Research Drives

JRI Treatment for Trauma Victims

ReScripted: An innovative theater-based approach to address complex trauma

ReScripted is a new JRI program that helps youth that have experienced complex trauma to gain better control over their lives.

Developed by Valerie Krpata, LICSW, Elizabeth Petillo, LMHC, Sarah Carter, LMHC, RDT, and Sasha Garfunkel Corrado, LICSW, who make up ReScripted’s Leadership Team, the program uses games, theater, and movement to help residents of the agency’s congregate care programs and residential schools, ages 12 to 22 years.

Young people who suffer from complex developmental trauma can feel that life happens to them with their reactions hijacked by their trauma responses. ReScripted’s trauma-informed activities help clients learn skills such as emotional regulation, conflict resolution, mindfulness and others in a safe and supportive environment.

The program follows a trajectory of “Act. Embody. Empower.” that encourages youth to learn about various skills, perhaps just observing the activities at first. Over time, they are encouraged to practice the skills and ultimately incorporate them into their lives. A game in the Act phase might be low-risk and low-stress, but as participants progress into an Embody or Empower phase, they learn to modulate their emotions and practice appropriate responses.

Data shows that after participating in even just one session of ReScripted, clients experienced an increase in interoception, which is a person’s ability to understand and respond to internal physical cues such as hunger, fatigue, and anger. ReScripted’s Leadership are now using expanded measures to look at the program’s effect on other areas, such as client self-esteem and caregiver well-being.

SMART approach for treating transition-aged youth

For many children and adolescents in JRI programs, an innovative mental health therapy called SMART helps with emotional, behavioral, and interpersonal regulation of their bodies and emotions.

SMART (Sensory Motor Arousal Regulation Treatment) enables victims of embodied complex trauma to process an array of symptoms stemming from years of severe neglect and abuse: from heightened anxiety and fearfulness, to acting out and self-harm, to a disconnection between the victim and their physical body.

Developed at JRI, SMART utilizes therapeutic equipment, such as weighted blankets, balance beams, fitness balls, and large cushions in shared play that uses movement to engage the children’s subcortical and cortical neural pathways to increase behavioral and psychological integration.

Now Valerie Krpata, director of the GRIP group home for up to 18 young people ages 16-22, is piloting a program using SMART tools to treat youth who will soon transition to independent living situations.

“I have done SMART with many ages,” said Krpata, who has been with JRI for 12 years. “But how does it transition to independent living? A sense of familiarity with the tools feels safe. They practice skills in SMART that keep them in the present moment while out in the communities engaging in independent living skills, like driving and at work. This helps them not feel like they are in survival mode all of the time and allows them to make active choices in their lives.”

Using physical play and therapy can help victims of complex trauma feel as if they are in control of their bodies, and feel a sense of confidence and competence that years of neglect and abuse at the hands of caregivers has deprived them of.

One client who was on the phone with Social Security to discuss benefits used SMART tools — such as walking in circles while bouncing a ball with a staff while on the phone — to help them stay calm and focused. Another client with severe ADHD was able to feel calm and safe squeezing into a SMART tool called a canoe that made them “feel safe in their bodies, and their nervous system is calmer.”

Trauma-sensitive yoga aids transgender youth

The Center for Trauma and Embodiment is delivering trauma-sensitive yoga to transgender, gender queer and gender non-conforming youth, thanks to a $59,000 grant from the Peter and Elizabeth Tower Foundation.

Transgender and gender non-conforming youth are at much greater risk for homelessness, suicidality, bullying, drug use, school expulsion and incarceration than their straight, cisgender peers.

The Center for Trauma and Embodiment uses TCTSY — Trauma Center Trauma-Sensitive Yoga — to reduce PTSD symptoms and depression for transgender and gender non-conforming youth suffering long-term, complex trauma.

The CFTE is partnering with Children’s Friend and Family Services and the North Shore Alliance of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Youth (NAGLY) to offer TCTSY foundational training for providers, many of whom also have a lived experience, from NAGLY and CFFS who wants to attend.

