Sexual assault, bullying and harassment are traumatic for all survivors of any age. Transgender and non-binary youth are at high risk for encountering these experiences, which can lead to the development of complex trauma that may include a lack of trust in other people and even estrangement from their own bodies.

About half of all transgender or non-binary youth have experienced sexual assault. As a result, many experience anxiety and depression, including suicidal thoughts, and are more likely than their cis-gender peers to live with a sense of powerlessness and alienation from their own bodies.

Justice Resource Institute works with transgender and non-binary youth who live with “embodied trauma” that causes a range of physical symptoms that traditional forms of “talk therapy” or drug therapy have been mostly ineffective. One of JRI’s approaches is “trauma sensitive yoga” that Jenn Turner, co-director of JRI’s Center for Trauma and Embodiment, says has proven to be an effective approach for trauma survivors because it addresses the physical manifestations of trauma that many survivors live with.

She said it has been used effectively as an intervention for female-identifying veterans who were sexually assaulted in the U.S. military.

Shaina Doberman is the director of the Younity Drop-In Center in Gloucester, which seeks to empower young adults ages 16-25 by providing a space where they can identify goals, overcome barriers, and explore what inspires them. The center operates under a Peer Support model, and specializes in assisting youth and young adults who identify as LGBTQ+.

Embodied trauma occurs because overwhelming experiences are stored in our bodies and trauma-sensitive yoga is an effective way to reconnect survivors of complex trauma with their own bodies.  Participants are never told what to do with their bodies and are invited to participate in the embodied mindfulness as much or as little as they want and need.

JRI’s Center for Trauma and Embodiment recently received a grant from the Tower Foundation to train future instructors in trauma-sensitive yoga. The training lasts for seven months and is in addition to traditional training for yoga instructors.

You can learn more about the work of the Trauma Center Trauma Sensitive Yoga program at the center’s website. If you are interested in supporting their work, you can donate here.

Guiding our clients toward recovery

from substance use disorder

The opioid epidemic has increased the demand for effective recovery services, and Justice Resource Institute's Mary Chao is leading the organization's training program for clinicians and other staff members to aid them in helping clients recover.

Chao has been with JRI for nine years and works with the agency's health, training and community-based services divisions, developing and coordinating substance use programming throughout the agency. She works closely with clients ages 12 to 24 and the JRI clinicians who help them to address problematic substance use.

Problematic use of substances, including opioids, cannabis and alcohol, often accompanies other problems, including homelessness, sexual abuse and violence that JRI programs also address.

Chao and JRI use ACRA (Adolescent Community Reinforcement Approach), an evidence-based treatment model that focuses on developing relationships with clients to help them understand what motivates them to use drugs or alcohol and looks to increase opportunities for clients to do "social, fun things" with the goal of helping them reduce or eliminate substance use.

But recovery doesn't necessarily mean lifelong abstinence from drugs or alcohol.

"Abstinence is definitely not the only way to be in recovery," she said. "Someone with substance use disorder can struggle for years, even decades….It's important to recognize that relapse doesn't mean failure."

In addition, while substance use by youth and young adults can be frightening for friends and family, "Not every person who uses a substance needs treatment." The need for treatment becomes clearer when substance use has a serious effect on their life or the lives of others. And it is important that treatment for substance use disorder be integrated into a client's overall care plan.

"Recovery is possible for everyone, and every family, and every community," Chao said.

Listen here to our conversation with Mary Chao about substance use disorder, treatment and recovery.

Mental health clinicians are often reluctant to treat people who have intellectual and developmental differences (IDDs) for fear of doing something that could worsen rather than improve the client's condition.

In this episode of Justice in Action, two JRI clinicians, Dr. Jacquelyn Kraps, Metrowest Area Director and Clinical Director of Outpatient Services, and Bailey McCombs, Licensed Metal Health Counselor and Expressive Arts Therapist, talk about the rewards and challenges of working with children with a range of differences, from autism spectrum disorder to chromosomal differences, cognitive challenges, and traumatic brain injury.

Dr. Kraps and McCombs have helped establish the Developmental Differences Specialty Team to assist other JRI therapists to work effectively with clients with both IDDs and mental health needs, including complex trauma.

Services for those individuals have long been siloed because they have been seen as separate and distinct. JRI is breaking new ground by having a single provider address the entirety of the client's service needs.

