Childhood Trauma doesn’t
have to last a Lifetime.
ChildSavers Trauma Response
Our Trauma Response program is the City of Richmond’s only program devoted to immediate response and trauma counseling services for children exposed to trauma. The majority of children who participate in Trauma Response have witnessed or experienced a violent event. Our clinicians are often contacted by the Richmond Police Department, Richmond Ambulance Authority, and other community agencies to provide immediate mental health services. Our services are free of charge to any child or adolescent between the ages of 2-17 who has experienced a recent traumatic event. Trauma Response is prevention focused and strives to reduce the effects of violence on children through:
When a Trauma Response clinician is contacted by the Police, Ambulance, or other professionals they arrive at the traumatic event to assist children and families. They assess the emotional and physical safety from the perspective of the child. Clinicians attend to the emotional needs of children at the scene, often engaging them in symptom soothing activities.
The clinician who responds to the traumatic event schedules a time for follow-up with the family. Typically 24 hours after the event, the clinician will visit the family to reassess the child’s reaction to the event, educate parents about symptoms of trauma, and schedule a time to begin counseling. In some cases, referrals are made weeks or months after the traumatic event. Clinicians will contact families for follow up within 24 hours of these cases as well.
- Trauma Counseling Services
Children are engaged in counseling services over the course of 10-12 sessions. Counseling services are trauma treatment focused, aimed at establishing safety, developing emotional regulation skills, identifying resources and enhancing resiliency. Ongoing counseling services are provided by our Guidance Clinic when needed.
 What is Trauma?
A trauma is a painful emotional experience caused by an event or events that challenge a person’s sense of safety. These events are often sudden and unexpected. Children and adolescents who witness or experience violent situations are likely to have traumatic reactions. While such events are often not preventable, traumatic reactions can be reduced through early intervention and counseling.
“One in four children/adolescents experience at least one potentially traumatic event before the age of 16.” 1
Parents click here for additional information
Professionals click here for additional information
Information for Parents
As parents, it can be difficult to know how to respond to our children after a traumatic event has occurred. Often times, we are overwhelmed with our own reactions to what happened and it takes all we have to make it through the day. Traumatic events often affect the entire family including parents, making it more challenging to support your child emotionally.
Many times, children do not immediately appear to be affected by what they saw or heard. We may assume that if they are not talking about what happened then the event must not have left a negative imprint on them. However, even if your child is not showing any visible changes in their behavior, the experience that they have gone through can have a lasting impact. Many children who experience a traumatic situation attempt to avoid painful or scary memories as a way to deal with the overwhelming experience. In fact, research has increasingly shown “that experiences in childhood has relatively more impact on the developing child than experiences that occur later in life”. (Perry 2000) 2 Reactions to a traumatic situation can develop in any child regardless of age, gender, income level or prior emotional health.
Without the proper emotional support, children can begin to show behavioral and emotional difficulties such as difficulty concentrating in school, decrease in grades, increased irritation and aggression, withdrawing from family members or others, sleeping difficulties, excessive worrying about ones safety or someone else safety in the home, and regressive behaviors (acting younger than ones age).
Here is another way to think about trauma.
Healing a Wound: A Trauma Analogy
It is very hard to talk about painful things, and often children and parents try to avoid doing this. In fact, they say things like, let sleeping dogs lie and wonder if it’s a good thing to bring back memories of sad things. We tell kids and parents that if they had been able to put those memories behind them, children would not be having any problems.
It’s like when you fall off of a bicycle and skin your knee on the sidewalk, and all the germs get into the wound. You have two choices about what to do with that wound. You can leave it alone, not wash it off or put any medicine on it, and hope it gets better all by itself. Sometimes that works fine. But other times, f you do that it will get infected. Infections don’t usually go away by leaving them alone; they get worse and worse.
