{"id":1547,"date":"2019-07-25T10:03:16","date_gmt":"2019-07-25T14:03:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/starr-commonwealth-new.local\/?p=1547"},"modified":"2019-07-26T09:47:44","modified_gmt":"2019-07-26T13:47:44","slug":"spotlight-kathy-hart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starr.org\/2019\/spotlight-kathy-hart\/","title":{"rendered":"Spotlight – Kathy Hart"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Starr Commonwealth continues to foster healing in 2019 through trauma-informed and resilience-focused care, we are celebrating the professionals who make our groundbreaking work possible, and who are driven to heal through their hard work in the field. Kathryn Hart, MA, director of Professional Training & Coaching and senior trainer, travels throughout North America providing trauma and resilience training to agencies and schools, including Trauma-Informed Resilient Schools<\/em><\/a> and Healing Trauma and Restoring Resilience in Schools<\/em><\/a>. She has dedicated her 25-year career to helping children and families in a variety of capacities. With a bachelor\u2019s degree in psychology from Bowling Green State University and a master\u2019s degree in professional counseling from Liberty University, her experience with youth and family services have encompassed both clinical and administrative roles.<\/p>\n

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Awareness for trauma-informed practices has been continuously growing over the last few years, what do you see as the greatest factors attributing to that rise?<\/strong><\/p>\n

More people are becoming informed about the link between physical health and mental health. The ACE [Adverse Childhood Experiences] Study, as well as Dr. Nadine Burke Harris\u2019 subsequent campaign for behavioral health since are key examples of this. Additionally, childcare trends have changed from removing at-risk children from their homes and communities to keeping children in their homes and communities, and therefore, schools are seeing more problematic behaviors. This has resulted in schools asking for help in dealing with these behaviors in order to keep these young people with problematic behaviors in school.<\/em><\/p>\n

How has that growing awareness shifted your perspective\/strategy as a trainer?<\/strong><\/p>\n

As we learn more about the mental and physical effects of trauma and toxic stress through our work in our behavioral health clinics and other direct services for children, we\u2019re able to apply those lessons to our courses. Because we\u2019re constantly collecting more data, we always have a need to develop new content and resources to serve our trainers and customers with the latest research and information in the field of trauma and resilience. By offering our courses online, practitioners anywhere in the world can access this information through a medium that feels personal and polished. We also continue to utilize our 300 Certified Trainers across the globe to deliver our content at conferences, professional development days, and private consultations. The combination of these approaches has allowed Starr to ensure we remain on the leading edge of trauma-informed and resilience-focused care!<\/em><\/p>\n

What barriers remain, whether in classrooms or communities as a whole, to ensuring trauma-informed practices are embraced and implemented universally?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Education about how trauma affects a developing brain is a huge barrier. I will hear comments like \u201ceveryone has challenges, they just need to pick themselves up and deal with it.\u201d There is a common misbelief that it simply is a choice to let trauma affect you. This is not true; trauma is a body experience. Children who have experienced trauma need help with emotional regulation if it was never taught. Their brains are often wired for fear, to fight for survival. They often do not have access to their cognitive parts of their brain.
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Sometimes the barriers are financial. Schools know and accept that children of trauma need more help from caring adults but do not have the finances to add additional staff or reset spaces to help children of trauma release their activation and regulate their emotions. As the health of our schools is vital to the health of our communities, Starr has found that local partners, such as community and education foundations, are excited to work to overcome these cost barriers. In many ways, the cost is even greater when we don\u2019t fund training and resources to help children with trauma responses, as these issues lead to a need for more support staff, outside intervention, etc.<\/em><\/p>\n

Another barrier I have observed is the need for teacher education around trauma and trauma-informed classrooms and schools. Many new teachers become overwhelmed with the behaviors in their classrooms and without the tools to help these children, the teachers experience burnout and leave the field.<\/em><\/p>\n

So what are the solutions to these barriers?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Explaining the biology behind trauma and how children of trauma\u2019s brains are developed really can create a mindset shift for teachers. No one goes into the education field to hurt kids; they just need to be educated more on the effects of trauma and be given the appropriate tools and resources to help. When they realize our cognitive functions literally shut down in times of stress, fear, or a trauma response, I start to see this \u201cah-ha!\u201d moment as they begin to understand that behavior is communication. The child needs something to help them re-integrate the cognitive and sensory parts of their brain, because \u201cstressed brains literally cannot learn.\u201d
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