Suicide Prevention - Understanding Trauma and Trauma-Informed Care

Workshop Description

This full-day training is designed to help people working within service systems where the people being served may be experiencing the impacts of having survived a traumatic event (i.e. all service systems). The training provides information about the prevalence and impact of traumatic events and looks at why a focus on trauma is important. It discusses the idea of trauma-informed care and what it means to be trauma-informed, how this differs from and overlaps with trauma treatment, as well as what providers can do to ensure their practices/policies are more trauma informed. The concepts of safety, predictability, and control are explored and strategies to help establish them are highlighted. Particular attention is paid to self/co-regulation, affect management, and self-care skills both for the people being served and the providers themselves. 



Learning Objectives: 

• Explain how and why potentially traumatic events can have long-term effects on people who experience them
• Discuss the concept of “trauma-informed” care and how it is a significant perspective shift from traditional models of care 
• Employ strategies for making environments and interactions more trauma-informed. 
• Describe ways in which a provider's capacity to recognize and manage her/his own reactions can help or hinder a client’s ability to learn skills for affect regulation. 
• Understand the differences and overlaps between trauma-informed care and trauma-focused treatment

Training Faculty 

Joanna Bridger, LICSW

Clinical Services Director

Riverside Trauma Center