding that ACEs are at the root of nearly all problems of physical, mental, economic and social health in humans, no matter where in the world those humans live. The ACE Study and the other research that makes up ACEs science provided an opening to a better understanding of the constructs that make up our notion of why people suffer ill health - physical, mental, economic, social - and that includes systemic racism. )

Here are some specific graphic examples of how increasing ACE scores increase the risk of some diseases, social and emotional problems. All of these graphs come from "The relationship of adverse childhood experiences to adult health, well being, social function and health care", a book chapter by Drs. Vincent Felitti and Robert Anda, co-founders of the ACE Study, in "The Hidden Epidemic: The Impact of Early Life Trauma on Health and Disease."

What causes this?

At the same time that the ACE Study was being done, parallel research on kids' brains found that toxic stress damages the structure and function of a child's developing brain. This was determined by a group of neuroscientists and pediatricians, including neuroscientist Martin Teicher and pediatrician Jack Shonkoff , both at Harvard University, neuroscientist Bruce McEwen at Rockefeller University, and child psychiatrist Bruce Perry at the Child Trauma Academy .

When children are overloaded with stress hormones, they're in flight, fright or freeze mode. They can't learn in school. They often have difficulty trusting adults or developing healthy relationships with peers (i.e., they become loners). To relieve their anxiety, depression, guilt, shame, and/or inability to focus, they turn to easily available biochemical solutions - nicotine, alcohol, marijuana, methamphetamine - or activities in which they can escape their problems - high-risk sports, proliferation of sex partners, and work/over-achievement. (e.g. Nicotine reduces anger, increases focus and relieves depression. Alcohol relieves stress.)

Using drugs or overeating or engaging in risky behavior leads to consequences as a direct result of this behavior.

For example, smoking can lead to COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) or lung cancer. Overeating can lead to obesity and diabetes. In addition, there is increasing research that shows that severe and chronic stress leads to bodily systems producing an inflammatory response that leads to disease.

In addition, toxic stress can be passed down from generation to generation. The field of epigenetics shows that we are born with a set of genes that can be turned on and off, depending on what's happening in our environment. If a child grows up with an overload of toxic stress, their stress-response genes are likely to be activated so that they are easily triggered by stressful situations that don't affect those who don't grow up with toxic stress. They can pass that response onto their children.

Fortunately, brains and lives are somewhat plastic. Resilience research shows that the appropriate integration of resilience factors - such as asking for help, developing trusting relationships, forming a positive attitude, listening to feelings - can help people improve their lives.

For more information about ACEs science and how it's being used, go to: PACEs Science 101.

Here's a link to the long questionnaire (200+ questions).

For more information about PACEs science, go to PACEs Science 101.

_______________________

What are PCEs - positive childhood experiences?

Although there is still much to learn about ACEs and how to prevent and mitigate their effects, we also all know that childhood experiences are not limited to those that involve adversity. All childhood experiences matter. In the last few years, researchers have started to examine the impacts of positive childhood experiences (PCEs) on children and adults.

In 2019, a team of researchers - Dr. Christina Bethell, Jennifer Jones, Dr. Narangerel Gombojav, Dr. Jeff Linkenbach and Dr. Robert Sege - found a dose-response association between positive childhood experiences and adult mental and relationship health among adults who had experienced ACEs, irrespective of how many ACEs they had. This means that it's really important to have positive childhood experiences, no matter how much adversity you have in your life. And if you have a lot of adversity and a lot of positive childhood experiences, you are less likely to suffer the consequences of ACEs. However if you have no positive childhood experiences and few ACEs, the consequences of the ACEs are more likely to appear. Positive Childhood Experiences and Adult Mental and Relational Health in a Statewide Sample: Associations Across Adverse Childhood Experiences Levels | JAMA Pediatrics.

To find out what positive childhood experiences you have, answer the following questions. How much or how often during your childhood did you:

1. feel able to talk to your family about feelings;

2. feel your family stood by you during difficult times;

3. enjoy participating in community traditions;

4. feel a sense of belonging in high school;

5. feel supported by friends;

6. have at least two non-parent adults who took genuine interest in you; and

7. feel safe and protected by an adult in your home.

