Expanding the Toolkit: Trauma-Informed Practice Institute

The Center on Trauma and Adversity will host the second annual Expanding the Toolkit: Trauma-Informed Practice Institute Oct. 5 from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Case Western Reserve University’s Tinkham Veale University Center ballroom.

The focus of this year’s institute is on indirect trauma, with keynote speakers:

• Laura van Dernoot Lipsky, founder and director of The Trauma Stewardship Institute and author of Trauma Stewardship: An Everyday Guide to Caring for Self While Caring for Others; and
• Nkem Ndefo, founder of Lumos Transforms and creator of The Resilience Toolkit.

Given the complex needs and demanding conditions of working with people who have experienced trauma and adversity, helping professionals often experience persistent, cumulative stress. If left unrecognized and unmanaged, practitioners are at increased risk for acquiring indirect traumatic stress symptoms such as severe exhaustion, isolation, reduced capacity to connect with others and burnout. It is important for those in helping positions to learn to recognize the signs of indirect trauma and associated syndromes like secondary traumatic stress, vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue and burnout.

This institute will attract more than 400 helping professionals, including mental health professionals (social workers, counselors), medical physicians, nurses, educators, direct-service providers (child welfare, residential staff) and peer support professionals. All professions and disciplines are welcome.

The goal of this institute is to: 

• Provide resources and information in order to promote a more resilient, interdisciplinary network of practitioners; 
• Enhance interprofessional collaboration and connectedness among a network of transdisciplinary professionals providing trauma-informed care; and 
• Improve the quality of care for individuals, families and communities experiencing trauma and adversity.

CEUs pending:

• In-person attendees: seven CEUs for counseling, social work, and marriage and family therapist
• Virtual attendees: six CEUs for counseling, social work, and marriage and family therapist

The institute costs $40 for students attending in person, and $20 tuning into the virtual livestream. For non-students the in-person cost is $165, and the virtual livestream cost is $80.

A limited number of scholarships are available to cover the cost of registration for individuals who want to attend, but may find the registration fees prohibitive. To apply, email TraumaCenter@case.edu with the subject line: “Institute Scholarship” and include a few short sentences explaining why you’d like to attend. The center will review and follow-up on a rolling basis.

Learn more about and register for the institute.