Viewing Through a New Lens: A Survivor’s Guide (2 Parts)
Children and youth who have experienced trauma, broken and insecure attachments, and other assaults to the brain present significant challenges to families. Speaking from a point of personal experience Shenandoah Chefalo is a professional coach and author who presents to professional and family audiences across the country.
Following a career in the legal field, Shenandoah wrote Setting Your Vision and Defining Your Goals (an e-book) and published her memoir, Garbage Bag Suitcase about her experiences before, during and after foster care. She has been featured on radio and television, locally, nationally and internationally.
Session Objectives
1. Share first hand experiences of living in foster care, from the point of a survivor.
2. Provide participants an overview of the Adverse Childhood Experience study including the trauma of removal.
3. Provide participants an overview of the concept of Resilience and how it is formed.
4. Provide participants the concept of “trauma brain” and how it impacts behaviors and understanding.
5. Provide understanding about the trauma-informed paradigm shift to view behaviors from strength based vs deficit based.
6. Provide the tool of Community Meeting how is is used and why
7. Give first hand examples of working with biological parents and families.
8. Understanding our own experiences and the concept of reenactments and parallel processes and how to overcome them.
