Trauma Informed Supervision

When: Thursday & Friday, April 25-26

Where: 2nd Floor Conference Room | 860 E. 4500 S. Salt Lake City, Utah

Cost: Non-Members $200; Members $150

Purpose: To prepare supervisors to provide trauma-informed supervision to staff at risk for Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS) using the foundational elements of Trauma Informed Care. The underlying belief of the Trauma-Informed Supervision model is like mentoring, coaching, supporting professional development and building competency are enhanced by offering staff support regarding stressors in and outside of work, and by helping them to identify and address emotional exhaustion.

Trainer: Brian Miller, Ph.D. provides training and consultation on topics of secondary trauma, trauma-informed supervision, and implementation processes nationally and internationally. He is an individual member of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network and chaired the NCTSN Secondary Trauma Supervision Workgroup. He is the developer of the CE-CERT model for intervening with secondary trauma in service providers and the Shielding model of trauma-informed supervision, both of which have been published and disseminated across mental health and child welfare systems. Dr. Miller’s experience includes tenure as Director of Children’s Behavioral Health at Primary Children’s Hospital, Director of Mental Health Services for Salt Lake County; Director of the Trauma Program for Families with Young Children at The Children’s Center in Salt Lake City; Clinical Director of Davis Behavioral Health, Associate Director of the Utah State Division of Mental Health; and as a psychotherapist in private practice. He holds a Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve in Cleveland, Ohio, where he was a Mandel Leadership Fellow. He is the past board president for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Utah Chapter, and serves on the editorial review boards for the journals Traumatology and Contemporary Psychotherapy.

Overview: Presentation format and materials will mirror the National Child Traumatic Stress Network’s (NCTSN) trauma informed core competencies for supervisors.

1. Knowledge of the signs, symptoms, and risk factors of STS and its impact on employees; Knowledge of agency support options, referral process for employee assistance, or external support resources for supervisees who are experiencing symptoms of STS.
2. Knowledge and capacity to self-assess, monitor, and address the supervisor’s personal STS.
3. Knowledge of how to encourage employees in sharing the emotional experience of doing trauma work in a safe and supportive manner.
4. Skills to assist the employee in emotional re-regulation after difficult encounters; capacity to assess the effectiveness of intervention, monitor progress and make appropriate referrals, if necessary.
5. Knowledge of basic Psychological First Aid (PFA) or other supportive approaches to assist staff after an emergency or crisis event.
6. Ability to both model—and coach supervisees in—using a trauma lens to guide case conceptualization and service delivery.
7. Knowledge of resiliency factors and ability to structure resilience-building into individual and group supervisory activities.
8. Ability to distinguish between expected changes in supervisee perspectives and cognitive distortions related to indirect trauma exposure.
9. Ability to use appropriate self-disclosure in supervisory sessions to enhance the supervisees ability to recognize, acknowledge, and respond to the impact of indirect trauma.