Risking Connection® (RC) Training
When a child depends on a caretaker for nurturance and love, they should not be taking a risk. If hurt and betrayed in those relationships, making future connections as a teenager or adult require risking disappointment at minimum, if not shame, loss, and further trauma. Many people in the human service system have been hurt and betrayed many times — by parents, by other caretakers, by the system itself.
To heal, a traumatized person must risk connecting with caring helpers who are different from those of their past. Yet, there are many reasons why people would not take that chance. Over time, however, through the experience of RICH® relationships — those that demonstrate Respect, Information, Connection, and Hope — people can learn to put their trust in helpers and move beyond the wounds of the past.
The Risking Connection Training Model is unique in that:
- It is a staff training model that organizations can adopt as a critical step toward TIC system change.
- It uses a Train-the-Trainer model so organizations can sustain RC staff training indefinitely by having internal RC Trainers and Champions.
- RC Trainers and Champions benefit from certification and professional enrichment through annual consult groups and webinars.
- Our clients join an international community of organizations using RC to implement TIC.
Risking Connection training is unique in that:
- It is a philosophy for providing services rather than a treatment technique.
- It is aimed at organizational staff from all disciplines, roles, and levels of training.
- It creates a common language among staff.
- It asserts that relationships are the primary agent of change.
- It stresses that treating traumatized people also poses risks to helpers – the risk of vicarious trauma. Therefore, respect for and care of both consumer and treater are viewed as vital.