Your other choice is to wash the wound out real carefully, getting all the dirt and germs out of there. That stings, it hurts at first, but then the pain goes away, and it doesn’t get infected, and can heal quickly…Talking about the traumatic situation or loss is like cleaning a wound. It might be a little painful at first, but it hurts less and less as you go on, and then the wound can heal. 3
Early intervention through counseling can prevent many trauma-related symptoms from developing. Counseling at ChildSavers allows children the opportunity to openly express their thoughts and feelings in a safe environment. Children often have difficulty talking about painful things that they have witnessed or have happened to them. The counselors at ChildSavers use integrative therapies including play and art to make it easier for children to express themselves. And always, our clinicians are working with you and your child to minimize the lasting effects that a traumatic experience can have on emotional development.
Click here for our parent brochure! (1.93 MB)
Links to websites for parents/caregivers:
ChildTrauma Academy articles for caregivers
National Child Traumatic Stress Network
Parents Trauma Resource Center of the National Institute for Trauma and Loss in Children
Information for Professionals
If 20 million people were infected by a virus that caused anxiety, impulsivity, aggression, sleep problems, depression, respiratory and heart problems, vulnerability to substance abuse, antisocial and criminal behavior, retardation and school failure, we would consider it an urgent public health crisis.
Yet, in the United States alone, there are more than 20 million abused, neglected and traumatized children vulnerable to these problems. Our society has yet to recognize this epidemic, let alone develop an immunization strategy.
-Bruce D. Perry, MD.
Left untreated, traumatic experiences can have a lifelong negative impact on the child’s physical and emotional health that ultimately impacts our whole community with increased costs associated with adult mental health services, social services and criminal justice costs.
During a traumatic event, our body reacts by releasing the potent hormone cortisol, often called ‘the stress hormone.’ While cortisol is necessary for survival functions (i.e. fight or flight) by providing us a burst of energy and lower sensitivity to pain, it can become toxic if a prolonged state of stress occurs. Over time, new brain patterns can emerge based increased levels of cortisol. Research on children and adults has shown that damage to the brain caused by cortisol results in problems with emotional regulation, impulse control, rational thinking and socialization. 4
Children who have been exposed to traumatic situations such as witnessing domestic violence, homicide, shooting, death in the presence of children, assault, fire and community violence may exhibit behaviors that look similar to Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder symptoms. These can include decreased ability to concentrate and increased impulsivity/agitation. Proper assessment and treatment are necessary to best support the child in navigating their experience.
Therapeutic interventions provided by Trauma Response clinicians focus on re-establishing safety, developing emotional regulation skills, identifying resources and enhancing resiliency. A primary focus of our work is to help the child resolve the trauma experience by re-connecting the mind (i.e. memories of the trauma) with the body (i.e. ways the body responded or felt during and after the trauma). Successful integration of the mind and body experience using integrative techniques can alleviate many traumatic stress reactions and prevent future distress.
Children who have experienced a traumatic event within the last year are eligible to receive services through the Trauma Response program at ChildSavers at no cost to the families. With permission from the parent or guardian, professionals can call ChildSavers to make a referral for counseling services.
If you know that a child has been exposed to a traumatic situation, please call ChildSavers by phoning (804) 644-9590. When making a referral, please indicate that you are making a referral to Trauma Response. After receiving the intake information, we will follow up with the family within 24 hours.
Click here for our professional brochure! (1.93 MB)
Links to PDF files for professionals:
Domestic Violence Affects Everyone in the Home
The Impact of Trauma on Children and Adolescents: Information for School Counselors
Links to websites for professionals:
ChildTrauma Academy
National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
National Child Traumatic Stress Network
Trauma Center at Justice Resource Institute
References
- Costello et al. (2002). Journal of Traumatic Stress; 5(2):99-112
- Perry, B.D. Traumatized children: How childhood trauma influences brain development. In: The Journal of the California Alliance for the Mentally Ill 11:1, 48-51, 2000
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Traumatic Bereavement in Children Treatment Manual, Center for Traumatic Stress in Children and Adolescents, Department of psychiatry Allegheny General Hospital, Pittsburgh, PA
- Putnam, F. (2006). The impact of trauma on child development. Juvenile and Family Court Journal. Winter.
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