I am looking forward to working with this diverse team of social workers, advocates, law enforcement, medical and mental health support staff working together to protect children who are victims of abuse. I will provide training about how this work effects the team, secondary trauma, symptoms to watch for and methods of self-care.

I always enjoy being invited as a guest lecturer for this graduate class dealing with art therapy and trauma. We discuss working with trauma in the field, not in the office, and the tools and interventions available to us when we are in the field.

Through the Regina Police Missing Persons’ Liaison’s Office I will be participating in the Province’s Missing Persons’ Week. The first day I will be providing training on Ambiguous Loss, Trauma, Intergenerational Trauma and Trauma and Youth. The second day I will be working directly with families of missing persons.

For my first time ever I have the opportunity to address the entire staff of Case Managers in the Missing Child Division. We will be talking about maintaining their wellness while dealing with cases of children experiencing all kinds of trauma, and even death.

This is the first of three webinars I will be doing with Justice Clearinghouse this year. SELF-CARE FOR JUSTICE PROFESSIONALS will discuss the impact that trauma work has on the brain and body, and will present interventions that a person can do to mitigate these effects. The presentation will also discuss the personality types that are drawn to trauma work and working with other people’s trauma, and the self-care interventions appropriate for them. The webinar will end with guidance on developing a personalized self-care plan.

I have a wonderful opportunity to present information on Wellness and Self-Care to Law Enforcement folks who participate in ICAC Task Forces. NCMEC is sponsoring me to present at this highly regarded conference.

THE IMPACT OF TRAUMA ON CHILD DEVELOPMENT: WHAT JUSTICE PROFESSIONALS NEEDS TO KNOW. This webinar will begin with a brief overview of the impact of trauma on an adult brain and body as a point of comparison. Information is then provided on the specific impact on children. The information will then show how the developmental impact affects behavior at different ages, even into adulthood. The concepts of intergenerational trauma and fetal programming are also presented.

For many years I have wanted to in some way work with the folks at NamUs, and here’s my chance. At this annual training conference for a variety of their staff, I will be presenting about Ambiguous Loss and Families of the Missing, as well as a presentation on maintaining their wellness while doing the job.

For many years I’ve been honored to teach and work with these amazing parents of missing and exploited children as they volunteer to provide telephone support to other parents. This year I’ll be facilitating segments on TEAMBUILDING, AMBIGUOUS LOSS/ AMBIGUOUS REUNIFICATION, and PRACTICING MINDFULNESS.

This is my final webinar with JCH this year. MENTAL HEALTH CONCEPTS AND TRAFFICKING: FUNDAMENTALS FOR JUSTICE PROFESSIONALS TO UNDERSTAND.

This webinar looks at the family’s and the victim’s perspective on the experience of trafficking. The effect of trauma on both family and victim, as well as the concept of ambiguous loss while the victim’s fate is unknown provide the core of the presentation in addition to a discussion of the specific challenges to the reunification and reintegration of the victim back into the family.

We present these day-long grief retreats bi-annually, and each one is unique and different as are the participants. We spend the day discussing healthy grieving from a physical, emotional, mental and spiritual perspective.

For several years I have been privileged to meet with the Marist Brothers of the Northeast Region to present and discuss a wide variety of mental health issues. This meeting we will focus on Managing the Four Basic Emotions; Anger, Fear, Guilt and Hope.