Trauma-Informed Lens

Dr. Deborah Borne joins Matt in this episode to discuss the relationship between trauma and spiritual health. Learn how Dr. Borne integrates spiritual health into her medical practice with those experiencing addiction, homelessness, and living with HIV.

In this episode, Dr. Melody Brown returns to talk about the trauma and marginalized communities. Trauma is playing a major role in the impact of the pandemic and Black Lives Matter movement. Dr. Brown brings her expertise to examine the role of trauma in the challenges facing our communities. My name is Dr. Melody Brown […]

I am excited to announce my new Heart Rate Variability Podcast. I wanted to give my regular listeners a chance to check out our first episode: What is HRV?

Podcasters: Mary Donnelly-Crocker, Matt Bennett, Dr. Jerry Yager Mary Donnelly-Crocker joins Matt and Jerry to discuss her effort to turn Pasadena into a trauma-informed community. Learn how Mary and her organization, Young and Healthy are working to get information about trauma spread throughout the community. Mary demonstrates the power one person has to change the world! Discussion Questions: How could you and your organization spread the power of trauma research into your larger community? Who in our community could really benefit from your knowledge? How would getting the message about trauma into your community help those you serve?

Podcasters: Matthew Bennett, Curt Mower, & Dr. Jerry Yager Memories and traumatic memories are in the news quite a bit lately. Memories are tricky things, being highly subjective and changing over time. Add trauma to the mix and the situation becomes even more complicated. In this episode, Matt, Curt, and Jerry examine the science behind traumatic memory formation and recall and the role traumatic memories play in behavior and the healing process. Discussion questions: 1. In your work, what experiences have you had with people recounting traumatic memories? 2. How can the discussion of the science of memories impact our work with clients struggling to heal from trauma? 3. How does this knowledge influence your thinking about current events and thinking about things like criminal justice reform?

Matt, Curt, and Jerry recorded this episode together after their keynote address and workshop at the 4th Annual Colorado Individual Placement & Support (IPS) Conference. IPS is an innovative best practice which positions employment as a component of a client’s recovery process and not something to consider at a later point when the client reaches some future state of wellness. After spending the day learning and teaching, we share our thoughts about our experience and recent thinking on the role of employment for those recovering from trauma. Discussion questions: How do you see the role of employment in our client’s recovery? When do you know a client is ready for employment or, for younger clients, when to talk about future aspirations. Are there things you can do to support clients differently to provide self-confidence building experience like employment earlier in care/treatment? Learn more about IPS

Podcasters: Matthew Bennett, Curt Mower, & Dr. Jerry Yager In this episode, Matt, Curt, and Jerry take on the question presented in Matt’s previous mini-episode, can you be trauma-informed without a robust staff supervision structure. Some disciplines like social work and mental health have such structures while the health care and education professions usually lack such supports. We know working with people with trauma puts professionals at risk for vicarious trauma, secondary trauma, and burnout. We will examine the role of supervision in trauma-informed organizations and characteristics that make it effective. Discussion questions: How have you used supervision as part of your self-care plan? Are there ways for your programs/organization to integrate a more robust supervision structure as part of its trauma-informed journey? In your opinion what are the characteristics of effective supervision and what would you like from a supervisor?

Podcaster: Matthew Bennett Due to technical difficulties, this is a mini episode where Matt makes his best argument supporting the importance of staff supervision in trauma-informed environments. Depending on the traditions/requirements of the profession, some staff get high levels of supervision while other get little if any. In this mini-episode, Matt lies out his best argument for why strategic reflective supervision is a crucial component to staff well-being and outcomes Discussion questions: How has supervision shaped you as a professional? What are the strengths of your program/organization’s supervisory approach? Are there opportunities to provide better services by restructuring your supervisory structure?  

Podcasters: Matthew Bennett, Curt Mower, & Dr. Jerry Yager In Episode 56 we introduce to a new theme to our podcast, how the trauma-informed paradigm translates into how we view things outside our professional work. In this episode, three big football fans discuss how our understanding of trauma and neurobiology effects how we view the game we all love. As this episode demonstrates, like-minded people often come to different conclusions. The important thing, from a trauma-informed perspective, is to use our knowledge to examine how our actions impact the health and well-being of others and our community. Discussion questions: How has your understanding of trauma impacted your thinking about things outside your professional life? What benefits do you see in taking the trauma-informed lens and placing it on larger societal topics? With so much trauma in the news, how can you use the trauma-informed lens to help others understand other’s actions in a deeper way? Boston Globe Article on Stages of CTE

