|
|
The ChildTrauma Academy Newsletter
|
April 2010
|
|
|
|
|
APRIL CTA NEWSLETTER
Greetings!
We are pleased to announce that the new and improved CTA website launches today, April 1! Special thanks are due to Jana Rosenfelt and the team at Mungo! Creative. They worked long hours to make the new website, www.ChildTrauma.org - the same url as before, more visually-pleasing, easier to navigate and more up-to-date. Check it out! Many of you will notice that many of the articles posted on the older site are not yet posted. Be patient; our most downloaded and most recent articles are posted. As we continue to modify and update our other written materials we will be posting these as well. You can follow our work and progress on this and other projects on Facebook and Twitter as well. We have started posting updates and "Tweeting" weekly regarding CTA news, upcoming events, and professional articles that we think will be of interest to you. We will continue to use emerging technologies in our work and look forward to sharing these advances with you in upcoming Newsletters. |
|
|
Dr. Gizane Indart, CTA Fellow, Receives Prestigious National Award
Dr. Gizane Indart, Executive Director of The Denver Children's Advocacy Center and CTA Fellow, has received the National Children's Advocacy Center's Outstanding Service Award for her work in building and supporting an outstanding Multidisciplinary Team. She will be presented this award at the 26th National Symposium on Child Abuse this month in Huntsville, AL. The National Children's Advocacy Center's 2010 Outstanding Service Award recognizes the contribution of professionals who demonstrate excellence in the collaborative approach to protecting children from the devastating impact of child sexual abuse and exploitation. It recognizes Dr. Indart's outstanding professional qualities in working collaboratively with colleagues from a variety of disciplines in a multidisciplinary team. Dr. Indart's work has provided significant contributions to the development, continuation and enhancement of the Children's Advocacy Center model.
Congratulations to Dr. Indart; well deserved. We are all proud of you, your team and the Denver CAC.
|
Distributed Leadership - What Can We Learn from Indigenous Leadership Models
As discussed in Dr. Perry's new book, "Born for Love," humans have always lived and worked in groups. The very core of humankind is the capacity to form relationships with others and thereby create adaptive and successful "organizations." Central to any group or organization, in turn, is the model of leadership. The success or failure of our many organizations and groups is directly related to the health and welfare of children in our culture. We have all seen how good leadership in an organization can create a productive, healthy environment that translates to productive, respectful and healthy interactions with clients. In turn, most of us have also experienced the destructive impact of capricious, immature and authoritarian leadership. Exporing these issues regarding style of leadership and the neurosociology of groups are part of the ongoing work of the CTA. In this short section, the original model of leadership is discussed. It is worth thinking about what we may all be able to learn from the leadership models of our elders and ancestors.
Vertical leadership models that promote powerful executive
leaders and the delineation of specific roles are the norm in America. Our
country is driven by bureaucracy, and top-down leadership replaced existing collaborative
leadership models practiced by indigenous populations such as seen in Native Americans. The pros and cons of different
styles of leadership are debated throughout the literature. Certainly, there is
a place for executive decision making, especially if it facilitates remote
groups working together toward a common goal. However, many
organizations-businesses, community mental health centers, and especially
school systems-are beginning to recognize the value of distributed leadership
models. These models focus less on assigning leadership roles and more on promoting
leadership practice by all, and are rooted in Indigenous leadership models such
as the models practiced by Aborigines in Australia and Native Americans.
The
first leadership models recorded in history were horizontal hunter-gatherer
bands. These bands were small-usually consisting of 10-100 persons (Sveiby,
2009). Bands were governed by moral codes that endorsed respect for others. Respect
was considered to be action-oriented; people were expected to be true to their
nature by acknowledging their innate strengths and weaknesses and by graciously
accepting the knowledge that could be gained from others. Other aspects of traditional
codes of conduct included taking responsibility for blame, actively seeking to
settle conflicts in their early stages, not being ego-driven, and not using
fear as a leadership tactic. Appointed leaders did not exist. Instead, people
carried out the roles they were capable of, and when their expertise reached
its limit, they turned to those who had more expertise for guidance.
Exploitation was uncommon because leadership constantly revolved-people were
more accustomed to being followers than leaders. Everyone was aware of the
importance of their own contributions to the wellbeing of the band, and this
responsibility created a milieu in which each person was intrinsically
motivated to be her own supervisor.