Treating clients with both complex trauma and IDDs draw heavily on a therapist's creativity, flexibility, and powers of observation, Dr. Kraps and McComb say. Sometimes it requires teasing out which problems are caused by trauma and which are part of the individual's developmental difference.

They advise other clinicians to be curious, open, and willing to say the wrong thing. If an approach doesn't work, they can always shift course. Sometimes a client — especially a non-verbal client — can communicate most successfully by writing, drawing, or moving their body.

Individuals with IDDs deserve effective treatment for mental health needs, which they are at least as likely to experience as the rest of the community, and they can enjoy positive, healthier outcomes with the right therapeutic approach. For more information, visit jri.org.

A note about language: IDD often stands for intellectual and development disabilities. JRI choses to use the word differences instead of disabilities to be as inclusive as possible, and honors that each individual and family get to decide how they identify.

Few social service agencies are as committed as JRI to improving treatment through research and data.

In today’s episode of Justice in Action, we talk to Hilary Hodgdon, Research Director at Justice Resource Institute, and Lia Martin, Senior Associate Director of Quality Management. Together, they are part of a data and research division that is unusual among social service agencies for its size and scope.

JRI clients suffer from complex trauma. On average, a child or adolescent seeing a JRI therapist has experienced three different types of trauma, such as neglect, physical abuse or psychological abuse. That number rises to five or six for clients in residential programs. In addition, these young people may face racism or other types of bias  These traumas can affect children’s attachment to their parents or other caregiver, as well as how they think of themselves in the world and whether they see the world as a safe or dangerous place.

The data that Hilary and Lia gather and analyze help guide, assess and improve treatments for these young victims of complex trauma. JRI also uses the data to evaluate the effectiveness of its programs.

The heart of the data and research work is the Client Assessment Tracking System, or CATS, a tool developed by JRI to gather and analyze information about clients and families. Hilary and Lia use the data not only to support the work of JRI clinicians and programs, but also to examine specific research questions, such as how gender, race and an individual’s personal history with trauma affect treatment outcomes. They learned, for instance, that while females tend to present with more and stronger symptoms than males, both genders benefit equally from trauma-informed care.

Smaller agencies that lack a complete research department of their own also benefit from JRI’s research program. Clinicians from those agencies can feed their clients’ data into CATS and benefit from the analysis in the treatment of their clients. In addition, Hilary and Lia are having a nationwide impact on trauma-informed care through training, presentations and the peer-reviewed articles they write and publish.

For more information on JRI’s data and research work, visit jri.org

Staff of Justice Resource Institute don’t shy away from talking about tough issues like racial justice, immigration policy or vaccine hesitancy.

They lead the way.

JRI’s “Courageous Conversations” initiative brings together groups of employees and managers —usually about 50 attend each virtual meeting — to discuss the most difficult topics that come to them, either from fellow employees or from the clients and communities they serve throughout the region.

The initiative grew out of Listen, Learn, Lift, a program started in Lynn to have frank conversations with local youth about racial justice and other tough topics. The conversations and the actions taken as a result were so successful that JRI staff decided to spread the word — and the work — throughout the organization. Staff set the agendas for the bi-monthly Zoom meetings, invite guest speakers and run the meetings. JRI executives give their full support to the initiative, which is in line with the agency’s core value of furthering social justice.

To keep the discussions civil and productive, the group uses a Unity Agreement that outlines principles everyone agrees to uphold at the meetings and that ensure that people are listened to respectfully and feel safe to express themselves honestly. Employees say it builds trust for the entire organization because people feel they are being respected, listened to, and encouraged.

JRI, with over 2,500 employees in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, runs programs helping individuals and families experiencing trauma. It is one of the largest social service agencies in New England. JRI is happy to share what “Courageous Conversations” has taught them and how the program works.

In this Justice In Action podcast, listen here to JRI staff members Dalene Basden, Director of Family and Community Engagement; Matthew Peiken, Northeast Regional Director; and

Amanda Marte, Director of the Young Parent Support Program and an outpatient therapist in the Lawrence and Lowell region, as they discuss “Courageous Conversations.”

Visit jri.org to learn more about Justice Resource Institute and its programs.

