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Mentoring Youth From a Trauma Informed Perspective: lessons learned from the Youth Thrive Framework Kreig Pinkham Washington County Youth Service. Youth Thrive:. Is a comprehensive framework for thinking about youth care
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Mentoring Youth From a Trauma Informed Perspective: lessons learned from the Youth Thrive Framework Kreig Pinkham Washington County Youth Service
Youth Thrive: • Is a comprehensive framework for thinking about youth care • Lays out a common set of values, vocabulary and beliefs to unify youth-care workers regardless of where they are working • Provides a grounding for policy and practice thinking • Provides a comprehensive youth-work training
Project Overview • Multi-year initiative of the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) • Examined the research from: • resiliency • positive youth development • neuroscience • impact of trauma on brain development
Project Overview • How all youth can be supported • healthy development and well-being • reducing the impact of negative life experiences including toxic stress and trauma • Focus was on vulnerable youth • Not only about limiting risk factors • protective and promotive factors
Youth Thrive Guiding Principles Young People are best supported by child and youth care practitioners who understand and recognize the importance of self awareness and self-care in their own professional practice.
Youth Thrive Guiding Principles Young people are best supported by child and youth care practitioners who are aware of the impact of traumatic stress and understand the need to use trauma informed methods. Trauma informed practice is a paradigm shift that focuses on trauma resolution through building resiliency. It is most concerned with what has happened to the youth and the subsequent impact to development rather than the youth’s behavior.
Youth Thrive Guiding Principles Young people are best served by child and youth care practitioners who focus on assets and use strengths-based approaches with an awareness of current research regarding neuroscience and adolescent development.
Youth Thrive Guiding Principles Young people are best supported by child and youth care practitioners who understand that attachments, connections and relationships are a primary source of growth and learning. It is in relationship and through the use of relationships that we experience ourselves, learn, practice new skills, and grow as humans.
Youth Thrive Guiding Principles Young people are best supported by child and youth practitioners who understand and provide culturally responsive services. Being culturally responsive means we take into account our culture, the culture of those individuals we serve, of the larger community, and the culture that is created within our programs and organizations.
Youth Thrive is based around 5 protective and promotive factors • A knowledge of adolescent development • Social Connections • Cognitive and Social-Emotional Competence • Concrete Supports in Times of Need • Youth Resilience
Starting with Brain Development • From the bottom upwards • From the inside outward • Basic survival functions (breathing, heart rate) to more complex (abstract thought)
Experience Shapes Development • Brain wires itself (create connections between neurons) based on its experience of the environment • Causes a unique brain to develop created specifically in response to the environment • Form templates to interpret experiences
Pruning in Adolescence • Pruning accelerates in adolescence • Eliminates infrequently used neural connections • Strengthens frequently used connections
Let’s Talk About Stress Normal Stress Traumatic Stress Beyond developmental understanding Chronic Cortisol levels go up and stay up Few or uncertain supportive resources Impacts every area of development • Age appropriate • Manageable • Geared toward developmental milestones • Short in duration • Supportive resources available • Supports healthy development
Recognizing the Impact of Trauma • Trauma - Overwhelming event(s) results in helplessness, powerlessness and loss of safety (physical and psychological) • Complex Trauma – exposure to ongoing traumatic experiences and the wide-ranging impact of that exposure
Impact of Trauma • When a young person has experienced significant trauma • Impacts all areas of development • Impulsive and difficulty regulating emotions • Poor view of self • Interpersonal connections, trust, & relationships are affected
Brain Activation • Incoming experience is compared to existing templates of past experience • Human default setting is suspicion • If familiar, known as safe stress system not activated • If unfamiliar, unknown or known as unsafe increasing activation
States • If what we see is unfamiliar, unknown or unsafe triggers our stress system: • Calm • Alert • Alarm • Fear • Terror
Brain Activation • As emotion increases: • rational thought decreases • sense of time decreases – extended future -- no sense of time • move from abstract – concrete – reactive - reflexive
Hyperarousal • Vigilance – What’s going on? • Resistance – You can’t make me! • Defiance – I won't! • Aggression – I’ll fight!
Dissociation • Vigilance – What’s going on? • Avoidance – Please don’t notice me. • Compliance – I will do anything, just leave me alone • Dissociation- I’m not here!
States Affected by Trauma History • Enlarged midbrain and brain stem • Cortex less developed • Baseline of alert or alarm • Disrupted attachment • Hypersensitive to stimuli • Difficulty learning new information • Challenging to make new or retrieve old memories
In a Calm State • Can think into future • Abstract thought possible • Can take in information • Connected to others
As Stress Goes Up… Future orientation is limited – here and now Self-centered concrete thinking Focus on survival Connections to other less important
Understanding that Social Connections are a key developmental protective and promotive factor, the shift moves to how do we construct and facilitate relationships that decrease trauma and stress activation?
Connections Exterior Decorating Interior Decorating I’ve left my stress at the door I’m prepared to be patient I’m prepared to not take anything personally I’m not hung up on the moment succeeding by my definition I’m open to truly listening and moving the moment in the direction the youth I’m with indicates I’m prepared to hold empathy I’m prepared to be reliable • All five sense activated in a soothing way • Space is uncluttered and calming • Opportunities for exploration and self-direction abound • Warm, dry, comfortable
Resilience Narratives Think of a story in your life where you went through some difficulty. The final outcome of the story doesn’t matter as long as you can look back at the moment and identify it as hard at the time. If you are comfortable doing so, I’m going to ask you to share that story briefly with a partner, so pick a story that you are comfortable sharing. It’s perfectly acceptable not to participate.
Resilience Narratives # 1 • What did that experience teach you about yourself? • What has going through that experience changed about your life? • What, if anything, would you change about the experience? • Which Social or Emotional Competency grew because of that moment?
Resilience Narratives # 2 • How did the experience shape how you think or act? • How often do you think about that experience? • Would your today self, be willing to go through the experience again if you knew that the outcome(s) would be the same? Why or why not? • Which Social or Emotional Competency grew because of that moment?