Distributed
leadership models, which reflect the values of Indigenous leadership models,
are becoming popular due to the shortcomings of vertical models. Vertical
models promote segregation of responsibility and place "talented" individuals in
charge-individuals who are often required to make decisions about matters on
which they are not the expert. Distributed leadership models promote teaching
leadership strategies to all persons involved in the process of achieving a
goal. They stress the importance of respectful, mutual interactions between
those working together rather than requiring followers to blindly carry out
orders from above. These models have shown preliminary success in school
reforms (Camburn, Rowan, & Taylor, 2000), and are successful because they
"activate" everyone involved via empowerment and accountability. For example,
followers are referred to as consultants and expected to be active in decision
making processes.
Other benefits of distributed
leadership models are that they resonate with minority groups whose culture is
collectivistic rather than individualistic. For example, HIV/AIDS and Substance
Abuse Prevention Programs for minority populations have greater success when
they use distributed leadership models that are respectful of culture (Aguilera
& Plasencia, 2005). Also, community-based interventions are most successful
when collaborative partnerships are created with communities; i.e., when those
who live in the community are involved in the creation of the intervention. It is likely that the dissemination of Evidence Based Practices in Psychology (EBPP) would improve if those wishing to promote these interventions used distributed
leadership models instead of imposing their interventions on communities via top-down,
directive strategies.
Further Reading:
Australian Indigenous Leadership Center
A New View: Distributed Leadership by John Diamond, Associate Professor, Harvard Graduate School of Education
Sources:
Aguilera, S. & Plasencia, A. V. (2005). Culturally
appropriate HIV/AIDS and substance abuse
prevention
programs for urban native youth. Journal
of Psychoactive Drugs, 37, 299-304.
Camburn, E., Rowan, B., & Taylor, J. (2000). Distributed
leadership in schools: The case of
elementary
schools adopting comprehensive school reform models. Retrieved March 16, 2010.
Sveiby, K. E. (2009). The first leadership? Shared
leadership in indigenous hunter-gatherer
bands.
Unpublished Draft.
|
|
Register Now for the Spring/Summer NMT Case-Based Training Series - Begins April 16!
We are currently registering participants for our 2010 NMT Spring/Summer Case-Based Training Series -- which begins Friday, April 16, 2010!
The NMT Case-Based Training Series is a clinical case conference series led by Dr. Bruce Perry and attended by participants via the Internet (with audio provided via teleconference). Low cost and convenient format! The Series consists of ten 90-minute case staffings in which Dr. Perry uses the Neurosequential Model (NMT) to conceptualize each case and further illustrate the model. He walks participants through the creation of a brain map for each case and, along with CTA Fellows, teaches on a variety of case-related topics.
During the 2010 Spring/Summer Series, we will dedicate one session each to the following five topics:
-- Use of NMT Metrics
-- Trauma-focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
-- EMDR: Neurobiological Mechanism of Action
-- Psychopharmacology: Do Antidepressants Work in Children?
-- Parent-Child Interaction Therapy: A Brief Introduction
Cases are brought forward by the participants in the series. Participants are provided with topic overviews, annotated bibliographies and handouts. Sessions are recorded and available for convenient viewing.
This teaching model has received glowing reviews by participants -- stating it has been extremely useful for helping clinicians and front-line staff better understand the neurodevelopmental principles involved in many of the primary symptoms, as well as strengths, they see in the children they serve.
Enjoy fifteen hours of live instruction/consultation with Dr. Bruce Perry and interaction with professionals throughout the US and the world - without ever having to leave your office! Certificates of completion are available.
Organizational Rate is $1825 for all 15 hours of training with up to 25 participants in a single room. Individual Rate is $650 for all 15 hours of training.
If you haven't already enrolled, please contact us ASAP to do so!
2010 Spring/Summer Series
START DATE: April 16, 2010
TIME: 11:30am cst
LOCATION: Via the Web!
Training Dates:
April 16 & 23
May 7, 14 & 21
June 11 & 18
July 9, 16 & 23
All trainings to take place on Fridays at 11:30am cst
Register Now via our subscription form!
|
|
Interested in attending a live presentation by Dr. Perry or a CTA Fellow? Click here for our list of upcoming events.
Sincerely,
Bruce D. Perry, M.D., Ph.D.
The ChildTrauma Academy |
|
|
|
|
|
