In my new role as a Program Coordinator with the Traumatic Stress Institute of Klingberg Family Centers, I facilitated a workshop entitled A Treater’s Approach to Building Healthy Attachment with Trauma Survivors that focused on how our attachment styles influence treaters when working with trauma survivors. At the start of our time together, we were able to assess and discuss our own attachment styles. This activity served as a way to help us be reflective of our own practice approach as we serve as treaters and hold hope for survivors. As the first of our two in-person RC Trainer webinars this year, the workshop:
- Provided an opportunity for RC Trainers to connect with each other and learn together.
- Enabled RC Trainers to deepen their understanding of how the RC Trauma Framework can help them remain attuned, responsive, and ultimately more helpful to clients.
As the facilitator of this training, I focused on creating a safe space to help participants feel comfortable enough to share their attachment styles with each other and increase awareness of how attachment style and reactions can influence interactions. We discussed a right–brain, left–brain approach to trauma–informed practices and how our own self–reflection can help us create a space for clients where healing can occur. In addition, participants applied their learning by creating their own transitional object artwork to help them connect with the information learned and to serve as a reminder of to how their attachment styles show up for them when building relationships with survivors.
Overall, this trainer facilitation was successful in that participants’ built connections with others in a way that is transferable to working with survivors. If you happen to be an RC Trainer or Champion in the New England area, there's still one more in-person RC Consult Group, entitled InterPlay: Increasing Self-Knowledge and Joy through Creative Play, coming up on September 19th.
