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. It is 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.
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Detailed Course Description
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
administrators think about and work with girls. Finally, the impact of trauma
and loss is infused throughout all components of the curriculum.
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