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CASA Announces Eight Staff Members Complete TBRI® Practitioner Training
CONROE, TX – CASA Child Advocates of Montgomery County is pleased to announce that eight staff members have completed training this year to become Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI®) Practitioners through the Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development at TCU. The TBRI® Practitioners are Erica Avedikian, Julie Brown, Mandy Dalton, Destin Hudek, Lindsay Miller, Kristy O’Neal, Francine Stanfield, and Victoria Warmuth. They join four previously trained practitioners at CASA.
Each practitioner completed five units of online coursework followed by five days of on-site, intensive training that focused on the application and implementation of TBRI® to receive this prestigious title.
CASA Program Director Marilyn McQueeney became a practitioner in 2016. Jennifer Reitmeyer, now CASA’s TBRI® Manager, and Ann Marie Ronsman, President and CEO of CASA, completed training in 2018. Assistant Program Director Susan Truscott became a practitioner in 2021. To date, the nonprofit organization boasts twelve TBRI® Practitioners on staff.
Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI®) is an attachment-based, evidence-based, and trauma-informed intervention that is designed to meet the complex needs of vulnerable children. TBRI® uses Empowering Principles to address physical needs, Connecting Principles for attachment needs, and Correcting Principles to disarm “fear-based behaviors” in children.
“Children who have experienced trauma have changes to their brain and body chemistry,” explains TBRI® Practitioner and CASA President and CEO, Ann Marie Ronsman. “Trauma makes it more difficult for them to form connections with caregivers, and their brains more easily flip to fight, flight, or freeze when stressed or upset.” Ronsman continues, “TBRI empowers families and caregivers with the tools needed to proactively manage behaviors. This rebuilds trust and provides hope to heal these children and give them brighter futures.”
The TBRI® Practitioner training is intended for those who want to learn about TBRI® and use it within their professional capacity (e.g., therapists, caseworkers, foster and adoption care specialists, occupational therapists, medical professionals, counselors, CASA representatives, early childhood and development specialists). This core training experience is designed to prepare practitioners for working with children from hard places and their families.
As new TBRI® Practitioners, Avedikian, Brown, Dalton, Hudek, Miller, O’Neal, Stanfield, and Warmuth will be able to apply TBRI® principles and strategies within CASA to coach caregivers and families as well as train Advocates and community partners – all to help children who have experienced trauma.
For more information about TBRI® or CASA Child Advocates of Montgomery County, visit the CASA website at CASASpeaks4Kids.com or call (936) 441-5437.
CASA Child Advocates is Montgomery County’s only organization appointed by the court to advocate for abused and neglected children. Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) speak up for the best interest of children who have been removed from their homes and are under the Court’s jurisdiction. CASA’s goal is to continue to provide a court-appointed volunteer to serve as Guardian ad Litem for every child in the foster care system. For the past 30 years, CASA has been training volunteers, raising awareness in the community, and working to stop the cycle of child abuse in Montgomery County. Learn more about CASA Child Advocates of Montgomery County at CASASpeaks4Kids.com and on Facebook: Facebook.com/CASAChildAdvocatesofMontgomeryCounty.
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