Podcasters: Jay Levy, Robin Johnson, Matthew Bennett, & Dr. Jerry Yager Jay Levy and Robin Johnson join Matt, Curt, and Jerry to discuss their recent book Cross-Cultural Dialogues on Homelessness: From Pretreatment Strategies to Psychologically Informed Environments which was inspired by conversations surrounding homelessness between providers in the United States and the United Kingdom. In their book, Levy and Johnson present a range of best practices for those experiencing homelessness and trauma. In this episode, we explore the insights gained from their important dialogue and how innovation emerges from learning outside our normal focus areas. Discussion questions: What lessons did you learn from the experience and conversations of Levy and Johnson? How could the concepts of pre-treatment or psychologically informed environment help you think about your work? Did you see any opportunities to step outside your normal focus areas to learn from those with different experiences and unique expertise? http://www.jayslevy.com/ http://pielink.net/cross-cultural-dialogues-on-homelessness/ http://pielink.net/questions/pre-treatment/ Matt’s Review of Cross-Cultural Dialogues on Homelessness

Podcasters: Matthew Bennett, Curt Mower, & Dr. Jerry Yager Personal values speak to the core of who we are as people. Defining and focusing on values increases resiliency, moral courage, and helps us gain inspiration and strength to face life’s challenges. In this episode, Matt, Curt, & Jerry explore the power of personal values and their role they play in the post-traumatic growth process of overcoming the psychological impact of trauma. Discussion questions: Have you identified your personal values? What role have values played in your life? How could you integrate values centered conversations into your work? Start of Matt’s Blog Posts on Values

Podcasters: Matthew Bennett, Curt Mower, & Dr. Jerry Yager Matt has been busy working on another analogy! On this episode he tests drives it with Jerry and Curt to discover if it can help guide our thinking about wellness in the recovery and treatment process. Check out this episode and see what it can teach us about how some of our traditional approaches might be improved by focusing on wellness first. Discussion questions: How do you or your program currently assess wellness? Are there lessons from your efforts to improve your own wellness that you can use in your work? How might improving wellness help your clients on their healing journey? Learn more about the 4th Annual Colorado Individual Placement and Support (IPS) Conference where we’ll be doing a keynote and workshop!

Podcasters: Matt  Bennett, Curt Mower, & Dr. Jerry Yager Matt, Curt, and Jerry reflect back on the last year of podcasting. What did we learn? What do we hope you learned? We take this milestone to take a deeper look at the trauma-informed paradigm and our own work. Thanks for listening and supporting us! Discussion Questions: What are some things you’ve learned from past episodes that challenged your thinking and peaked your curiosity? How does thinking about trauma change the way you see your work, those you serve, and yourself? What do you wish Matt, Curt, and Jerry would talk about next and why? – Send us your answers too!

Repeated, chronic exposure to overwhelming stress, especially early in life leads to a variety of disruptions to the developing brain, the ability of a child to form healthy relationships, the body’s ability to organize and manage its responses to environmental events, and the brain’s ability to store, organize, and retrieve information in a consistent way.  This combination of functional disruptions leaves individuals with thoughts and feelings that can be highly unpleasant.  The people providing support and treatment to that individual are often dealing with the extreme behavior exhibited by that individual.  The “5 R’s” (Relevant, Repetitive, Relational, Rewarding, Rhythmic) are a guide to thinking about the characteristics of a supportive environment necessary for recovery and healing to begin to take place.  

Special Edition for Annual Homelessness Memorial Day in Collaboration with the National Health Care for the Homeless Council We welcome special guest podcaster Dr. Barbara DiPietro, the Senior Director of Policy for the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, for a discussion on self-care in the face of the many issues facing us and those we serve. 2017 has seen many threats of funding cuts, repeal of Medicaid Expansion, numerous revelations of sexual assault and harassment, and a rise in explicit racism and bigotry.  In this atmosphere, we continue to do our best to provide our clients, students, and patients the best services possible. In this episode, we will discuss some of the challenges to our own mental and physical health and some strategies to keep ourselves healthy and energized for the challenges in the coming year. Collaborative Blog Post on Self-care: https://connectingparadigms.org/2017/12/self-care-struggle/ Our Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day page: https://www.nhchc.org/resources/consumer/homeless-persons-memorial-day/ Sign up for our action alert, the Mobilizer: https://www.nhchc.org/mobilizersignup/ The National HCH Council’s self-care resources (item #10): https://www.nhchc.org/resources/clinical/tools-and-support/core-competencies-for-the-hch-setting/ Become a National HCH Council individual member (free!): https://www.nhchc.org/about/membership/individual-members/individual-membership-application/