 

More than 8,400 Massachusetts children are in foster care, and the need is growing as the financial and emotional strain of the Covid-19 pandemic and the state’s opioid crisis continue to take a toll on children and families.

Listen to Bob Costa, program director for JRI's Intensive Foster Care program, and Courtney Edge-Mattos, who is the senior home finder for the program, talk about Justice Resource Institute’s foster care program. The program oversees foster families who provide care for children whom the state’s Department of Children and Families and the state’s court system have found are in imminent danger because of challenges in their permanent homes.

That trouble may range from domestic violence to sexual abuse to drug addiction; and the foster care program provides a temporary stay with foster families while troubles are addressed in their permanent homes. The goal in each case is to reunite children with their birth parents or relatives, and foster parents often maintain close contact with children and their families after they are reunited. That is because children need a permanent relationship with at least one trusted adult, says Costa.

Often that permanent relationship is with foster parents who “stand in the gap” for traumatized children in need of temporary care, said Edge-Mattos. Those children undergo state-required training, plus JRI’s specialized training in working with traumatized children. JRI provides support for their foster parents, providing money for school clothing and holiday gifts, in addition to the state’s daily stipend. In addition, a group called the Foster Friends of JRI, which has a Facebook page, often provides additional support for children and foster parents.

The JRI Intensive Foster Care program has foster homes available for LGBTQ+ children, and Costa says the Intensive Foster Care program is seeking foster parents to help serve the growing need for foster care.

If you are interested in learning more about the program or if you are interested in learning more about becoming a foster parent, visit jri.org/fostercare

We all need the people in our lives who know us and care about us, who celebrate our successes and comfort us in hard times. These are the people we call when we get a new job, lock our keys in the car or are facing a big decision.

Permanent, supportive connections are especially important in childhood, when parents, coaches, mentors and teachers help children develop their identity and values, help them know who they are, develop their strengths and set goals in their life.

For a long time, however, social services didn't recognize the importance of permanency for the children in their care. In this podcast, Meredith Rapoza, division director of permanency and latency services for JRI, and Rachel Arruda, JRI division director of Family Networks and JRI's service navigator, talk about how social service professionals have come to recognize the importance of permanency in the development and ultimate success of children. They discuss how JRI is ensuring that all the children in its care develop at least one permanent connection.

We're also joined by Jason Galli, who entered the social services system from birth, and found permanency for himself despite being moved from foster home to foster home and facility to facility. Now a husband, father and someone dedicated to helping children and youth as a partner with JRI, he offers his story of incredible resilience.

For more information about permanency and how you can become a permanent connection to a child, please visit jri.org/lifelongconnections.

Between 700 and 800 cases of child sexual abuse are referred on average each year to the Children's Advocacy Center of Bristol County, which provides treatment and support to victims and their families.

But in the past year, the number of referrals has dropped to about 250 cases. That isn't necessarily good news, however, as it reflects the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw lengthy periods when schools were closed, and athletic teams and other activities were suspended. As a result, people who are required under the law to report suspected cases of child sexual assault have had only irregular contact with children they normally see, which often means that cases go unreported.

CAC mental health clinicians Brittannie Moroz and Jillian Allen shared CDC data stating one in four girls and one in 13 boys under age 18 suffer trauma as a result of child sexual abuse. Those children are some of the approximately 75,000 Bristol County children age 16 and younger believed to have suffered trauma from abuse, violence, addiction in their homes or other causes of childhood trauma.

Depending on the age of the child, trauma often manifests itself in both physical and emotional symptoms, from trouble sleeping to anger and acting out, anxiety and depression, or changes in appearance or behavior. The CAC helps by offering not only traditional talk therapy but also other physical forms of treatment that can help children relieve physical, emotional and psychological symptoms associated with trauma by giving them tools to manage those symptoms. Soon, they hope to also offer trauma-sensitive yoga as well.

"Every child experiences trauma so differently and every child is so unique," said Allen. "You may have a child who is really withdrawn and isolated…as opposed to a child who is angry and lashing out."

The CAC works with teachers to help them recognize signs of potential abuse, something more and more schools are building into teacher training programs.

"Traumatic stress symptoms are actually very treatable," said Moroz. Treatment begins with building a relationship with each child to help re-establish trust and to build confidence.

An expansion of the CAC's facility in Fall River will provide more room for offering trauma-informed treatments meant to help those children feel safe and overcome the symptoms of abuse.

