Detailed Course Description
Understanding Girls: A Trauma Informed Perspective.
Changing the way we think and talk about girls.
Description
This curriculum is intended to strengthen how providers of direct care and mental health services interact with girls. Itis structured around four major and overarching assumptions:
1)The self-worth & behavior of a girl is influenced by the people with whom she interacts;
2)All people are influenced by bias;
3)Most girls placed in out-of-home care settings have experienced at least one traumatic event in their lives;
4)Providers have the opportunity to positively influence the quality of girls’ lives both in and out of care.
There are five modules. In module one participants gain an understating about how early attachment experiences impact one's later expectations for safety in the world, trust in and protection from others, and self-worth. Participants will learn to identify different attachment styles and how to apply the attachment principles of proximity maintenance, attunement, safe haven and secure base in the context of their interactions with girls to improve engagement, and build stronger, more secure therapeutic relationships. Attention is also paid to the role of insecure attachment in intimate partner violence and domestic minor sex trafficking.
Module two introduces participants to some of the research on how culture and parenting practices set the norms for how girls experience and express emotions. Participants are asked to engage in self-reflection activities to identify and correct both personal and organizational biases in the ways they think and talk about girls and emotions. Participants will also become familiar with the basic characteristics of typical emotional development. Particular attention is placed on the "the teen brain" and the influence of trauma on emotion regulation.
Because providing direct care and mental health services to girls in congregate and foster care settings can be challenging, module three is dedicated to helping participants understand the risk and resiliency factors associated with vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue and post traumatic stress disorder. Participants are encouraged to engage and invest in self-care initiatives via individual effort and organizational programs and policies to increase resiliency in both providers and girls.
Module four draws upon the information on the socio-cultural construction of the rules for girls and emotion to help participants understand the important and potentially lethal role of relational aggression in the lives of girls, as well as the relationship between relational aggression and physical violence. Specifically, participants will learn the definition, purpose, roles and dynamics of relational aggression, as well as the long-term psychiatric outcomes associated with bullying and relational aggression in childhood and adolescence. Participants will receive tools and strategies to recognize and address relational aggression in the context of their respective work environments.
Module five focuses on psychosexual development and sexuality. In module five participants are provided a framework for typical psycho-sexual development to help them understand and respond to a girl's sexual behavior in the context of her development and cultural context, and avoid mislabeling and stigmatizing sexual behavior in girls. Participants will also learn about the unique developmental challenges faced by LGBQTI youth. Guidelines and recommendations for differentiating delayed sexual behaviors, sexually reactive and problem sexual behaviors are offered. Participants will also learn to define and differentiate the five component parts of sexuality, including anatomical sex, gender identification, sexual behavior, sexual relationships and sexual orientation.
In all five modules, suggested activities, case discussions and videos are designed to engage participants in processes that will challenge individuals and organizations alike to identify negative bias and stereotypes about girls that are inherent in their thinking, practice and policies, and to develop more strength-based, positive approaches to how providers and program administratorsthinkabout and work with girls. Finally, the impact of trauma and loss is infused throughout all components of the curriculum.
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