Advancing Trauma-Informed Systems Change Through Education and Research

May 12, 2021

McLean Hospital is collaborating with national and international experts to provide training aimed at fostering trauma-informed systems change.

Led by Alisha Moreland-Capuia, MD, founder and director of McLean’s Institute for Trauma-Informed Systems Change, this team of educators is offering two-day, 12-hour workshops on trauma-informed practices and approaches, brain development, and the neuroscience of fear and trauma.

Moreland-Capuia is excited about this trauma-informed curriculum’s potential to positively impact individuals, systems, and, ultimately, society.

“I believe that a trauma-informed world is a better world,” said Moreland-Capuia. “Trauma is ubiquitous—no one can escape it. Everyone has experienced it or will at some point. I also believe that if trauma is universal, so is healing. In my world, everyone in every system can benefit from learning how to be trauma-informed. That’s how we move toward wellness and move toward creating conditions for belonging and healing.”

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Online Workshops for Professionals

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Join us for 12 hours of training in trauma-informed practices and approaches, brain development, neuroscience of fear and trauma, and trauma-informed systems change. These 2-day workshops are offered monthly, starting July 2021

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Two Days of Trauma-Focused Training

Each two-day, interactive, trauma-focused training will explore:

  • Brain development as a means of understanding human behavior
  • How the brain processes fear and how trauma disorders develop
  • Understanding trauma-informed care, practices, and approaches
  • Secondary traumatic stress/vicarious trauma
  • Real-time examples of trauma-informed systems change presented by experts in transformation
  • Tools that individuals and systems can employ immediately to start moving toward trauma-informed change

Along with Moreland-Capuia, the training sessions will be led by:

  • Kerry J. Ressler, MD, PhD, McLean’s chief scientific officer, who has studied the neurobiology of fear for more than two decades
  • Maggie Bennington-Davis, MD, chief medical officer at Health Share of Oregon, who has led the development of trauma-sensitive clinical services
  • Dawn Harris, DPsych, and Alex O’Donnell, MA, who have been working for several years to create a trauma-informed Scotland through their training and consultancy program, Epione
  • Drexel University’s Sandra Bloom, MD

Moreland-Capuia described Bloom as “the mother of trauma-informed care. Linehan is to DBT as Sandra Bloom is to trauma-informed care.”

Training That Works

Moreland-Capuia is adamant that everyone who participates in the workshop will be well-equipped to make some sort of trauma-informed change when they return to their workplace.

“I have seven years’ worth of data to prove that it’s effective,” said Moreland-Capuia. “We are confident that if you learn these things in the way that we are teaching it, you can apply that learning and make demonstrable, significant change in any system that you’re working in. That is a guarantee.”

Although she is confident in the viability of the current curriculum, Moreland-Capuia said that the institute will conduct ongoing research to both evaluate the effectiveness of the training and help discover ways to improve the training through pre- and post-training questionnaires. The post-training surveys will also be administered at different intervals to evaluate the sustainability of the training’s impact.

Moreland-Capuia said that while anyone can benefit from trauma-informed training, such learning is especially important for people who frequently interface with the public. She often works with health care professionals, law enforcement employees, communication teams, nonprofit staff, and community organization staff.

“I believe that anyone who has a public-facing job has a core obligation to prevent needless suffering—to recognize, acknowledge, and manage and treat trauma,” she said. “It’s a high calling but also a calling that everyone can answer.”

The Trauma-Informed Systems Change: Online Workshops for Professionals course is being offered monthly, starting in July 2021. Visit the registration page to learn more about the agenda, accreditation opportunities, and pricing. Register Now!

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