'transforming trauma' SERIES
This workshop received support from the Sydney Myer Fund
This training package has been adapted from the 'SMART' (Strategies for Managing Abuse Related Trauma) training program. The SMART Program was developed by the Australian Childhood Foundation in partnership with the Child Abuse Prevention Research Australia and the Indigenous Health Unit at Monash University. The SMART program is a statewide initiative funded by the South Australian Government Department for Education, as part of the Keeping Them Safe child protection reform agenda.
Part 1: Children and Trauma
In Part 1 of this workshop, we will explore what we know about the impact of childhood trauma. Understanding the impact of trauma on children is a crucial step in facilitating change. We know that children who have suffered trauma struggle to learn. Children who experience chronic trauma frequently experience developmental delays across a broad spectrum including:
• Cognitive skills,
• Language skills,
• Motor skills, and
• Social skills.
Chronic trauma impairs emotional health and impacts on the regulation of feelings, the ability to have clear thoughts or memories and disrupts the way feelings are stored and expressed in the body.
We will explore four domains that trauma can impact upon:
• Memory
• Regulation of emotions,
• Relationships and connection with others, and
• Representation (a child’s beliefs, attitudes and values).
UNIT 1
Understanding Trauma
Trauma and Learning
Trauma and the Brain
Trauma and Relationships
UNIT 2
The four domains of trauma
1. TRauma and MEmory
UNIT 3
The four domains of trauma
2. TRauma and EMOTIONS
UNIT 4
The four domains of trauma
3. TRauma and CONNECTION
UNIT 5
The four domains of trauma
3. TRauma and REPRESENTATION
Part 2. Putting it into PRACTICE
In Part 2 of the workshop, we will explore a set of guiding principles for working with children who have experience trauma. The PRACTICE framework (developed by the Australian Childhood Foundation - ACF) provides a way to organise responses to children that will over time help establish an effective relational environment that addresses their experiences.
The PRACTICE environment aims to:
• foster a sense of predictability in children’s routines,
• connect children to relationships with peers and adults who are supportive and consistent
• keep children calm,
• build children’s memory and cognitive functions as a way of them understanding their experiences of abuse and the effects of it,
• contain and influence children’s behaviour associated with fear, anger, shame and disconnection, and
• support children to shape their internal emotional reactions.
Finally, we will explore as a group how we can apply this model to case examples and to the children in our care.
UNIT 6
guiding principles for working
with children who have experience trauma.
UNIT 7
We will explore the PRACTICE framework (developed by the Australian Childhood Foundation).
1. Preditable Environment
2. Responsive Environment
UNIT 8
We continue to explore the PRACTICE framework (developed by the Australian Childhood Foundation).
3. ATTUNED Environment
4. CONNECTING Environment
UNIT 9
We continue to explore the PRACTICE framework (developed by the Australian Childhood Foundation).
5. translating Environment
6. involving Environment
UNIT 10
We continue to explore the PRACTICE framework (developed by the Australian Childhood Foundation).
7. CALMINg Environment
8. ENGAGING Environment
UNIT 11 (REVIEW)
In the final Unit of this series of workshops, we will explore how we can apply our understanding of trauma and the PRACTICE model to two case studies.
Excerpts from the Workshop Presentations of this course
by Dr Julian Watchorn (FKAT)