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Practice

Helping professionals across service sectors work to help clients of all ages heal from the wounds associated with ACEs and childhood trauma. ACE-and trauma-informed professionals recognize the long-term effects of these wounds on the body and brain as they guide clients on their path to recovery.

Recovery is possible. Fortunately, there are recognized individual, family, and community-level strategies that can ameliorate ACE outcomes across the lifespan and prevent adverse events from occuring in the first place.

Restorative Integral Support (RIS) offers service providers a flexible model of care delivery that embraces mind, body, spirit, and community, facilitating a "whole life" look at trauma and adversity. With this holistic lens, RIS mobilizes resilience and recovery through the power of social networks and develops a context within which evidence-supported interventions (ESI) and emerging practices can be implemented to treat trauma.

Evidence-Supported Interventions

The National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices (NREPP), managed by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA), provides an online public database of evidence-supported substance abuse and mental health interventions.

The following are just a few examples of trauma-informed ESIs identified through the NREPP online registry, which could be considered for inclusion within RIS implementation based on local context. But don't just take our word for it! In the spirit of evidence-based practice, remember to always think critically and examine the evidence yourself:

• A Woman’s Path to Recovery
• The Boston Consortium Model
• Helping Women Recover and Beyond Trauma
• Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP)
• Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools (CBITS)
• Child and Family Traumatic Stress Intervention 

Home visiting programs form a primary line of ACE prevention by supporting at-risk parents raising young children.  A number of evidence-supported home visiting models have been identified by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) on its website (to see the full list of home visiting models, click here).

Emerging Practices

Emerging energy, body-based, and mind-body interventions bridge the gap between evidence-based and alternative practice. Such emerging practices as Somatic Experiencing (SE) and the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), offer integrative, comprehensive approaches designed to enhance post-trauma wellness.

Mindfulness meditation, once an emerging practice, now shows considerable empirical support as a method of stress reduction and treatment for an array of mental health conditions. 

Available resources and practitioner skills vary based on local context. RIS models examine site-specific characteristics to determine the applicability of emerging practice or ESI approaches, and guides their implementation using an evidence-based practice process within a culture of recovery (Click here to read how).

Self Care

Self care is an essential part of practice. In order to optimally facilitate the recovery process, it's essential that professional helpers help themselves. RIS emphasizes the importance of staff self care to prevent burnout and provide role-modeling for clients within intentionally developed Healthy Environments and Relationships that Support (HEARTS).

 Practice Tools and Resources

• The National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices (NREPP) - A searchable online public database of evidence-supported substance abuse and mental health interventions developed by SAMHSA.

• The National Child Traumatic Stress Network - Provides valuable resources for providers, including detailed fact sheets describing various trauma-focused ESIs implemented in local sites throughout the United States. These interventions cover a range of ages and types of trauma in diverse populations.

• Toolkit for Trauma, Adversity, Violence, and Stress - A comprehensive trauma resource website for service providers put together by the Center for Nonviolence and Social Justice. The toolkit offers an introduction to trauma and a number of helpful resources for providers across service sectors.

• ACE Response Online Course - This free online course is now available to anyone interested in deepening their knowledge of ACEs and RIS.