Learn more about what the Children's Advocacy Center of Bristol County is doing and how they provide trauma informed treatment to children affected by child abuse.

Trauma-sensitive yoga helps sufferers use their bodies to heal their spirits

Jennifer Turner was a voice student at the New England Conservatory of Music when her instructor approached her during a rehearsal.

"You," her instructor observed, "aren't in your body."

It took her a while before she understood what her instructor meant, but when she did, it would change her life.

She took yoga classes, and the body control that yoga encouraged her to heal from her own trauma she still was carrying. It was, she said, "like coming home."

The awakening guided her to a new calling: using yoga to help people who had suffered psychological trauma from physical and emotional abuse or neglect, and helping them reconnect with their bodies.

Today, Turner is the co-director of Justice Resource Institute's Center for Trauma and Embodiment, where she and co-director and founder Dave Emerson use Trauma Center Trauma-Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY) to help victims of physical or sexual abuse, neglect or other trauma use their bodies to heal their minds and spirits.

She recently edited and co-wrote a book about her work. It's called "Embodied Healing: Survivor and Facilitator Voices from the Practice of Trauma-Sensitive Yoga." The book, available online through Amazon and Barnes & Noble, describes her work and research and recounts "what it's like to heal." Included are the observations and research findings of yoga facilitators trained in trauma-sensitive yoga that has helped sufferers of complex trauma heal their hearts, minds and bodies.

Complex trauma can produce a host of symptoms, from racing heartbeat to changes in breathing, hyper-vigilance about any change in their physical environment, depression and anxiety, loss of control of their own bodies or even the loss of feeling in their bodies.

TCTSY helps clients reconnect and exert control over their bodies — something that Turner describes as "reinhabiting" their bodies after deep psychological trauma, usually at the hands of a trusted parent or guardian, coach, teacher or religious figure who abused the power of their position to manipulate their victims.

The techniques of TCTSY, which involve a yoga facilitator who suggests rather than instructs and who never touches a student, are being taught at hundreds of places around the globe, sometimes as a supplement to traditional forms of "talk therapy" and sometimes in the absence of talk therapy.

The principles of TCTSY are used in more and more traditional yoga classes because facilitators recognize that many of their students come to yoga to help them heal from trauma in their own lives.

"The goal isn't yoga," Turner said. "The goal is reclaiming your body through yoga."

You can listen to Jennifer Turner discuss her work here. And you can purchase her book at amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com.

If you'd like to try a TCTSY class, please visit www.traumasensitiveyoga.com or www.jri.org/tctsy-classes.

Helping the healer when their work unearths old symptoms of trauma

Adam Edwards cares about the caregivers.

As Justice Resource Institute's Training and Instructional Design Specialist, he supports JRI staff as they care for some of the over 10,000 children and adults who are clients of the more than 120 programs JRI operates in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island.

Edwards notes that about 85 percent of all people in helping professions — including health and human service workers, first responders, health care workers and educators — report experiencing symptoms of vicarious trauma. That means they are impacted by the work and often times also share some of the physical, mental and emotional symptoms experienced by the clients with whom they work.

It's a type of burnout that can occur when our physiological systems become overwhelmed. It might take the form of sleeplessness, depression, anger or melancholy in a helping professional's career, the result of years of caring for clients and communities who have been impacted by trauma.

But what about those helping professionals who not only hear about the trauma of other people but who themselves suffered sexual abuse, domestic violence or neglect, or who experienced the effects of homelessness or drug or alcohol addiction in their own lives or within their families?

Those are the people who Edwards, himself a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, says have had a "first-person encounter with trauma and carry that experience into their work helping other people."

Edwards's goal is to help create a space where they can recognize, prepare for and manage the associated physical, mental and emotional impact of their own trauma that might be unearthed while helping others.

There is a perceived risk for some of these staffers in stepping forward that they may experience stigma, personal and professional scrutiny, uncertainty and fear. Edwards describes what he does as helping those "wounded healers" when they need support and assistance to be able to continue their work with JRI's clients, while taking care of themselves and building their own resilience.

Listen to the conversation with Adam Edwards about his work with these "wounded healers" in our Justice In Action podcast here.

To learn more about JRI's work or to explore employment opportunities, visit them at jri.org.