Complex Trauma Case Study

Educators are a vital part of each students’ life and development. Students that have experienced complex trauma, have higher risk of suffering from social, psychological, cognitive, and behavioral issues (i.e. regulating their emotions, paying attention, and forming good relationships). These risks increase the student’s chances of struggling in school. Joyce Dorado Dorado (UCSF Healthy Environments and Response to Trauma in Schools program director), developed strategies to aid teachers in helping students who have faced complex trauma. Dorado’s strategies are listed below. Finally, trying to care for a student who has experienced or is experiencing complex trauma is a difficult situation. Remember to take care of yourself first and utilize both your external and internal resources to best help the student and yourself through this experience.
1.
Recognize that a child is going into survival mode and respond in a kind compassionate form. When a student is misbehaving, start by asking yourself, “What is happening here?”. If this is a reoccurring event, try to recognize the trigger. Once a trigger has been identified, kindly and compassionately reflect to the child. Offer the child a couple of choices of things that he/she can do, at least one of which should be appealing to him/her. This opportunity will offer the child a chance to gain a sense of control and help him/her feel safe once more. These actions will begin to create a positive relationship between teacher and student.
2. Create calm, predictable transitions. Build a routine around transition in your classroom so that children know what a transition is going to look like, what the expectations of them are, and what will follow the transition.
3. Praise publicly and criticize privately. Capture the moments when a student is doing really well and point it out to build his/her self-worth. When a re-direction of a behavior is needed, do so privately and in as calm a voice as