Adversity & Resilience Center

This seminar answers questions that many school staff and caregivers grapple with when working to support children and adolescents who have experienced adversity. Namely, what is adversity? How prevalent is adversity? How can adversity and trauma exposure impact the brain and childhood development? How can I identify a child who has experienced adversity? How do I best support a child and family as they grapple with the effects of adversity, both within the academic arena and within the larger world around us? Individuals will gain knowledge, sensitivity and insight into how best to support children and adolescents facing adversity. Our Adversity 101 Seminar builds upon the innate resilience present in communities that have experienced trauma exposure, chronic or otherwise, and is consistently tailored to the unique community that we are serving.

This seminar includes an overview of evidence-based practices that can be utilized by teachers, counselors, and community members in the school setting to support students who have experienced either chronic or discrete trauma. The workshop will provide tools on how to support youth when trauma has impacted a child’s ability to self-regulate, exploring techniques that focus on supporting co-regulation, mutual trust, a sense of felt safety, and crisis management within the classroom setting. Our Adversity & Resilience team is here to support your community leaders and the larger school community in the wake of an adverse event.

This seminar focuses on a topic that is increasingly becoming more relevant in our nation’s schools; how to discuss national and community acts of violence, hatred and bigotry with the developmental lens in mind. Through both workshops and individual consultations, we will provide guidance on how to communicate and facilitate discussions with students related to topics they are hearing about on the news and in their communities. Emphasis is placed upon how to address the impact of such events on students’ and families’ sense of felt safety within the school community, and within the larger world around them. Questions include; how to bring up these topics with a developmental lens in mind; how to monitor or identify vulnerable students; how to attend to students who might be more vulnerable during these discussions; how to shift students from discussion to ‘action’; and how to follow-up with students and families in the weeks and months to come. Through the use of the restorative justice approach, we will model how to facilitate healthy discussions with youth around topics that are of concern to them, and will discuss how we can transform these discussions into a foundation for action.

This seminar was created for school staff and caregivers to help answer the questions of how to determine the type of behavior a child is exhibiting and where in the crisis cycle a child falls. In this seminar, we will provide strategies that teachers, administrators, social workers, psychologists and other school personnel can utilize to intervene when a child is in crisis. We will practice support techniques that individuals can use at the first sign of distress to help children manage their stress and emotions and de-escelate crisis situations. We will emphasize follow-up steps that school personnel can take to utilize a crisis as an opportunity for growth for both the child and the school system.

This seminar is targeted to children and adolescents. The seminar answers the questions: What is relational aggression? How do you identify relational aggression? How do bystanders contribute to the impact of relational aggression within a school community? How do I make the choice to intervene? How do I intervene safely and intentionally? Research indicates that relational aggression affects both the bystander and the victim. However, such incidents in our school settings often go under-reported and unaddressed. In an effort to combat a lack of preventative services around relational aggression, this seminar works to foster community awareness as an effective way to promote peer-to-peer support and advocacy in the face of relational aggression.

This seminar is offered to individuals who work in a number of humanitarian settings, including schools, hospitals, legal clinics, shelters, and first responder and emergency response teams. While individuals choose to work in these fields for a number of different reasons, some are drawn to this work due to an individual passion for promoting social change. While individuals often seek out this work expecting meaningful experiences and the opportunity to make a difference in the world, what often gets overlooked is the fact that their experiences in the helping profession may also have a profound impact on their identity, well-being and their understanding of the world around them. It is important to recognize that sharing in the adversity and needs of others can often pose a challenge to one’s emotional well-being, leading, at times, to vicarious or secondary traumatization. This seminar will address what vicarious traumatization is and will explore strategies to reduce its’ impact by encouraging individuals to engage in self-reflection. Participants will be prompted to look inwards to recognize their agency in maintaining healthy boundaries and emotional safety in their field. Participants will have an opportunity to complete an individual plan focused on boundaries and self-care, and will identify an accountability partner for support in maintenance of this plan.

This seminar will provide school staff, mental health professionals and caregivers with the knowledge and language needed to support individual community members who have experienced loss. Through an exploration of the different forms of loss — definitive loss, ambiguous loss, and traumatic loss — participants will use the developmental lens to understand the impact that loss has on children, adolescents and families. In addition to developing this understanding of the nature and course of loss and grief, participants will learn about a number of evidence-based interventions and supports that they can offer to youth and families who are experiencing loss. This seminar addresses misconceptions that accompany the idea of loss, and provides participants with knowledge and concrete tools to call upon when working alongside youth and families as they progress through the grieving process. This seminar focuses not only on losses related to death, but also on losses related to familial deportation, incarceration, divorce, separation, mental health status, and placement in foster care.

