TRAUMA INFORMED PARENTING:
From hurting to healing 

"Our brains are wired for connection, but trauma rewires them for protection. That’s why healthy relationships are difficult for wounded people." – Ryan North 

Parenting children who have early life experiences of neglect, abuse and loss requires not only love and care but a deep understanding of how their children's early experiences  impact how they the feel, think and behave.  

This journey is not easy and parenting strategies that are effective with children who have always had a safe, loving and permanent family often do not work with children who have been through trauma. 

Developing an understanding of trauma informed parenting and strategies will help you and others in your child's life react, respond and ultimately help your child in their healing journey. 

We have gathered our favourite resources on the topic.  

VIDEO : Suzanne and Brandi introduce “Trauma Informed Parenting” and  reinforce the importance of your own well-being as caregivers as fundamental to putting these ideas into action. 

VIDEO : Adoptive moms, Kim, Catherine & Patricia talk about how they apply Trauma Informed Parenting every day.

Webinar - Making Sense of Trauma
 See the need behind the behaviour

WEBINAR OVERVIEW
This webinar explores the nature of complex trauma and will help you understand how it is expressed in children/youth. You’ll learn how trauma can change the way a person relates to others and their environment and how it can affect the body, mind and spirit. You’ll also learn the principles of trauma-informed care which will help you shift from saying “what is wrong with you” to “what has happened to you”. The webinar will also help you develop a better understanding of the nervous system and trauma survival responses. Finally, you’ll be presented with specific tools to begin helping the children/youth in your life manage difficult behaviours brought on by a trauma survival response.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Danielle Marcoux is a mental health nurse and adoptive parent. Over the last decade, Danielle has worked with children and youth in hospital, community and school settings. As a registered nurse and clinical coordinator for the Child and Youth Team (mental health services), Danielle has seen firsthand the effects trauma can have on children’s behaviours and relationships. As an adoptive mom, Danielle understands the struggle and emotional toll parents feel when their child is struggling. In offering this webinar, she hopes to bring understanding and compassion, as well as tools to help parents and caregivers build stronger relationships with the child/youth in their life.

Additional Resources 

(Articles📰, Videos📺, Blogs📝, Podcasts 🎧, Websites 🌐)

📺 Trauma and the Incredible Hulk
Jacob Ham talks about his favorite metaphor for trauma that he uses with nearly all of his trauma patients during therapy. It's a great way to depersonalize trauma reactions and make sense of them in a way that doesn't leave a person feeling too bad about why they react the way they do and it definitely gives clues about how to control it. 

📺The Repair of Early Trauma: A Bottom Up Approach
Made in collaboration with Beacon House and told to us through the voices of children, this unique animation teaches us that by putting together the seven-piece jigsaw puzzle of ‘Developmental Trauma’, we can understand how a child’s adverse childhood experiences have shaped their emotional world and outward behaviour. Once we understand this, we can then work with a child to help them with their developmental trauma using an innovative therapeutic approach called the ‘Neuro-Sequential Model of Therapeutics’. This model recovers and repairs each part of a child’s brain in a specific, phased and effective order. 

📺Trauma Informed Starts with You
📺Brain Builders
📺The hand-brain model  
📺Complex trauma Videos
📺The PTSD Brain of Children and Soldiers