Also in 2019, Bethell, Gombojav, and Dr. Robert Whitaker reported that at each level of ACEs, "the presence of flourishing increased in a graded fashion with increasing levels of family resilience and connection." Family Resilience And Connection Promote Flourishing Among US Children, Even Amid Adversity | Health Affairs

In 2014, Bethell, Dr. Paul Newacheck, Dr. Eva Hawes, and Dr. Neal Halfon found that children with higher ACE scores were less likely to demonstrate resilience, live in a protective home environment, have a mother who was healthy, and live in safe and supportive neighborhoods. However, almost half of the children who had experienced ACEs also demonstrated resilience, and "resilience mitigated the impact of adverse childhood experiences on grade repetition and school engagement." Adverse Childhood Experiences: Assessing The Impact On Health And School Engagement And The Mitigating Role Of Resilience | Health Affairs

In a study published in 2021, Whitaker, Dr. Tracy Dearth-Wesley, and Dr. Allison Herman wrote that "greater childhood family connection was associated with greater flourishing in US adults across levels of childhood adversity." Childhood family connection and adult flourishing: associations across levels of childhood adversity - Academic Pediatrics (academicpedsjnl.net)

Dr. Yui Yamaoka and Dr. David Bard reported in 2019 that "the number of adverse childhood experiences was associated with both social-emotional deficits and developmental delay risks in early childhood; however, positive parenting practices demonstrated robust protective effects independent of the number of adverse childhood experiences." Positive Parenting Matters in the Face of Early Adversity - PubMed (nih.gov)

Among juvenile offenders, Dr. Michael Baglivio and Dr. Kevin Wolff discovered in 2020 that "high ACE scores were associated with increased reoffending, and high PCE scores were associated with decreased recidivism, as measured by both rearrest and reconviction. Further, among juveniles with four or more ACEs who have six or more PCEs, reconviction was 23% lower and rearrest 22% lower when compared to those youth with four or more ACEs and less than six PCEs, controlling for a host of demographic and criminal history measures." Positive Childhood Experiences (PCE): Cumulative Resiliency in the Face of Adverse Childhood Experiences - Michael T. Baglivio, Kevin T. Wolff, 2021 (sagepub.com)

Dr. Michael Baxter, Dr. Eden Hemming, Dr. Heather McIntosh, and Dr. Chan Hellman published research in 2017 that demonstrated that higher ACEs scores were associated with lower hope in a study of caregivers who brought children in for a child abuse medical investigation at a child advocacy center. Exploring the Relationship Between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Hope: Journal of Child Sexual Abuse: Vol 26, No 8 (tandfonline.com)

In 2019, Dr. AliceAnn Crandall, Dr. Jacob Miller, Dr. Aaron Cheung, Dr. Lynneth Novilla, Dr. Rozalyn Glade, Dr. M. Lelinneth Novilla, Dr. Brianna Magnusson, Dr. Barbara Leavitt, Dr. Michael Barnes, and Dr. Carl Hanson observed in a study of adults that "higher counter-ACEs scores [i.e., positive childhood experiences] were associated with improved adult health and that counter-ACEs neutralized the negative impact of ACEs on adult health." ACEs and counter-ACEs: How positive and negative childhood experiences influence adult health - ScienceDirect

A study by Whitaker, Dearth-Wesley, and Herman in 2020 showed that across levels of childhood adversity, greater childhood family connection was associated with greater flourishing among young adults with type 1 diabetes.Childhood Family Connection With Flourishing in Young Adulthood Among Those With Type 1 Diabetes | Pediatrics | JAMA Network Open | JAMA Network

Finally, in 2016, Bethell, Gombojav, Dr. Michele Solloway, and Dr. Lawrence Wissow examined ACEs, resilience, family protective factors, and emotional, mental or behavioral conditions (EMB) in children and youth in the U.S. The authors found that children with ACEs had higher EMB than children without ACEs, but the presence of resilience was significantly associated with lower amounts of EMB for both children with and without ACEs. In addition, the prevalence of EMB was lower when family protective factors were present, even if the child had ACEs, although the presence of two or more ACEs decreased the effect. Adverse Childhood Experiences, Resilience and Mindfulness-Based Approaches: Common Denominator Issues for Children with Emotional, Mental, or Behavioral Problems (nih.gov)

In terms of research, these are still early days, says Dr. Robert Whitaker, director of Research and Research Education at the Columbia-Bassett Program and professor of Clinical Pediatrics in the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University: "This area of PACEs research is emerging, but the boundaries of that research have not really been defined, particular as complement to the well-established body of research on resilience."

From " Brains: Journey to Resilience ", Alberta Family Wellness Initiative.

"PCEs may have lifelong consequences for mental and relational health despite co-occurring adversities such as ACEs," noted Dr. Christina Bethell in Positive Childhood Experiences and Adult Mental and Relational Health in a Statewide Sample: Associations Across Adverse Childhood Experiences Levels. Bethell is professor at Johns Hopkins University in the Bloomberg School of Public Health and founding director of the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative. "In this way, they support application of the World Health Organization's definition of health emphasizing that health is more than the absence of disease or adversity. The World Health Organization's positive construct of health is aligned with the proactive promotion of positive experiences in childhood because they are foundational to optimal childhood development and adult flourishing."

