On-Demand Virtual Trainings

Foster parents are some of the busiest people we know! From welcoming new children to endless case worker visits, court dates, doctor’s appointments and therapies, you have a lot on your plate!

We know you want to understand where your children are coming from and meet them there, but honestly, you’re exhausted. Combing the internet for resources or sitting down to read a whole book on trauma informed parenting just takes a backseat to all the other things going on.

We’ve been there.

So, we’ve done the hard work for you. We combed the internet and gathered our favorite resources and put them all together in training modules for your busy life. Sit down and watch them when you have time and pause them when you need to get back to life again. Listen to them like you would a podcast while driving your children around or doing housework. Download the PDFs and images to your computer to come back to later. Use the information in any way that is helpful to you growing your understanding of your children’s needs and how best to support them.

Not only have we made these modules accessible online 24/7 to fit your busy life but they’re also FREE. And every time you complete a module, you can email our trauma informed team for a certificate of completion you can turn into DCFS for training credits. Win-win-win! 

Check out the information below to see the topics we’re engaging in these modules. We hope you find lots of helpful ideas and tips you can immediately put in place with your kids today!

To access the on demand training modules, Restore Network families can reach out to their County Director or Ashley Bennett, Director of Trauma-Informed Care (abennett@therestorenetwork.org).

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Thinkific has helped to make trauma informed parenting strategies habits instead of just good ideas.  I am a person who has to engage with new information many times to internalize it.  After reading the The Connected Child I knew what needed to be done, but I had trouble remembering to do it.  It was not engrained in my parenting style.  Thinkific allowed to me listen to each module while driving, then go back and read all of the documents in the module when I could give it my full attention.  After that, I found myself putting the principles into practice without much thought.

-A Restore Network Foster Parent

To access the on demand training modules, Restore Network families can reach out to their County Director or Ashley Bennett, Director of Trauma-Informed Care (abennett@therestorenetwork.org).

Online Training Modules

1

Becoming Trauma Informed: An Introduction

In Module 1, we introduce the concept of “trauma informed care” and Trust Based Relational Intervention (TBRI). We begin to discuss the cost that complex developmental trauma has on our kids and why parenting them needs to look a little different than we might have experienced in our own childhoods or even with our own biological children.

3 training credit hours

Included in this module
  • Attachment Cycle image: “God’s design for the start of life”
  • Meet Annie
  • Meet Ben
  • 7 risk factors for our kids
  • What is TBRI? (5 mins)
  • TBRI Overview Animate (3 mins)
  • TBRI Overview webinar recording (65 mins)
  • Developmental age vs chronological age
  • Behavior iceberg image “All Behavior is Communication”
  • Chase the Why webinar recording (50 mins)
  • Reframe the behavior image
  • Resources for an infant born drug exposed

And more!

2

Fear & Felt Safety

In Module 2, we learn more about how to help our children feel safe in our homes. Because being safe and feeling safe are two different things.

3 training credit hours

Included in this module
  • TBRI Toxic Stress animate (3 mins)
  • The importance of giving your child a narrative for foster care
  • Talking to your child about foster care
  • Talking to your child about tpr/adoption
  • Tips for transitioning a child from your home
  • Felt-Safety webinar recording (80 mins)
  • List of fear-based scenarios to consider
  • De-escalation techniques for meltdowns
  • Teaching kids about their upstairs and downstairs brain
  • Giving your kids happy hormones
  • Ted Talk: How Childhood Trauma Affects Health Across a Lifetime (15 mins)
  • ACES Test
  • Food Insecurities booklet
  • Sleep Struggles booklet
  • Navigating birth family visits booklet

And more!

Empowering Principles

In Module 3, we introduce TBRI’s Empowering Principles. While so much of parenting feels reactive sometimes, the Empowering Principles are specific intentional things you can do to help your child’s brain and body function the way it was designed to…and honestly, our adult brains and bodies too!  The Empowering Principles take into consideration the human need for sleep, nutrition, hydration, movement, and a healthy sensory diet. We’ll also talk about our children’s needs for structure and support for times of transition, something a lot of our children struggle with.

2 training credit hours

Included in this module
  • The importance of hydration & coregulating tips
  • Our empowering food list
  • An introduction to sensory needs & coregulating tips
  • A brief sensory checklist
  • The importance of sleep & coregulating tips (along with our sleep struggles booklet again)
  • The importance of movement & coregulating tips
  • Proactive calming tips
  • The importance of structure/routine & coregulating tips
  • Transitions tips

And more!

Attachment

In Module 3, we introduce TBRI’s Empowering Principles. While so much of parenting feels reactive sometimes, the Empowering Principles are specific intentional things you can do to help your child’s brain and body function the way it was designed to…and honestly, our adult brains and bodies too!  The Empowering Principles take into consideration the human need for sleep, nutrition, hydration, movement, and a healthy sensory diet. We’ll also talk about our children’s needs for structure and support for times of transition, something a lot of our children struggle with.

