Training Description

Connection is a Risk

When a child depends on an adult for nurturance, safety, and love, he or she should not be taking a risk. After betrayal, making connections requires taking risking disappointment at minimum, if not shame, loss, and further trauma. Most clients in the mental health and child welfare system have been hurt and betrayed many times—by parents, by other caretakers, by the system.  

Healing

To heal, a traumatized client must risk connecting with caring adults who are different (enough) from those of his or her past. Yet, there are many reasons why clients would not take that chance. Over time, however, through the experience of RICH^® relationships—those that demonstrate Respect, Information, Connection, and Hope—clients can learn to trust in caring adults and move beyond the wounds of the past. 

Understanding Trauma

Risking Connection^® is a foundational trauma training curriculum and training program, rooted in relational and attachment theory.  It provides a framework for understanding the wide array of symptoms and behaviors that land traumatized people in a wide range of mental health settings.  Because it is foundational training program, it complements with other techniques used to treat traumatized children such as Dialectical Behavior Therapy, EMDR, Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy (TF-CBT), and TARGET.. Risking Connection^® was commissioned by the states of Maine and New York to train public mental health system staff at all levels to provide trauma-informed treatment to clients. Since its inception, the program has been implemented in independent living programs, residential treatment, and outpatient mental health, among other settings.  

Risking Connection^® is unique in several respects:

• It is a philosophy of treatment rather than a treatment technique.
• It is for staff at all levels of training creates a common language among staff to speak about trauma within treatment settings.
• It stresses the direct link past traumatized attachment and current relationships with treatment staff. In essence, since children have been hurt in relationships, supportive nurturing relationships are critical to healing.  Therefore, every adult who has contact with a client in residential treatment is doing “trauma treatment.”
• It asserts that treating traumatized people also poses risks to those providing treatment, namely the risk of vicarious traumatization. In this model, respect for, and care of, both client and treater are viewed as vital.
• It acknowledges that strong feelings are inevitable in treaters working with traumatized children and helps treaters learn how to use those feelings to promote healing.