Promoting Resilience

In our final module - Promoting Resilience - we discuss the hope of healing through the implementation of trauma-informed care and the Building a Region of Resilience chosen framework - Trust-Based Relational Intervention.

Don't forget to download/print the Trauma 101 Study Guide for Parents/Caregivers or Professionals. Follow along on pages 17 - 28.

Module V Key Concepts:

Remember that kids impacted by trauma are less equipped than their peers to name their feelings and emotions. They typically lack the language necessary to explain how they are feeling or what they need, so behavior becomes their language.

Giving them a voice is powerful, so help them name their feelings, fears, and state of being. This positions them to regulate on their own and feel safe. The felt safety we provide is vital for the development of the brain and ensures our most vulnerable children learn self-regulation and can stay in learning mode instead of survival mode.


TraumaWise care is based on 3 pillars: Safety (Felt-safety), Connections (fostering deep connections) and Coping (scaffolding to improve self-regulation).

  1. Safety entails an environment where one can feel secure, calm, and attend to normal developmental tasks. Maslow described safety needs as closely connected to survival, but also to higher level growth needs.

  2. Connections involve trusting relationships with caring adults as well as normative community supports such as sports teams, youth groups, and recreational programs. Building connections fosters resilience by meeting growth needs for belonging and generosity.

  3. Coping enables the individual to meet life challenges as well as to manage emotions and impulses underlying traumatic stress. In resilience terms, successful coping strengthens growth needs for mastery and independence.

*Taken from David Cross, Ph.D.’s paper: Relational Trauma and TraumaWise Care: A Concise and Contemporary Overview (April 5, 2018). Can be found online at: http://p6i7s36dw7i3ol89p3qsnrne-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/04/Definitions_Trauma-and-Traumawise-Care.pdf

TBRI - BRR’s TraumaWise Framework

The Building a Region of Resilience initiative has chosen to use Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) as our TraumaWise framework. TBRI is an intervention designed for “children from hard places” – those experiencing complex trauma - but is an approach for all caregivers to use. It was created by Dr.’s Karyn Purvis and Robert Cross out of the Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development at Texas Christian University. It is a holistic, multi-disciplinary, flexible, and attachment-centered approach. It operates on 3 core principles each with two strategies for implementation. Its design is based on Attachment Theory, and it aims to repair broken attachments, increasing trust, self-worth, self-esteem, self-efficacy (voice) and improve mental health. You can find a local TBRI Practitioner by contacting Restoration Rome https://tinyurl.com/RRTBRIFriday.