TRE® Training for Carers of Children in need

Hello, my name is Fiona Soma - I am a Trainer of TRE®, which is Trauma Release Exercises .  I travel the world, offering trainings to people who wish to become TRE® Facilitators.  

A large part of my work is to reach communities in need - in my 10 years of working with this mechanism, I have offered TRE® to various organisations, schools, Rehabilitation centres, NGO's and Government.

The aim is to offer this resource  to carers, counsellors, house mothers, teachers, medical personnel and first responders in underfunded, high risk communities.  From research, we see that these highly stressed people can regulate their nervous systems and become more grounded and safe for the people they are caring for.  See Johnson S. Interventions for stress and burnout of secondary school educators in high-risk schools. In: Robert M, ed. Abstracts of the 30th International Congress of Psychology; 2012 Jul 22-27; Cape Town, South Africa. Oxon, UK: Psychology Press; 2012. p. 167. 


Introduction


We have identified 16 safe houses in a Cape Town Township where we would like to offer a TRE® Training to the House mothers/ carers/ social workers who are currently dealing with children in unsafe homes and environments.  TRE® crosses language and cultural barriers, and can be done in large groups, making it a perfect offering for those in poor communities short on resources and funding. 


In  training these carers to be TRE® facilitators , they will be equipped  to offer ongoing TRE® sessions/classes to the many children to whom they are in charge. We aim to empower these care-givers to manage their own  stress levels better, in addition to up-skilling them in offering an ongoing, easy  and sustainable tool to help manage their compassion fatigue or vicarious traumatisation . Using TRE® over time, will build the carers’ capacity to bounce back to a place of calm and groundedness, which furthers capability and capacity to create and hold safe space for nurturing relationships, leading to positive impact on the children. 



Once resilience is built in themselves, they can then teach TRE® to the children to live  full, healthy, self regulating, productive and happy lives.  This is a tool that the children can access anytime and anywhere once they have learnt it - this means that they can self-regulate and manage their future lives more successfully. **(In this respect, resilience can be defined as the capacity for successful adaptation despite challenging circumstances. Children can be described as being resilient when they experience prosocial development despite being in adverse circumstances).

Objectives 

1.Provide TRE® 8 day Facilitator training for minimum 15 care givers/ social workers/ counsellors/ “mamas”  who are in roles of care taking at children's homes, aftercares, schools. The training requires ongoing supervision before and after certification. 
 
2.To build and refine a TRE® model for carers and children, that is fully sustainable and can be replicated in resource scarce areas worldwide.

Project

Projekt Ubuntu  has been running for 10 years, after being set up by Candi Horgan. She realised there was a need for an UBUNTU centre in the local community after widespread Xenophobic attacks.
It is run by one house mother, Pathiswe Ngoku, who is assisted by Candi Horgan’s Internship program comprising volunteers/interns. The psychology interns have assisted in the TRE project in terms of gathering data before and after the intervention. There are other auxillary carers who assist.
The centre is open all day. In the morning the very young children attend and are cared for.  In the afternoon the 7 to 12-year-olds join, and these are the children who have been earmarked for the TRE® groups. Projekt Ubuntu provides food, shelter, educative programs and social activities.  For more https://www.facebook.com/ProjektUbuntu/

Project Manager - Frances Ward 

Frances Ward is an Advanced TRE® provider and Mentor. She is a registered counsellor and addiction/ trauma, therapist, working in the field of mental health for about 17 years.  Frances is  particularly passionate about working with "youth in crisis", offering tools to develop  resilience to stress and trauma, in order to move to a place of thriving. Frances has been working in this community pro-bono for the past year, and has identified the great need for assistance in dealing with the stress, poverty, grief, abuse and general trauma suffered by these children.




Children in Crisis

Many children in the township or informal dwelling context can be said to be living in a resource scarce area. This means that lack of secure housing, basic security and education opportunities creates an environment of constant underlying stress. Combine this with lack of employment opportunities faced by many parents, and social issues engendered by disempowerment such as anger and threatening behaviour in the home come to the fore. As always, it is the most vulnerable in society, the children, who bear the brunt of this situation.
The link between early life stress/ trauma and later dysfunctions in people has been well documented. Research proliferates around this topic, scientifically showing the obvious, that trauma and stress in childhood will affect development negatively. 

Association of Childhood Trauma Exposure With Adult Psychiatric Disorders and Functional Outcomes. William E. Copeland, PhD; Lilly Shanahan, PhD; Jennifer Hinesley, PsyD; et al
The Role of Early Life Stress in Adult Psychiatric Disorders: A Systematic Review According to Childhood Trauma Subtypes. Carr, Clara Passmann MSc; Martins, Camilla Maria Severi MPhil; Stingel, Ana Maria PhD; Lemgruber, Vera Braga MD; Juruena, Mario Francisco MD, PhD
ACE (Adverse Childhood Experiences)Nurius, Paula S.; Green, Sara; Logan-Greene, Patricia; Borja, Sharon (July 2015). "Life course pathways of adverse childhood experiences toward adult psychological well-being: A stress process analysis". Child Abuse & Neglect. 45: 143–153. doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2015.03.008. ISSN0145-2134. PMC4470711. PMID25846195.
 
Moving forward

We are hoping to raise £20,000 to train 15-20 TRE® Facilitators over 9-15 months starting in 2020.  

www.treforlife.com
www.traumaprevention.com