Workshop Description:
Supervisors in people-serving settings must balance the needs of trauma survivors among those they serve with the needs of staff, who may bring their own experiences of primary or vicarious trauma to the work. In this highly interactive training, supervisors will learn to recognize trauma as a factor in the parallel processes that shape relationships in service settings and will gain practical strategies for actively supporting their staff. Supervisors will learn to apply trauma-informed thinking to common challenges in supervision, including recognizing the impact of unresolved and vicarious trauma on workers, giving and receiving effective feedback, and taking a strengths-based perspective with staff. Participants will be invited to practice and experience receiving reflective supervision.
Please note: Either Trauma Informed Care Basics or Workforce Wellness -Sustaining Ourselves in the Face of Trauma is a prerequisite for this training.
Learning Objectives:
At the end of this session, participants will:
- Identify common “triggers” of trauma-linked responses in clients/consumers and staff, as well as common characteristics of trauma-linked responding
- Be able to describe core components of trauma-informed supervision
- Name five ways supervisors can support supervisees to prevent and manage secondary traumatic stress
- Identify personal, professional and workplace “next steps” for applying skills from the workshop
Trainers: Elaine Walters is the founding Executive Director and lead trainer at the Trauma Healing Project, an organization that provides professional and community training, workforce support and direct healing support for survivors. Prior to this position she coordinated the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner Program for the Attorney General’s Sexual Assault Task Force in Oregon. For the last 30 years she has been a consultant, trainer and community organizer working to address and eliminate intimate violence. She has designed and facilitated workshops and trainings on many related topics and has provided direct services and support to youth and adults impacted by violence, abuse and other forms of trauma and oppression. She is involved in the effort to expand accessible trauma healing and restorative resources and practices and to implement trauma-informed care locally, regionally and state-wide.
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