Trauma-Informed Care Consortium

Central Texas

"Building a Community of Care for Children, Families and Providers"

www.traumatexas.com

Newsletter

June 2015

Table of Contents

Spotlight on YWCA

Trauma-Informed Care and Military Families

Yoga for Traumatized Populations

Save the Date for Statewide Survey on Trauma-Informed Care

TICC Members

Spotlight on

YWCA Greater Austin

YWCA Greater Austin's mission is empowering women and eliminating racism. The various programs, including the Training Institute, GenYW, Advocacy, and the Counseling and Referral Center are committed to providing trauma informed care and information for clients and the community.

The Counseling and Referral Center offers individual, couple, family and group counseling services for issues related to depression, anxiety, gender identity, pre/postnatal mental health, complex trauma, immigration, family disruptions due to incarceration, military leave, CPS, etc. Staff is trained in trauma informed modalities such as Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) and Somatic Experiencing. The YWCA also offers complimentary services for special populations such as veteran women, dual diagnosed individuals (trauma/substance abuse) in a local treatment center, justice-involved women at the county jail, and women held at an immigration detention center.

The YWCA was also recently accepted as a pilot site of the Trauma Informed Care (TIC) Organizational Transformation Learning Collaborative and the Texas Children Recovering From Trauma (TCRFT) initiative of DSHS.

To learn more about YWCA's services and programs, click here.

TICC's Trauma-Informed Organization Readiness Survey Results

Click Here!

Upcoming Trainings

*Please check our website (www.traumatexas.com) for on-going updates and additions to our trainings calendar!

July

NAMI Basics Class

7/11/15-8/15/15

August

Trauma Informed Classrooms for Educators

8/4/15-8/5/15

Non-Medication Treatments for ADHD Seminar

8/6/15

NAMI Basics Teacher Training

8/21/15-8/22/15

September

Third Annual Military Conference

9/17/15-9/18/15

Healing Developmental Trauma: Integrating Somatic Psychology and Interpersonal Neurobiology in Working with Shame, Safety, Self and the Polyvagal Theory

9/18/15-9/19/15

October

United Way Early Childhood Stakeholder Meeting

10/29/15

Add TICC to Your

List Serve

Please notify

skolar@austinchildguidance.org

of any upcoming trainings

your agency is holding in

order to get them added

to the website and newsletter!

The Trauma-Informed Care Consortium is funded by:

St. David's Foundation

and

Lexus of Austin

June is PTSD Awareness Month

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a disorder that can occur after someone has experienced trauma. In recognition of PTSD Awareness Month, this issue of the Trauma-Informed Care Consortium newsletter has a special focus on the military, a population that is especially susceptible to developing PTSD.

To learn more about PTSD Awareness Month and to find resources for those with PTSD, click here.

Mark your calendars for the next TICC meeting:

Friday, August 28th at 9 AM

at Travis County Juvenile Probation on South Congress.

Featured Articles

Providing Trauma-Informed Care to Military Families

Gretchen Johnson Rees, LCSW

Hope for Heroes Counselor, Samaritan Counseling Center

At eight years old, Julia* was struggling when she first came to counseling. She was experiencing frequent nightmares and having trouble focusing in school. She felt like she had no friends. Julia's father had been deployed on four combat tours to the Middle East, and it had taken its toll on the whole family.

As focus tends to be on the returning military servicemen or women, children - who are a vital part of the military family system - are often overlooked. These children report higher rates of mental health problems across a wide variety of areas relative to the general population. According to a study supported by the U.S. Army's Operation Military Kids, military children suffer from increased rates of depression and anxiety, emotional reactivity and aggression, attention difficulties, poor academic performance, and increased rates of post-traumatic stress disorder and secondary trauma.

Unfortunately, mental health professionals are often ill equipped to properly counsel military members and their families. According to a recent RAND Corporation Study, only 13% of civilian providers are adequately prepared to deliver "culturally competent, high-quality care to service members, veterans and their families." Effectively engaging servicemen and women and their families requires both familiarity and comfort with military and veteran culture. Additionally, mental health providers must possess an understanding of the unique facets of military life that may complicate treatment.

Read full article here.

*Name and identifying information changed for confidentiality

Therapeutic Yoga

and Mental Wellness

Shawn Kent, MA, LPC

Clinical Director, Community Yoga Austin

"I never tried nothing like this before. My problem is I think too much, my brain never slows down. Yoga--gives me the power to slow my mind down. It does what the drugs would do--like the heroin--without the devastation. So...thank you so much for coming out here." - Jacob (student in Community Yoga Austin's prison program at TCCC)

"Tell me, I'll forget

Show me, I'll remember

Involve me, I'll understand"

-Chinese proverb

Our life experiences occur in and through a physical body. Everything we perceive, feel, think, and do, emerges from a direct, organic, physical process occurring in a physical body.

As obvious as these two statements might sound, it has only been within the last decade that research advances in both neuroscience and the physiology of mental experience have really begun to shape our understanding of the role that physical biology plays in mental health, mental illness, and treatment.

With our increased understanding of the interaction between physical and mental experience, we have begun to look for ways to include more holistic interventions. As a result, therapeutic yoga has become a rapidly growing movement in the field of mental wellness.

Therapeutic yoga incorporates these physical/experiential activities within a larger process that involves education, mindfulness training, and group discussion around specific social emotional skills. All of this work occurs in a context where students feel safe, in control of their experience, and comfortable expressing their needs.

Read full article here.

Community Initatives

Save the Date!

Statewide Survey on

Trauma-Informed Care

What: Texas CASA is partnering with Cenpatico, DFPS, the Children's Commission, and the Texas Network of Youth Services to survey providers involved with the Texas Child welfare system about trauma-informed care. The survey will target CPS caseworkers, foster parents, judges, mental health providers, CASA volunteers, and more.

When: Survey will open in early July and be available for 4 weeks.

*Survey participants will have a chance to win one of five $100 Amazon gift cards!*

Please be on the lookout for the survey in coming weeks and help spread the word!

Featured Training

Register Now

Depelchin Children's Center

Trauma-Informed Care Conference

Transforming the Lives of Families