In addition, the grant will pay for full TCTSY certification scholarships for five providers who work within the transgender, gender queer or gender non-confirming community plus $4,000 stipends for each of the new facilitators to bring TCTSY to transgender, gender queer or gender non-conforming youth.

JRI Research on trauma-informed care published

A study highlighting the success of trauma-informed care at JRI’s residential programs was published in Child Abuse & Neglect.

Hilary Hodgdon, JRI Research Director, was principal investigator of the study and lead author of the peer-reviewed article. Kari Beserra, an Executive Vice President at JRI, is also an author, as well as members of the psychology department at Suffolk University.

The study demonstrates that trauma-informed residential treatment can lead to reductions in clinical symptoms, even among young people who have experienced multiple traumas — most commonly neglect, psychological abuse, physical abuse, impaired caregiving, sexual abuse and domestic violence.

In all, 547 youth, ages 12 to 18, were involved in the study, with data collected from 13 residential programs between 2012 and 2018.

The programs used two, complementary trauma-informed care approaches: Attachment, Regulation and Competency (ARC), and the JRI developed Building Communities of Care (BCC). Staff throughout the programs, from front desk personnel to clinicians, were trained in the approaches.

The study showed that trauma-informed residential care resulted in significant reductions in symptoms of PTSD, depression, dissociation, psychological dysregulation and externalizing problems. Girls, who represented 58.6 percent of the study participants and initially presented with more severe symptoms, showed as much improvement as boys.

Hodgdon hopes the publication of this study will encourage the use of trauma-informed care, particularly with the ARC and BCC approaches, in residential programs throughout the United States.

Trauma-Informed Weight Lifting

The effects of complex physical and emotional trauma don’t just disappear when trauma ceases: they can live on in the body and nervous system for years or even a lifetime without treatment.

And because the symptoms of trauma are wide-ranging —flashbacks, disorientation, intrusions, relational challenges, dissociation and other symptoms — effective treatment usually requires both emotional and physical interventions.

JRI’s Trauma-Informed Weight Lifting program, explores the power of weight training to help trauma victims heal and re/discover their strength. TIWL has trained some 300+ people using a collaborative, whole-body approach designed to empower trauma-impacted youth and adults, and build resilience.

TIWL will graduate its first 35 people from a new eight-week certificate program designed to train fitness instructors, personal trainers and coaches in trauma-informed approaches to building and maintaining safety in fitness and gym spaces and in the relationships between coach and client. They will also learn to design gym spaces that are welcoming and inclusive to people who are often marginalized in fitness and gym environments.

Mariah Rooney, TIWL’s co-founder and co-director, said JRI will incorporate TIWL into two youth residential programs in 2023, providing an adjunctive treatment to the other services JRI programs provide. She also said the TIWL program is training people from countries around the world to use trauma-informed techniques in working with clients.

CAC cuts ribbon on expanded, improved center

The Children’s Advocacy Center of Bristol County is serving clients at its renovated and expanded headquarters in Fall River, where a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held in September.

The $3 million building purchase and upgrade enables the CAC to expand the services it offers children and families suffering from sexual abuse, violence, drug endangerment and other trauma. It also allows the CAC to increase prevention trainings and awareness activities offered throughout Bristol County. About 800 child victims were referred to the CAC for sexual abuse investigations in 2022, as the need for services approached pre-Covid levels.

The 15-month renovation created expanded waiting room suites, where victims and families can meet with family advocates and mental health clinicians in safety and privacy. It also included new forensic interview rooms, training and community outreach spaces, and upgraded technology and exam equipment.

Funds for the project were raised through The Spreading our Wings Capital Campaign, supported by generous donors including Charlton Charitable Trust, Bristol County Savings Bank, JRI, BayCoast Bank and the office of Bristol County District Attorney Thomas Quinn.

JRI Board of

Trustees