Too often, caregivers’ needs are overlooked when working with children and families who have experienced adversity. This seminar is intended for caregivers of children who have experienced exposure to chronic or discrete traumatization, focusing on building caregivers’ awareness of their needs and the impact that these needs have on their ability to care for others. Discussion will explore how when caregiver needs are neglected, these individuals’ ability to care for children can be compromised. This seminar not only focuses on sharing and promoting self-care strategies for caregivers, it also includes a component focused on skill-building for caregivers to improve outcomes for families who have experienced chronic stress and adversity. Grounded in evidence-based practice, this seminar will provide caregivers with psychoeducation focused on the impact that trauma has on development and affect regulation. Best practices for caregiver self-care and sound caregiving practices will be explored.

As students spend significant time in school, the staff at school take on the role of supporting students and recognizing signs of distress. This training will empower and support school personnel and parents to better support students and families at risk for and affected by suicide. Staff will learn how to recognize the signs of suicide risk, as well as what depression can look like in students, and become aware of appropriate referrals in these cases. Additionally, staff will receive support in developing skills and confidence to identify and assist vulnerable students seeking support. Staff will leave this training armed with the knowledge and tools necessary to implement both preventative measures, facilitate healthy dialogue and awareness around suicide, and support individual students when individual student and family concerns arise.

This is a short-term group therapy that we will bring to your school setting for students who are survivors of chronic trauma or discrete traumatization. With a focus on providing evidence-based, trauma-informed treatment to students who have faced adversity, this group treatment model will empower students with the knowledge and skills necessary to cope when facing trauma triggers.

Utilizing psychoeducation and a strengths-based approach, this series of real-time, practical, one on one coaching will provide teachers and administrators with the fundamental tools to engage successfully with children who have experienced adversity. This is offered through timely professional development workshops and one on one coaching with a Milestones clinician and administrator or teacher at your school.

Individual Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is an evidence-based approach for addressing and improving mental health for students who have experienced a traumatic event. TF-CBT is “problem focused” and “action oriented,” equipping students with tangible solutions for managing their thoughts and behaviors. Treatment goals consist of gaining back mental and emotional stability, processing and integrating traumatic memories, and learning life-long coping skills.

The Adversity & Resilience Center was founded in an effort to reduce barriers to services for children, adolescents, families, schools, and communities that have experienced chronic stress and/or discrete adverse events. This includes providing prevention, early intervention, training and treatment services related to trauma and adversity. Research indicates that early intervention is instrumental in the prevention of trauma and stress related disorders. As a result, ARC is committed to being responsive to community members in the immediate aftermath of a traumatic event, providing skills and strategies to support individuals and families, along with a space to connect and process.

We know that exposure to stress and adversity can negatively affect children's feelings of safety, family dynamics, social relationships, and school engagement. Adverse events that occur within the school settings can impact school culture, teacher retention, and access to education for all students. Through teacher training, staff support groups, and clinical expertise offered to school based clinicians and administrators, ARC is able to support the school community as a whole.

ARC works with a wide range of traumatic events and conditions, including but not limited to loss, violence, emotional and physical abuse, and natural disasters, as well as changes in life and family circumstances such as divorce, loss, and relocation. ARC is committed to supporting individuals who have dealt with chronic stress, including racial trauma and oppression.

Our center offers both prevention and early intervention services, as well as treatment for chronic trauma-related conditions. We work with children, families, and school staff to provide psychoeducation, training, and clinical support. By equipping caregivers and school staff with the tools to respond to adversity, we aim to promote resilience and protection from the development of potential symptoms of trauma and stress-related mental health conditions.

Our seminars focus on prevention and early intervention, and are tailored to the unique needs of the school and community. We offer seminars on the following topics: understanding adversity and how it shows up in the school setting; preventing disruptive behaviors in the classroom through the use of Therapeutic Crisis Intervention and Collaborative Problem-Solving; addressing gun violence and adverse community events; relational aggression awareness and prevention; supporting those who have experienced loss; self-care for caregivers and community members; understanding and addressing vicarious trauma, the use of restorative practices in schools, and suicide prevention and awareness.

We offer individual, family and group therapy services utilizing evidence-based trauma screeners, assessments, and treatments. If needed, we provide individual and group therapy either in the school setting or at our office, along with home visits as needed. We also make referrals to appropriate service providers to ensure flexibility in choosing the best fit for individuals and schools.

Our center's Adversity and Resilience team is experienced in administering assessments to determine if clinical intervention is needed.

For immediate response and or acute stress the ARC team utilizes PFA, Psychological first Aid and SPR, Skills for Psychological Recovery. For the early childhood population we are trained in CPP, Child Parent Psychotherapy and PCIT-CARES. For groups and school based response we utilize CBITS. we are trained in the Sanctuary model. we utilize TF-CBT and TGCT-A (for trauma and grief). Additionally, we are trained in DBT and IPT-A and their adaptations for trauma.