Ep. 11: Children's Advocacy Center

04/28/21 • 43 min

Between 700 and 800 cases of child sexual abuse are referred on average each year to the Children’s Advocacy Center of Bristol County, which provides treatment and support to victims and their families.

But in the past year, the number of referrals has dropped to about 250 cases. That isn’t necessarily good news, however, as it reflects the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw lengthy periods when schools were closed, and athletic teams and other activities were suspended. As a result, people who are required under the law to report suspected cases of child sexual assault have had only irregular contact with children they normally see, which often means that cases go unreported.

CAC mental health clinicians Brittannie Moroz and Jillian Allen shared CDC data stating one in four girls and one in 13 boys under age 18 suffer trauma as a result of child sexual abuse. Those children are some of the approximately 75,000 Bristol County children age 16 and younger believed to have suffered trauma from abuse, violence, addiction in their homes or other causes of childhood trauma.

Depending on the age of the child, trauma often manifests itself in both physical and emotional symptoms, from trouble sleeping to anger and acting out, anxiety and depression, or changes in appearance or behavior. The CAC helps by offering not only traditional talk therapy but also other physical forms of treatment that can help children relieve physical, emotional and psychological symptoms associated with trauma by giving them tools to manage those symptoms. Soon, they hope to also offer trauma-sensitive yoga as well.

“Every child experiences trauma so differently and every child is so unique,” said Allen. “You may have a child who is really withdrawn and isolated...as opposed to a child who is angry and lashing out.”

The CAC works with teachers to help them recognize signs of potential abuse, something more and more schools are building into teacher training programs.

“Traumatic stress symptoms are actually very treatable,” said Moroz. Treatment begins with building a relationship with each child to help re-establish trust and to build confidence.

An expansion of the CAC’s facility in Fall River will provide more room for offering trauma-informed treatments meant to help those children feel safe and overcome the symptoms of abuse.

Learn more about what the Children’s Advocacy Center of Bristol County is doing and how they provide trauma informed treatment to children affected by child abuse.

The CAC works with teachers to help them recognize signs of potential abuse, something more and more schools are building into teacher training programs.

“Traumatic stress symptoms are actually very treatable,” said Moroz. Treatment begins with building a relationship with each child to help re-establish trust and to build confidence.

An expansion of the CAC’s facility in Fall River will provide more room for offering trauma-informed treatments meant to help those children feel safe and overcome the symptoms of abuse.

Learn more about what the Children’s Advocacy Center of Bristol County is doing and how they provide trauma informed treatment to children affected by child abuse.

Previous Episode

Ep. 10: Trauma-sensitive yoga w/ Jennifer Turner

Trauma-sensitive yoga helps sufferers use their bodies to heal their spirits

Jennifer Turner was a voice student at the New England Conservatory of Music when her instructor approached her during a rehearsal.

“You,” her instructor observed, “aren’t in your body.”

It took her a while before she understood what her instructor meant, but when she did, it would change her life.

She took yoga classes, and the body control that yoga encouraged her to heal from her own trauma she still was carrying. It was, she said, “like coming home.”

The awakening guided her to a new calling: using yoga to help people who had suffered psychological trauma from physical and emotional abuse or neglect, and helping them reconnect with their bodies.

Today, Turner is the co-director of Justice Resource Institute’s Center for Trauma and Embodiment, where she and co-director and founder Dave Emerson use Trauma Center Trauma-Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY) to help victims of physical or sexual abuse, neglect or other trauma use their bodies to heal their minds and spirits.

She recently edited and co-wrote a book about her work. It’s called “Embodied Healing: Survivor and Facilitator Voices from the Practice of Trauma-Sensitive Yoga.” The book, available online through Amazon and Barnes & Noble, describes her work and research and recounts “what it’s like to heal.” Included are the observations and research findings of yoga facilitators trained in trauma-sensitive yoga that has helped sufferers of complex trauma heal their hearts, minds and bodies.

Complex trauma can produce a host of symptoms, from racing heartbeat to changes in breathing, hyper-vigilance about any change in their physical environment, depression and anxiety, loss of control of their own bodies or even the loss of feeling in their bodies.

TCTSY helps clients reconnect and exert control over their bodies — something that Turner describes as “reinhabiting” their bodies after deep psychological trauma, usually at the hands of a trusted parent or guardian, coach, teacher or religious figure who abused the power of their position to manipulate their victims.

The techniques of TCTSY, which involve a yoga facilitator who suggests rather than instructs and who never touches a student, are being taught at hundreds of places around the globe, sometimes as a supplement to traditional forms of “talk therapy” and sometimes in the absence of talk therapy.

The principles of TCTSY are used in more and more traditional yoga classes because facilitators recognize that many of their students come to yoga to help them heal from trauma in their own lives.

“The goal isn’t yoga,” Turner said. “The goal is reclaiming your body through yoga.”

You can listen to Jennifer Turner discuss her work here. And you can purchase her book at amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com.

If you’d like to try a TCTSY class, please visit www.traumasensitiveyoga.com or www.jri.org/tctsy-classes.

Next Episode

Ep. 12: Permanent Connections are Vital for a Child’s Success

We all need the people in our lives who know us and care about us, who celebrate our successes and comfort us in hard times. These are the people we call when we get a new job, lock our keys in the car or are facing a big decision.

Permanent, supportive connections are especially important in childhood, when parents, coaches, mentors and teachers help children develop their identity and values, help them know who they are, develop their strengths and set goals in their life.

For a long time, however, social services didn’t recognize the importance of permanency for the children in their care. In this podcast, Meredith Rapoza, division director of permanency and latency services for JRI, and Rachel Arruda, JRI division director of Family Networks and JRI’s service navigator, talk about how social service professionals have come to recognize the importance of permanency in the development and ultimate success of children. They discuss how JRI is ensuring that all the children in its care develop at least one permanent connection.

We’re also joined by Jason Galli, who entered the social services system from birth, and found permanency for himself despite being moved from foster home to foster home and facility to facility. Now a husband, father and someone dedicated to helping children and youth as a partner with JRI, he offers his story of incredible resilience.

For more information about permanency and how you can become a permanent connection to a child, please visit jri.org/lifelongconnections.