William Steele, PsyD, MSW
TLC Founder
William Steele is the Founder of the National Institute for Trauma and Loss in Children (TLC) established in 1990. In 2009, TLC joined Starr Commonwealth where Dr. Steele continues to oversee TLC while in the position of Senior Vice President of Training for this international leader in transformational programs for children, families, schools and communities established in 1913. Dr. Steele began his work in the field of trauma by taking the lead in helping schools across the country develop crisis response teams in response to the epidemic of suicide among young people in the early 1980’s followed by the epidemic of violence in the late 80’s thereafter leading to the formation of TLC. He has assisted professionals over the years following such tragedies as the bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma, 9/11 in New York and Washington D.C., Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the 2009 killings (while in school in the presence of students) of a coach in Iowa and a teacher in Texas to name but a few. He was one of the first Americans selected by the Kuwait government to assist them in the aftermath of the Gulf War and continues to consult with agencies related to childhood trauma such as Center for Military Relationships and Families as well as schools across the country.
Dr. Steele has had numerous publications in such journals as the School Social Work Journal, Children and Schools, Residential Treatment for Children and Youth, National Social Sciences Associations, Reclaiming Children and Youth, and publications with Guilford Press, American Counseling Association, Allyn and Bacon.
Today there are over 5,000 TLC Certified Trauma and Loss School and Clinical Specialists Dr. Steele has personally trained. Insistent that intervention for traumatized children be outcome driven, he developed and conducted evidenced based research on TLC trauma specific programs for schools and communities. With its focus on early intervention, TLC’s I Feel Better Now Program for children 6-12 years is, for example, the only school based, evidence based program of its kind in the country. Of the numerous honors Dr. Steele has received over the years, he is most proud of the 5,000 Certified Trauma Specialists who are providing TLC interventions and resources to thousands of children daily, who’s exposure never receive national media attention.
Since 1990 Dr. Steele has consistently trained professionals to relate to childhood trauma not as a diagnostic category (PTSD), which is deficit focused as well as inadequate, but as a series of sensory experiences, the elements of which are experienced by traumatized children regardless of their culture. “Terror is terror”, he explains. “Symptoms only define the ways the child’s neurological biological, emotional and behavioral systems are struggling to survive. “Provide new experiences”, he states, “and symptoms diminish as TLC’s research documents”. The 2009 Developmental Trauma Disorder (DTD) being proposed now supports TLC’s long standing approach to trauma intervention as detailed in the 2001 publication in Structural Sensory Interventions for Children, Adolescents and Parents (SITCAP) authored by Dr. Steele.
At a time when funding and services are shrinking for traumatized children, Dr. Steele has significantly enhanced TLC’s future by joining the now collective expertise TLC and Starr Commonwealth have to offer schools, communities, children, families and those in the position to bring out the best in every child
Click here for Dr. Steele's resume. You can email Dr. Steele at [email protected]
Dr. Steele presents the following courses:
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. Session objectives.
Crisis Interventions
Learn what to do in the days following a trauma when crisis intervention may be needed. Tragedies, like Hurricane Katrina and 9/11, leave behind devastation and destruction. Because victims are constantly reminded of the trauma, their state of crisis is prolonged and heightened. Very specific intervention techniques will be demonstrated which are designed to stabilize those in crisis in the days that follow exposure, at a time when specific trauma intervention would not be appropriate.
Structured Sensory Interventions
This is the second of the three TLC core courses. You will learn trauma-specific intervention tasks and techniques as well as see them demonstrated. This is a practice day. The presenter engages attendees in an encapsulated demonstration of the major sensory structured processes. Attendees will also participate in additional activities and, by days end, will feel comfortable using any of the TLC intervention programs. A brief presentation of the TLC evidence-based research and outcome will support the value of TLC’s structured sensory programs in schools and agencies. Session objectives.
Suicide Intervention
This presentation will identify warning signs and high risk factors leading to suicidal attempts. Characteristics of potentially suicidal child/youth, specific interventions strategies and skills including legal responsibilities, assessment of risk and what is necessary to help prevent contagion following an actual completion. Develop specific intervention skills with survivors of suicide including organized responses necessary in school settings and the ways grief following suicide differs from grief following non-suicidal losses. Click for session objectives. Also available online.
Trauma Debriefing
This is the last of the three TLC core course. The TLC Debriefing Model fits with the uniqueness of school and agency settings. The models address the developmental issues, time and resource constraints, needs of staff as well as students/clients, administrative issues and trauma response issues. Five debriefing models are demonstrated: Debriefing for adolescents and adults, Defusing for K-5th grade, Operational Debriefing for all staff, Debriefing the Debriefers, Crisis Team members or first respondents and Classroom Presentation which is different than debriefing and usually initiated before the start of debriefing. The TLC Debriefing Model is the outcome of work with over 1,500 professionals who have participated in debriefing training.
Trauma Informed Assessment and Practice
Didactic presentation and comprehensive child and adolescent case examples provide participants with the framework and support for using trauma informed and strength based assessment to best develop and implement trauma informed practices to enhance resilience and posttraumatic growth when moving children and adolescents from victim to survivor to thriver. Also provides several trauma informed examples of intervention strategies to use with children and adolescents based upon assessment outcomes. Also available online.