Enhancing Resilience Among Providers of Trauma-Informed Care: A Curriculum for Protection Against Secondary Traumatic Stress Among Non-Mental Health Professionals

Although the call to create trauma-informed services for youth has been clearly sounded, a relatively neglected part of this effort is the need to prepare non-mental health professionals to carry out trauma-informed programming in ways that protect them from secondary traumatic stress (STS). To this end, this article introduces Resilience for Trauma-Informed Professionals, a curriculum that introduces participants to techniques designed to promote resilience in the face of exposure to trauma-related material. Based on the existing evidence base regarding risk and protective factors for STS, six core elements targeted by the curriculum are described—appraisals, self-efficacy, emotional awareness, affect regulation, resilience, and prevention—as they are implemented across three stages: pre-exposure preparation, coping in the presence of trauma, and recovery in the aftermath of exposure.