2022 Webinars-Only View
Risking Connection (RC) Webinars are available only to RC Trainers and Champions at our Client Agencies; they are not open to the public. RC Trainers must attend at least two RC events per year. Eligible events include RC Webinars, Recertification (due every two years), Day of Learning and Sharing, and RC Train-the-Trainer. Champions have no requirement but are welcome to attend.
RC Webinar - Historical Trauma: The Back-Story to Vicarious Trauma
March 22, 2022, 3-4:30 p.m. ET (check your local time here)
This is a virtual event.
Vulnerabilities greatly contribute to the development of vicarious trauma (VT). We will look at how historical trauma serves as both a vulnerability and resiliency factor to VT. For BIPOC communities there is a constant back-story of collective, historical trauma that impacts present experience. We will learn more about how this ongoing narrative can contribute to vicarious trauma and vicarious resiliency.
Presenter Information
Alesia Starks, LMFT, is a Practitioner Faculty at Fuller Theological Seminary, Faculty Trainer for the Traumatic Stress Institute, and formerly a Clinical trainer and Coordinator at Hillsides in Pasadena, California. Alesia’s Clinical training experience also includes field training for a Multidisciplinary Assessment Team, DBT Group Facilitation, and guestlectures at California State University, Los Angeles, School of Psychology. She has designed and taught workshops in such topics as: Domestic Violence, Drug Awareness, Clinical Conceptualization, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, and Mental Health First Aid.
RC Webinar - Trauma Informed Support for People with IDD
May 19, 2021, 3-4:30 ET (check your local time here)
This is a virtual event.
This workshop will provide a view of trauma from the perspective of the lives of people with intellectual disabilities. It will explore the sources of trauma, the effects of that trauma on both a biological and psychological level, and the key ingredients for healing. Healing and case studies will be examined in depth.
Presenter Information
Alesia Starks, LMFT, is a Practitioner Faculty at Fuller Theological Seminary, Faculty Trainer for the Traumatic Stress Institute, and formerly a Clinical trainer and Coordinator at Hillsides in Pasadena, California. Alesia’s Clinical training experience also includes field training for a Multidisciplinary Assessment Team, DBT Group Facilitation, and guestlectures at California State University, Los Angeles, School of Psychology. She has designed and taught workshops in such topics as: Domestic Violence, Drug Awareness, Clinical Conceptualization, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, and Mental Health First Aid.
RC Webinar - A Deeper Dive: Building Skills to Teach Risking Connection with an Anti-Racist Lens
September 13, 2022, 3-4:30 EDT (check your local time)
This is a virtual event.
Like so many institutions, the Traumatic Stress Institute has set a strategic priority on embodying anti-racism in our organizational culture. The racial reckoning of the past couple of years has provided us with an opportunity to acknowledge our blind spots and work to reconcile those gaps.
One of our first actions over the past year was the creation of a new supplement to the Teaching Manual for Risking Connection called “Teaching Risking Connection with an Anti-Racist Lens.” In collaboration with an Advisory Committee made up of RC Trainers and Champions with diverse racial and ethnic identities, we were able to produce this supplement. It is NOT meant to replace the Teaching Manual, but rather offer insights and strategies to weave an anti-racist mindset into your teaching.
This deeper dive will build on last December’s webinar, when the Anti–Racism supplement was introduced
Presenter Information
Patricia D. Wilcox, LCSW, Vice President of Strategic Development, Klingberg Family Centers, New Britain, Connecticut specializes in treatment of traumatized children and their families. She created the Restorative Approach™ , a trauma- and relationship-based treatment method. She is a Faculty Trainer for Risking Connection® and an Adjunct Faculty at the University of CT School of Social Work and at St. Joseph’s University. She travels nationally to train treaters on trauma-informed care, specializing in improving the daily life of treatment programs. She was the 2011 Connecticut Social Worker of the Year. She is the author of Trauma Informed Care: The Restorative Approach published by Levellers Press, as well as several articles.
Juwana N. Hall MSW, LSW, is a Program Coordinator of the Traumatic Stress Institute of Klingberg Family Centers where she is a trainer and consultant to agencies who are looking to enhance and adopt trauma informed care practices into their practice. She has worked in the Social Service field for over 15 years, with 7 of those years working with domestic violence survivors and families. She is an Alumni of University of Cincinnati, College of Mt. St. Joseph and Cincinnati State. Juwana is an action oriented leader with a passion for program and community development, advocacy, and performance improvement. She believes one of her life’s purposes is to empower and positively impact the lives of the individuals she comes in contact with.
Mary Jo Harwood, MSW, LSW, DNCCM is a Program Coordinator for the Traumatic Stress Institute of Klingberg Family Centers. A significant part of her 30 years as a licensed social worker has been spent supporting the recovery of individuals and communities post-traumatic incidents. She has provided trauma-informed leadership to victim service organizations, mental health providers, and served in the capacity of a therapist, EMDR practitioner, crisis responder, and trainer. Mary Jo directed the Dialogue and Resolution Center, a division of the Center for Victims in Pittsburgh, PA providing training and coaching that addressed building conflict-competent teams in organizations. Mary Jo is a member of Mediators Beyond Borders International. She has worked in Liberia and South Sudan and consulted with teams in Northern Nigeria and Kenya to address the intersection of trauma and peacebuilding through the application of conflict and trauma sensitive programming.
Virtual Day of Learning and Sharing - Social Justice in Supervision
November 1, 2022, 1:00 – 5:00 p.m. ET (check your time here)
This is a virtual event.
This training focuses on trauma-informed supervision through a social justice lens, an approach to supervision that begins with the personal and extends to the professional. Personal histories, identities, characteristics, and psychological experiences of supervisors, as well as structural and environmental conditions of the organization, are considered in supervision. This perspective promotes the role of the supervisor as a leader in establishing a culture within their team that is responsive to and inclusive of the positionalities and unique experiences of clients and colleagues. Supervisors are encouraged to remain vigilant in their commitment to social justice by leading their teams and organizations in achieving truly inclusive diversity.
RC Webinar - Trauma Readiness for Organizations and Leaders
December 8, 2022, 3-4:30 ET (check your local time)
This is a virtual event.
This 90-minute interactive presentation will provide a primer in trauma and resilience in the workforce. We will explore the ways leaders and managers can position themselves and their teams to enhance awareness for both trauma and resilience, and develop the flexible and adaptive mindsets necessary to sustain a truly trauma informed and relationally-focused organization.
Presenter Information
Richard Knecht, MS, is passionately interested in seeing public helping services become healing services. He has delivered program operations, leadership, strategic planning and training assistance to public and private healthcare and human service systems for more than 30 years.
In addition to his private organizational and leadership coaching, he presently serves as an advisor and consultant to the California State Department of Social Services and its partners, providing guidance and cross-system statewide technical assistance toward integrated management processes for children and families. He is a lead engineer for the state’s System of Care work and has led the development of the nation’s first multi-agency Core Practice Model for children and youth.
Richard previously served as the Chief Operating Officer of a large psychiatric hospital, and the former Sr. Vice President of Program Operations at the River Oak Center for Children. He worked in Placer County for nearly a decade, directing its highly regarded children’s system. He is a past chair of the Board of Directors at Ifoster, and presently sits on the advisory board at Opeeka, a unique software development company which creates and implements integrated information management solutions for the healing professions. He also serves on Placer County’s First Five Commission.
