Workshops & Training:

Workshop 1:

School Program

Outside of the home, schools are the largest part of every child’s social environment. They are critically positioned to be able to support the needs of children and young people through the relational and learning environments they can offer. Although some might argue that teachers should focus solely on academics, the reality is that teachers cannot teach effectively if their students are not able to focus on learning. Students cannot learn effectively when they are burdened by the impact of trauma or when they do not have strong communication and emotion regulation skills.

This ’One Day for Students’ workshop is specifically tailored to address typical teenage stress and the compounding effects of the Covid pandemic. On completion students will have a variety of effective skills they can use to maximize their own resiliency during times of stress and anxiety.

Student Workshop Objectives:

Stress Response:

We discuss how the pandemic has impacted everyone and has added to the challenges of what is a young adult’s life. We examine the Stress Response System and how our bodies function when this system is activated.

Thoughts & Emotions:

We discuss ways to recognise and express feelings and how to identify and reframe unhelpful thinking patterns. We provide grounding techniques that are simple, quick and easy ways to connect with the present moment by focusing on our surroundings and moving away from challenging thoughts or feelings.

Stress & How we Manage:

We talk about how certain situations can cause us to feel stressed. We outline certain unhelpful coping strategies and offer more helpful skills to bring back feelings of safety, calmness, and control.

Tools & Skills:

We offer 6 different methods for managing stress and building resilience. This allows for each student to find the type of coping skill that suits them best and gives them the tools to manage unhelpful thinking patterns and uncomfortable emotions.

Pathways:

We outline specific ways for students to communicate their anxiety if they are struggling to cope.

Three Tier Trauma Training
for all School Personnel

1)Trauma Sensitive Training Objectives:

ACE’s & their Impact:

We delve beyond the original core list of identified adverse childhood experiences and explore how these stressful experiences including those brought about by the Covid 19 pandemic, can limit a student’s ability to learn, grow, and thrive.

Positive, Tolerable & Toxic Stress:

We identify the impact of toxic stress on development and examine its effect on behaviour & learning.

Teaching Through A Trauma Lens:

We discuss the benefits of a trauma informed approach to teaching and provide effective strategies for challenging behaviour and corrective experiences.

Self Care for Staff:

We highlight the implications of compassion fatigue on a personal level as well as on a professional one and provide strategies to minimise the risk of secondary and/or vicarious trauma.

2) Trauma Responsive Training Objectives:

Triggers & the Stress Response System:

We examine the body’s survival response to stress and provide skills for reducing arousal levels to remain within the ‘Window of Tolerance’.

How to Regulate through Relationship:

We provide a 10-step strategy to effectively respond to a student who is dysregulated and resistant.

Discipline, Accountability & Responsibility:

We discuss the value of boundaries and the part they play in providing structure, direction and autonomy for every student.

Resilience:

We detail the importance of developing protective factors for all students especially those who have been impacted by trauma.

Students of Concern:

We offer a detailed process to clearly identify students of concern and provide a structured procedure to ensure early intervention.

3) Trauma Informed Training Objectives:

A New School Culture:

We suggest how creating a relationship-based school culture that emphasizes the core values of safety, trust, choice, collaboration, and empowerment, benefits not only students of concern but all students as well as parents, teachers, management and other school personnel.

Building a Team:

We outline the necessity of initially creating a team which should include for example, the Principle, each year head teacher, the school counsellor, a special needs assistant, and a representative of the office, canteen and cleaning staff. Eventually the model should be implemented at an entire school level.

Implementing A Trauma Informed Model:

We provide strategies to guide the success of establishing a relationship-based climate and offer a step by step checklist of targets and actions to ensure that the new school culture reflects the trauma informed model.

All our programs and workshops can be delivered within the school environment as well as in other suitable venues.

Workshop 2:

Trauma & Addiction

Our interactive and practical professional development training begins by highlighting the compelling association between Adverse Childhood Experiences and the development of addiction in adulthood. Referencing the latest research, we look at this from a world view and from an Irish perspective. We take an in-depth look at how trauma impacts the nervous system and how the use of substances can elevate this stress. We examine the implications for professionals working with this self-medicating hypothesis and provide specific evidenced-based self-care strategies to avoid compassion fatigue, and Burnout

STRESS RESPONSE DAMPENING EFFECT

Research shows that people with a history of childhood sexual abuse have a 73% greater risk of developing a substance use disorder in their lifetime than other people. Although substances or behaviours may provide a temporary “fix” for trauma symptoms, it adds to the difficulty by making symptoms worse. It also interferes with the ability to work through the traumatic experience.

When trauma remains unidentified or unresolved, it makes the process of addiction recovery an almost impossible task. Unresolved trauma & relapse becomes a vicious cycle. Once we stop using substances or behaviours, trauma symptoms such as anxiety, emotional triggers, and upsetting memories re-surface. This increase in trauma symptoms triggers a relapse. As a result, we feel more shame and hopelessness, making the next attempt at recovery even more challenging.

Trauma Informed Care

for personnel working in all environments

Workshop 3

Workshop 4:

Workshop 5:

RECOGNISE, RELIEVE & REDUCE STRESS

in Today's Traumatised World

PROMOTING GOOD MENTAL HEALTH

in the Workplace

1.Recognise the link between stressful experiences and various health & social issues

2. Identify the impact of stress on relationships eg family, friends & work colleagues

3. Discuss maladaptive coping methods & offer healthier ways to relieve stress

4. Develop a new understanding around stressors, time management & goal directed thinking

5. Provide skills and strategies in how to engage in a physical, psychological, and emotional plan for future health & wellbeing

6. Detail specific tools and techniques to enhance self-compassion, self-regulation & self-care

1. Provide information and education around general mental health in order to challenge misconceptions and remove stigma.

2. Offer insights into how mental health issues can affect individuals. This includes recognising and understanding signs, symptoms, and emotional triggers.

3. Discuss how cognitive distortions and emotional overwhelm increases the chance of experiencing mental distress that can lead to conflict, addiction, and poor mental health.

4. Provide key skills for mental health champions to develop techniques to effectively support colleagues in distress or crisis and provide signposts to appropriate services

5. Outline a self-care plan for mental health champions to protect and improve their own mental well-being

6. Develop skills and strategies for promoting good mental health in the workplace fostering a supportive, compassionate, and well-balanced work environment for everyone.