Community Based Trauma Healing

and Reentry

John A. Shuford MBA, EdS, FACHCANASW Delaware Chapter

Executive Director

People of Color Conference; Southern DelawareMarch 23, 2012

James Gilligan, MD, “Preventing Violence”

1. Shame is a necessary but insufficient condition

Three Conditions for Violent Criminal Behavior:

1. Shame is a necessary but insufficient condition

Three Conditions for Violent Criminal Behavior:

2. A lack of empathy

1. Shame is a necessary but insufficient condition

Three Conditions for Violent Criminal Behavior:

2. A lack of empathy

3. Lack of awareness of alternative behaviors

1. Shame

Three Conditions of Unhealed Trauma Especially complex trauma:

2. A lack of empathy; withdraw from self & others

3. Lack of awareness of alternative behaviors; often rigid and protective – survival

The Impact of Trauma

The ACES Study

Kaiser Permanente Study funded by the Center for Disease Control

What do you think is the #1 predictor of criminal behavior?

Tonier Cane

The Prevalence of Unhealed Trauma

What can we do about it?

1. We can treat the cause and not the symptoms

What can we do about it?

1. We can treat the cause and not the symptoms

What can we do about it?

2. We can stop re-traumatizing and shaming inmates

1. We can treat the cause and not the symptoms

What can we do about it?

2. We can stop re-traumatizing and shaming inmates by training staff in Trauma Informed Care

3. We can provide Cognitive Emotional Restructuring for inmates

Respect and Caring

Cognitive Emotional Restructuring

Respect and Caring

creates

Safety

Cognitive Emotional Restructuring

Respect and Caring

creates

Safetybuilds

Trust

Cognitive Emotional Restructuring

Respect and Caring

creates

Safetybuilds

Trustencourages

Openness

Cognitive Emotional Restructuring

Respect and Caring

creates

Safetybuilds

Trustencourages

Opennessleads to

Awareness

Cognitive Emotional Restructuring

Respect and Caring

creates

Safetybuilds

Trustencourages

Opennessleads to

Awarenesswhich is

Transformational

Cognitive Emotional Restructuring

Stats

Recidivism Reduced 46%

Inmate Write-ups Reduced 60%

Violent Attitudes Reduced to Same Level as Community

Comparison Group

Trait Anger Reduced a Large Amount

These results were long lasting.

Cognitive Emotional Restructuring

Participant Comments:Attitude: “With AVP I began to grow from a person filled with hate, anger, and despair, into a person who believes he too is responsible for the protection, preservation

and enrichment of humanity."

Safety: “That we are all the same beneath all that life has given us to experience. That no matter what persona or mask we wear, we can be reached, loved, and healed. Only a group of this nature can provide us with the safe environment to remove this mask.”

Empathy: “I went into the workshop as a pessimist and I came out a changed person. I was alive, I was actually alive. I liked what I saw in myself. It was a real high and I’ve been doing it for two years and I love that feeling; and to see other people awakened in the workshops, to see their lives change.”

Alternatives: "I had been in every group in the institution and they were all generic. They gave the same information. There were very few solutions offered. When you are given the information without the solution, you are still lost. AVP gave me some concrete solutions."

Cognitive Emotional Restructuring