Training Staff in Trauma-Focused Interventions: Learning to Speak the Unspeakable

Aims: Orr Shalom treats 1300 children, teen-agers and young adults at risk within our foster-care, group homes, post-psychiatric hostels and alumni programs. Almost all have experienced multiple traumatic events from a young age. Our professional work is based on a psychodynamic approach, focused on the child`s inner world, needs and strengths.

In this workshop, we will describe a project whereby we implemented a new, additional therapeutic approach, incorporating a "trauma lens" into our work.

Work principles: We will describe training programs in which we teach specific trauma-informed interventions for maltreated children. These include an array of prevention and intervention courses for multi-disciplinary staff members who work in various settings and contexts with children at risk.

Implementation: Courses were developed on topics such as the effects of trauma on children and how to talk about it with them, parenting and trauma, trans-generational trauma in kinship care, trauma-focused therapeutic interventions, and more.

Conclusions: We have found that trauma focused approaches have highly enriched and sharpened our intervention/therapeutic approaches and have allowed us to be more effective in creating a safe place to talk with children about the atrocities they have experienced. Challenges in implementing such an approach will also be discussed.