Calendar
CWLA is pleased to present a three-part virtual training series that features our CWLA Press publication Working with Traumatized Children – A Handbook for Healing, Fourth Edition, newly released in 2026. As reflected by evolving research, this edition includes new information on trauma’s impact on the brain, essential practices for providers, an expanded chapter on trauma symptoms, and practical suggestions for creating safety. The training reflects these new additions and gives an overview of the first five chapters of Working with Traumatized Children.
Join us to learn about strategies and approaches for caregivers and others responsible for meeting the needs of children who are vulnerable. Participants will gain a strengthened capacity to:
- Define what trauma is and differentiate it from stress.
- Name the three essential practices of providers necessary for healing trauma in children.
- Give four examples of trauma symptoms in adults and children.
- Describe two ways trauma can impact the brains of children.
- Explain the importance of providing for safety in working with adults and children who have been traumatized.
- Provide several examples of how systems can be traumatizing or retraumatizing to individuals.
- Articulate how knowledge about the Vagus Nerve can be helpful in working with families and children who have been traumatized.
- Express why self-reflective practices and supervision are important when working with adults and children who have been traumatized.
Trainer: Paulette Mader, MSN is a Senior Training and Consultation Specialist at Rutgers University. She is a certified trainer in “Nurtured Heart Approach”, “ACE and the Neurobiology of Trauma”, “Wrap Around” and “CFT”.
REGISTER HERE
The human services workforce is encountering many challenges related to recruitment, retention, and staff morale. A major factor contributing to these challenges is compassion fatigue – an unintended consequence of working in helping professions. External life factors can easily exacerbate commitment to day-to-day responsibilities, resulting in missed opportunities for support, and a lack of empathy for others.
Daily stressors can also impact on individual mental and physical health overall. When these variables are coupled with challenging or high-stress work environments, it can be easy for anyone to become increasingly overwhelmed. This may be seen in work performance, decision-making, and with peer-to-peer relationships.
Effective leadership practices, supervision skills, and support strategies can help prevent burnout and reduce staff turnover. Using CWLA’s 4 A’s framework, this training will focus on:
- Increase Awareness of the many challenges and contributing factors that can create/ exacerbate compassion fatigue in the workplace
- Acknowledge the complexity of these issues and the role supervisors can play in supporting self-evaluation and professional growth
- Identify Actions supervisors and individual staff can take to create a positive work environment and promote psychological safety
- Discuss shared Accountability to empower and support staff with a proactive approach to reducing compassion fatigue and identifying measurable progress
Trainer: Marcus Stallworth, LMSW, CWLA Director, Training and Implementation.
Parents who adopt a child often do so without a complete knowledge of the child’s early developmental history, including prenatal alcohol exposure. This training session presents the findings of a qualitative research study that explored the lived experiences of adoptive parents who unknowingly adopted a child later diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD). Through these parents’ narratives, the session will illuminate the emotional, relational, and systemic challenges they faced. The session will also highlight strategies for supporting children with FASD, including hands-on approaches that enhance co-regulation, strengthen external structure, and reduce cognitive and sensory overload in home, school, and clinical settings.
Trainers:
Ira J. Chasnoff, M.D., an award-winning author, researcher and lecturer, is President of NTI Upstream and a Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Chicago. He is one of the nation’s leading researchers in the field of child development and the effects of environmental factors on the developmental trajectory of children and adolescents. Dr. Chasnoff’s work encompasses community approaches to the integration of behavioral health services into primary health care, the schools, and the other multiple systems that serve children and families.
Christine Schmidt, Psy.D., is a clinical psychologist who has specific interest and expertise in working with youth and families impacted by prenatal substance use and pre- and post-natal trauma. Most recently, Dr. Schmidt co-directed a three-year grant designed to help address the impact of secondary traumatic stress, compassion fatigue, and vicarious trauma on professionals working with youth in the child welfare system. Dr. Schmidt has been a member of NTI Upstream’s training faculty for over 15 years and provides consultative psychological services to administrators, caseworkers, and other professionals.
Amy Groessl, PhD, a licensed clinical social worker, brings extensive expertise in treating children and adults with complex trauma histories, neurocognitive challenges, attachment disorders, and adoption-related issues. She is based in Chicago and provides psychotherapy, clinical supervision, and consultation through her private practice. Dr. Groessl has been with NTI Upstream’s Training Faculty since 2016. She is also a Core Faculty member at the Institute for Clinical Social Work, where she teaches courses on qualitative research, trauma, attachment theory, and neuropsychology.
Sue Green, OTR/L, has practiced as a pediatric occupational therapist since 1987, culminating in over three and a half decades of knowledge. Currently, Sue is the Pediatric OT/PT supervisor at The Chautauqua Center, Inc in Jamestown, NY, providing early intervention, preschool and pediatric outpatient services to those who need it most. Sue has been a member of NTI Upstream’s senior faculty since 2023, providing education and training to healthcare and social service professionals who share a common goal of enhancing positive outcomes for the children and families they treat.