However, in terms of integrating what we know about PACEs, we have enough information to continue integrating the science into our work. If we want to change individuals, organizations, communities, and systems we need to talk about both positive and adverse childhood experiences - PACEs - and how they intertwine throughout our lives....

At the individual level, learning about ACEs helps us understand why we behave the way we do, and that our coping behavior is normal...a normal response to abnormal circumstances. Learning about PCEs provides direction to heal. The key concept about PACEs is that learning about both, together, can help improve our health and well-being. It gives us hope.

At the organizational level, staff and leaders can use knowledge of PACEs to create healing-centered work environments and programs in all sectors.

At the community level, educating the public about PACEs can provide hope and foster the development of innovative ideas about how to support families, organizations and communities. Understanding the interplay between positive and adverse experiences offers opportunity for engagement with all sectors. Communities can use this new lens to create mindful, healing-centered, research-informed approaches to prevent adversity and encourage connection and healing.

At the system level, policymakers and leaders can use research about PACEs to find common ground across fields and to support policies that promote the understanding of PACEs and how adversity and positive experiences work together.

At least two organizations are taking this approach and doing research to guide their actions:

The Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences (HOPE) team at Tufts Medical Center have identified four building blocks that lessen the negative effects of ACEs: relationships, environments, engagement, and social emotional development. HOPE - Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences

The Hope Research Center at the University of Oklahoma, Tulsa, focuses its research on the "science and power of hope as a psychological strength, especially among those experiencing trauma and adversity." The Center defines hope as "the belief that the future will be better and you have the power to make it so." Hope Research Center (ou.edu)

If you're interested in becoming more involved in the PACEs science community, join our companion social network, PACEs Connection. Just go to PACEsConnection.com and click "Join". PACEsConnection.com is the leading advocate for information about the science of positive and adverse childhood experiences (PACEs) and the rapidly expanding, global PACEs science movement.

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What ACEs do you have? There are 10 types of childhood trauma measured in the CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences Study. (There are many others...see below.) Five are personal - physical abuse, verbal abuse, sexual abuse, physical neglect, and emotional neglect. Five are related to other family members: a parent who's an alcoholic, a mother who's...

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BOLDFISH's flagship app helps you unplug and take back control from your mobile devices. Addicted to social media? We got you. Constantly checking Slack and your inboxes? We got you too.

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BOLDFISH - Digital Wellness Company Fighting Digital Addiction

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BOLDFISH's flagship app helps you unplug and take back control from your mobile devices. Addicted to social media? We got you. Constantly checking Slack and your inboxes? We got you too.

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The Chalkboard Mag | A Guide To Living Well

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The Chalkboard is a wellness lifestyle site dedicated to natural health, nutrition, green beauty and fitnesswear, healthy recipes and great design.

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Discover a new school of education for a rapidly changing world. Mindvalley unites the planet�s best teachers, ideas, and community on one immersive platform

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When someone comes to you with bad news or a problem they are facing it's a natural reflex for most of us to say something along the lines of "just be positive!" - well, one therapist is here to tell you, this advice is toxic. Nobody wants to be kicked when they are already down so naturally, we think that telling people uplifting mantras about positivity will give them the boost they need, but this is not always the case.

Psychotherapist Whitney Hawkins Goodman, LMFT, owner of The Collaborative Counseling Center, runs an Instagram account called @sitwithwhit where she shared an important chart on the difference between giving someone 'validation and hope' versus 'toxic positivity' and it's making waves on the internet.

Psychotherapist Whitney Hawkins Goodman created a chart to educate people on the difference between validation and 'toxic positivity' - and it's going viral

The therapist explained that she found the 'toxic positivity' sayings from Pinterest, which can be harmless mantras for some but for people going through a tough time they can have a deeper effect.

Image credits: sitwithwhit

Image credits: sitwithwhit

Image credits: sitwithwhit

Image credits: sitwithwhit

Image credits: sitwithwhit

Image credits: sitwithwhit

Image credits: sitwithwhit

Image credits: sitwithwhit

Along with the post Goodman wrote: "I've realized people HATE the word toxic. I hear ya'll. Got a lot of comments on "never give up." Decided to keep it. There are relationships, life goals, plans and situations that is OK to give up on. Not everything needs to result in completion. Sometimes it is safer to give up. We owe each other the space to discuss the options," and asked her followers, "What are some other positive sayings that you think are totally dismissive?"

People loved the chart and thought it nailed this very important lesson

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Therapist Explains The Important Difference Between Support And 'Toxic Positivity' In One Simple Chart

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When someone comes to you with bad news or a problem they are facing it's a natural reflex for most of us to say something along the lines of "just be positive!" - well, one therapist is here to tell you, this advice is toxic.

