Social Worker Meetup: Being Trauma-Informed and Trauma Sensitive In Our Work

As we develop mitigation and begin to build rapport and a relationship with our clients, we are constantly aware of the harms that have been done to them, whether individually or on a macro level by communities or oppressive systems. Being trauma-informed and trauma sensitive helps us to not perpetuate those continued harms and abuses, but what does that look like? How do we keep in balance being trauma sensitive while also asking really personal and probing questions? We will spend this meetup talking about that balance, both from the perspective of the techniques we use as well as the moral quandary this poses for us in our work.

Stephanne Cline Thornton is a West Virginia native who has worked in and around criminal defense and mitigation for more than 20 years in Georgia, Colorado, and West Virginia. She is currently the Clinical Director for the West Virginia Judicial and Lawyer Assistance Program, and owner of Transform Legal, a consultancy focused on mitigation, training, and sustainability. As a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker and Master Addiction Counselor, Stephanne focuses on proper assessment for and access to trauma and substance use disorder treatment to ensure the health and well-being of affected individuals. Stephanne is on the Trauma-Informed Care Network Speakers Bureau and uses that platform to call attention to the intersection of secondary traumatic stress and legal practice. She approaches her work with clients, lawyers, social workers, and mitigation specialists through a contextualized mitigation lens.