Children of Trauma

This is the first of three TLC core courses that will lay the foundation to help you understand the differences between grief and trauma and to see trauma as an experience rather than a diagnostic category. Learn how to become a “witness” to a child’s traumatic experience to best appreciate the intensity of the experience and the needs of the child; to see what he now sees as he looks at himself and the world around him. Video-taped interviews will demonstrate how TLC’s evidence-based, structured sensory intervention process brings children relief from the terror of their traumatic experiences. This structured process is used in schools and agencies across the country and has been proven, via research, to reduce trauma-specific reactions across all three major sub-categories.

When participating in the TLC Certification Program each participant will receive the TLC DVD, Tools to Help the Helper. This course is a requirement for Level-1 Certification and a pre-requisite for Level-2 and Level-3 Certification. You do not need to be enrolled in the Certification Program to attend this course.

Brief Description of Instructional Format:

Information is provided related to the differences between grief and trauma. Video segments are used to identify these differences and demonstrate how to use the TLC sensory interventions recommended when trauma exists. Evidence based research supporting these school and agency based interventions are reviewed. Case examples are provided for children, adolescents and adults/parents.

Goal:

To provide participants with a working foundation of the differences between grief and trauma, the way trauma exposes itself in children and the use of structured sensory school/agency evidence based trauma intervention programs.

Session Objectives:

To clearly identify specific differences of reactions following grief and trauma. To understand trauma as an experience and how that experience dictates the focus of immediate interventions in multiple settings. To provide a new language that speaks to the experience of trauma and allows victims to know that those helping also appreciate what victims are experiencing and need in order to feel better.

Learning Objectives:

Learner will be able to:

• Identify trauma reactions vs. grief reactions.
• Identify the most immediate and appropriate intervention needs of the traumatized child/adolescent.
• Describe the most appropriate structured sensory intervention strategies which are school and agency based.