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Many teachers are working to modify their classrooms and schools to offer a more supportive environment for students who have experienced trauma in their lives. They're taking heed of research showing that adverse childhood experiences like poverty, neglect, and exposure to violence affect children's brains and may have a negative impact on learning and behavior.

"For me being trauma-informed has so much to do with mindset, accepting that different people come into a school setting with incredibly varied life experiences," said Lindsey Minder, a second grade teacher profiled in an Edutopia video introducing trauma-informed practices. "Some of those life experiences may be traumatic. And the way in which that plays out in my particular classroom could look a number of ways. And by me having that lens it makes it less about are they doing 'the right thing' or the 'wrong thing' and more about, 'where is that behavior coming from? Why is that happening?'"

While dealing with all the issues kids bring to school can be overwhelming for teachers, the upside is that they are well positioned to make a big impact on students' lives. Positive relationships with caring adults can help buffer students from the effects of trauma and chronic stress, making trauma-informed schools "healing places."

"If you're fearful, if you're anxious, if you're distracted about something that's happened to you, you literally can't learn. Your brain shuts down," said Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond, president and CEO of the Learning Policy Institute. "So it's essential to give kids social and emotional tools that allow students to recover from the challenges that they have experienced. Take actual classroom time to work on the building blocks of how to perceive your emotions, how to talk about them, how to get along with other people, how to take a moment and become calm when you need to, how to express your needs so that others can meet them."

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Strategies Schools Can Use To Become More Trauma-Informed

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Many teachers are working to modify their classrooms and schools to offer a more supportive environment for students who have experienced trauma in their lives. They're taking heed of research showing that adverse childhood experiences like poverty, neglect, and exposure to violence affect children's brains and may have a negative impact on learning and behavior.

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Download Infographic PDF pdf icon [PDF - 600 KB]
6 Guiding Principles To A Trauma-Informed Approach

The CDC's Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response (OPHPR), in collaboration with SAMHSA's National Center for Trauma-Informed Care (NCTIC), developed and led a new training for OPHPR employees about the role of trauma-informed care during public health emergencies. The training aimed to increase responder awareness of the impact that trauma can have in the communities where they work. Participants learned SAMHSA's six principles that guide a trauma-informed approach, including:

1. Safety

2. Trustworthiness & transparency

3. Peer support

4. Collaboration & mutuality

5. Empowerment & choice

6. Cultural, historical & gender issues

Adopting a trauma-informed approach is not accomplished through any single particular technique or checklist. It requires constant attention, caring awareness, sensitivity, and possibly a cultural change at an organizational level. On-going internal organizational assessment and quality improvement, as well as engagement with community stakeholders, will help to imbed this approach which can be augmented with organizational development and practice improvement. The training provided by OPHPR and NCTIC was the first step for CDC to view emergency preparedness and response through a trauma-informed lens.

Page last reviewed:

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Infographic: 6 Guiding Principles To A Trauma-Informed Approach

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Download Infographic PDF pdf icon [PDF - 600 KB] The CDC's Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response (OPHPR), in collaboration with SAMHSA's National Center for Trauma-Informed Care (NCTIC), developed and led a new training for OPHPR employees about the role of trauma-informed care during public health emergencies.

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Trauma-sensitive and trauma-informed schools are spreading around the country. But if they don't start with how schools themselves can induce trauma, they won't work.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Download Infographic PDF pdf icon [PDF - 600 KB]
6 Guiding Principles To A Trauma-Informed Approach

The CDC's Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response (OPHPR), in collaboration with SAMHSA's National Center for Trauma-Informed Care (NCTIC), developed and led a new training for OPHPR employees about the role of trauma-informed care during public health emergencies. The training aimed to increase responder awareness of the impact that trauma can have in the communities where they work. Participants learned SAMHSA's six principles that guide a trauma-informed approach, including:

1. Safety

2. Trustworthiness & transparency

3. Peer support

4. Collaboration & mutuality

5. Empowerment & choice

6. Cultural, historical & gender issues

Adopting a trauma-informed approach is not accomplished through any single particular technique or checklist. It requires constant attention, caring awareness, sensitivity, and possibly a cultural change at an organizational level. On-going internal organizational assessment and quality improvement, as well as engagement with community stakeholders, will help to imbed this approach which can be augmented with organizational development and practice improvement. The training provided by OPHPR and NCTIC was the first step for CDC to view emergency preparedness and response through a trauma-informed lens.

Page last reviewed:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Infographic: 6 Guiding Principles To A Trauma-Informed Approach

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Download Infographic PDF pdf icon [PDF - 600 KB] The CDC's Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response (OPHPR), in collaboration with SAMHSA's National Center for Trauma-Informed Care (NCTIC), developed and led a new training for OPHPR employees about the role of trauma-informed care during public health emergencies.

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This is "Resilience Trailer - KPJR Films" by on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.