Trauma-Informed Care Trainings for Caregivers
Our online and in-person trainings focus on trauma-informed care for caregivers. We also provide trauma resources for parents and caregivers. We invite you to select a topic or customize a course for your needs.
Schedule a Trauma-Informed Care Training
For questions, pricing information or to book a training, email LifelineforKids@umassmed.edu.
Trauma-Informed Training Topics for Caregivers
- Introduction to Understanding Trauma
- Now What Do I Do? Responding to Children Who Have Experienced Trauma
- Trauma and Its Impact on Development
- Wired for Connection—Loneliness and Trauma
- Burnout and Secondary Traumatic Stress
- Customizable training based on needs of caregivers
Introduction to Understanding Trauma
Description: This training provides a general overview about the concept of trauma and its impact on development. The training:
- Starts with the definition of trauma, types of trauma and introduces the ACE study, describing the connection between traumatic experiences and physical and mental health consequences
- Focuses on the neurobiology of trauma and how adverse experiences can impact the brain and the body of the child
- Discusses the concept of resiliency and importance of attachment
Now What Do I Do? Responding to Children Who Have Experienced Trauma
Description: This training provides caregivers with practical strategies to manage the behavioral and emotional impact of trauma on children. It uses the framework of Safety, Connectedness and Regulation. This framework helps illustrate various strategies that caregivers can use to help their child regulate their emotions and behaviors, while also fostering a safe, stable and nurturing relationship.
Examples of strategies include how to:
- Be an emotional container and provide psychological safety
- Use relaxation strategies, routines, reassurance and regulation techniques
Trauma and Its Impact on Development
Description: In this training, we provide a general overview of the concept of trauma and the specific domains of development that trauma impacts. The training illustrates several areas of development, with specific examples on how trauma affects:
- Attachment
- Behavioral control
- Biology
- Cognitions
- Dissociation
- Emotional regulation
- Sense of self
We use examples and case vignettes to describe what trauma looks like developmentally. We also provide strategies to deal with trauma reactions.
Wired for Connection—Loneliness and Trauma
Description: This training illustrates:
- The concept of social isolation
- Its dimensions
- Who suffer the most from social isolation, with special emphasis on children
The training describes the consequences of loneliness/social isolation in terms of:
- Social relationships
- Unhelpful coping strategies (smoking, physical inactivity, etc.)
- Well-being
The second part of the training describes strategies to address loneliness and trauma in children, including:
- Providing psychological safety
- Mentalizing
- Establishing safe and predictable relationships
We also introduce ideas on how caregivers can take care of themselves and regulate their emotions to help their children.
Burnout and Secondary Traumatic Stress
Description: The day-to-day grind of caring for a child who has experienced trauma can take an emotional and physical toll. When the stress of parenting affects caregivers’ mental and physical health, it impairs their ability to parent effectively. It can also lead to compassion fatigue.
The goal of this training is to provide caregivers with an understanding of their own signs and symptoms of parenting stress. It also offers some practical strategies to manage these reactions.
This training also addresses how the traumatic experiences of children can evoke trauma reactions in caregivers. We help caregivers learn how to implement self-care strategies to buffer the impact of secondary traumatization.