3.5 training credit hours

Included in this module
  • The Birth of a Relationship
  • TBRI’s Attachment Animate
  • The 4 Attachment Styles in Narratives
  • Building Attachment: Mirroring the First Year of Life with Your Child
  • Building Attachment: TBRI’s Connecting Principles
  • Attaching Through Play document
  • Teaching Children to Play
  • Building Attachment: What We Bring to the Table as Parents
  • Building Attachment: Understanding Indiscriminate Attachment
  • Teaching Empathy

And more!

Engaging Challenging Behaviors

In Module 5, we continue to learn how to be good detectives to see the needs behind our children’s struggling behaviors. We learn why traditional parenting strategies might not work and why the parenting playbook for children who have experienced relational developmental trauma, might need to have new tools in it. We’ll walk you through some tools that you can use depending on your child’s state of regulation (and yours!) and show you a way to teach the skills your children are missing proactively, outside of the moment of conflict or challenge. Then we’ll take a look in the mirror at us as parents, to the moments where we flip our own lids with our children and chase the why of our own behaviors. We’ll learn new ways of looking at ourselves in these moments and better understand how to model repair for our children when our relationship goes off course.

4 training credit hours

Included in this module
  • Why traditional parenting strategies might not work
  • TBRI’s Ideal Response Animate
  • A reminder to chase the why
  • TBRI’s 4 levels of response to behaviors
  • Using scripts
  • Using Choices and compromises
  • Regulation Strategies
  • De-escalation Strategies
  • Understanding dissociation
  • Practicing outside the moment
  • Supporting older youth during challenging behaviors
  • Repairing the relationship when the adult flips their lid

And more!

Navigating School & Other Childcare Settings

In Module 6, we take a look at some ideas that offer support to our kids who struggle when they are away from us. Our focus in this module is school since our children spend the majority of time there, but we also touch on supporting kids as they transition to other new childcare settings as well, including; daycare, summer camps, after school programs, church classrooms, respite relationships and babysitters. If you are headed back to school with a new kid or have a kiddo who just really struggles in the care of other people-we hope this resource might offer you some practical ideas to partner with your child and other caregivers for his success!

1.5 training credit hours

Included in this module
  • Why connection & felt-safety proceeds all learning
  • How to provide predictability and felt-safety with school
  • Supporting the relationship between the child and the teacher
  • A sample letter to the teacher
  • Supporting separation anxieties
  • Supporting regulation needs
  • Avoiding the after school meltdown
  • Avoiding home work battles
  • Supporting kids when they struggle
  • Understanding IEP’s and 504 plans
  • Trauma Informed Resources for Teachers
  • Navigating other childcare settings
  • Supporting your child during summer break

And more!

Unpacking What We Bring to the Relationship

In Module 7, we turn the tables a bit and begin to identify what might be happening in us when we struggle after saying yes to foster care. We define compassion fatigue and blocked care and briefly describe what that looks like. We then explore contributing factors that might lead to these experiences for us while giving some practical ways you can take the next steps to make sense of it all. We end with a conversation about how we can support the other children in our home after we add an additional child.

3 training credit hours

Included in this module
  • Understanding Compassion fatigue and blocked care
  • Facing Your Motivations & Expectations
  • Grieving the Loss of What Was
  • Recognizing When Your Cup is Empty
  • Parenting in Community vs. Isolation
  • Identifying Your Own Lack of Felt-Safety
  • Chasing the Why When Your Own Lid Flips
  • Understanding Your Window of Tolerance
  • Identifying Your Own Triggers
  • Making Sense of Your Own Story
  • Recognizing Your Own ACES (Adverse Childhood Experiences)
  • Completing the Rupture Repair Cycle with our Kids
  • Supporting Our Children After a New Placement

And more!

Navigating the Holidays & Other Celebrations

In Module 8, we talk about using our tools of felt-safety, regulation, and connection to help our families navigate the complicated emotions that exist around holidays & other celebrations. We talk specifically about the long holiday season between Halloween and New Years but also hit on some trickier celebrations to navigate as a foster family such as Mothers Day & Fathers Day, Adoption Celebrations, and even family vacations! The information shared in this module can be applied to any holiday or celebration your family experiences. We also talk about trauma-verseries, what they are and why they are easily triggered by the changing seasons and holidays.

1 training credit hour

Included in this module

  • Imagining the holidays from your child’s perspective

  • Simplifying and lowering expectations

  • Making the celebration predictable

  • Overcommunicating & practicing outside the moment

  • Giving voice & sharing power

  • Preparing your extended family

  • Navigating the effects of overstimulation

  • Navigating Mothers Day and Fathers Day

  • Navigating Adoption Celebrations

  • Navigating Vacations

  • Recognizing Trauma-verseries

And more!

To access the on demand training modules, Restore Network families can reach out to their County Director or Ashley Bennett, Director of Trauma-Informed Care (abennett@therestorenetwork.org).