In this session, we will move on to Essential Skill #2, which is to increase felt safety for children and adolescents. Let me highlight the word felt because, yes, the common goal of child welfare is that children are safe, but it is vitally important that they feel safe.
As we’ve learned about the stress-response system, it makes sense that children living in institutional care have abnormally high cortisol levels. However, studies have shown that even after 3 years of adoption, children and adolescents with a significant trauma history continued to have elevated cortisol levels. Living in a nice family was physically safe, but more was needed to help these kids experience felt safety.
We can tell kids they are safe, but if they don’t FEEL safe, their brains won’t be able to calm down, and they’ll remain stuck in fear.
There are two essential principles at the heart of helping children and adolescents feel safe. Not surprisingly, both of these principles start with the adult because all of the principles of trauma-informed care begin with the adult. To create felt safety, the adult needs to first monitor and modify the environment, and second, the adult needs to adjust their behavior.
In this session, we will look at six practical strategies that will help you create an environment of felt safety right away.
The first is an Empowerment strategy used with Trust-Based Relational Intervention developed at the Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development. We need to support healthy brain chemistry in children and adolescents. Research has shown that a child's brain chemistry with a history of chronic trauma looks similar to that of a post-war veteran. When we support healthy brain chemistry, we support new brain growth. We can do this by providing hydration, nutrition, and some sort of physical activity every two hours.
Why is hydration so important? The majority of our brains and bodies are made up of water, and without good hydration, neither will work optimally. When we're dehydrated, our brain cells can’t function properly, causing problems with concentration and memory. In fact, when we are just beginning to feel thirsty, we have already lost 10% of our cognitive capacity.
The next part of supporting healthy brain chemistry is nutrition. Children and adolescents need some kind of healthy snack every two hours to support a healthy, consistent blood sugar level. Keeping a basket of good snack options out and available at any time, day or night, is a great idea to increase safety around the area of food.
The third part of supporting healthy brain chemistry is to promote some physical activity every two hours. A 20-minute break of some type of repetitive physical activity helps kids stay regulated and allows the brain and body to reorganize.
The next principle of felt safety is to use safe touch. We never touch a child or adolescent we don't know without permission. This shows respect for their body and teaches them to use their voice and say no.
Third, Children and adolescents with a history of trauma have not had a voice. We must create an environment where it is safe to talk to help them use their voices to get their needs met rather than their behavior. One simple way is to get down on a child's eye level or lower as often as possible when communicating.
The fourth strategy for creating an environment of felt safety is to make the day and interactions predictable. An environment with routine and predictability decreases a child’s anxiety because unpredictability and chaos are stressful. Now, how can we make relational interactions predictable? We can be safe, regulated adults - that means a child doesn't get grouchy, inpatient Julie half the time, and happy Julie the other half. This causes anxiety as the child has to be prepared for whatever Julie will show up. This reinforces their need for hypervigilance. Can we be perfect all of the time? Definitely not, but we can and should work to be as consistently regulated as possible. A dysregulated adult can never regulate a dysregulated child or adolescent.
The fifth strategy is to prepare children and adolescents for transitions. Transitions are hard for everyone, but they are even harder for kids with executive functioning difficulties. We can help prepare them to successfully navigate a transition by announcing upcoming schedule changes.
The sixth and final strategy to increase felt safety is to be a detective and recognize hotspots. Hotspots are trauma triggers. Trauma is experienced through the senses, and so sensory reminders are powerful.
