Comments on: Colonialist co-opting at the trauma-informed care conference http://www.myworldinshambles.com/colonialist-co-opting-at-the-trauma-informed-care-conference Just another WordPress weblog Sat, 19 May 2012 22:02:08 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.1 By: Sheila http://www.myworldinshambles.com/colonialist-co-opting-at-the-trauma-informed-care-conference#comment-3965 Sheila Thu, 02 Apr 2009 17:23:57 +0000 http://www.myworldinshambles.com/colonialist-co-opting-at-the-trauma-informed-care-conference#comment-3965 I feel I should speak up for TIC, as its implementation in group homes for children and youth helps pull staff out of the dark ages. A lot of the TIC trainings I sat through in that environment focused on, say, the radical notion that helping a displaced kid feel safe was going to do her/him more good than manipulating her/him into talking about their shitty, shitty childhoods. Novel. So much of social work just turns into a whack-off therapy session for the workers. Faced with the horror of what residents/clients/consumers have seen, it is often the worker who needs to talk about it. The worker needs to process the appalling injustices their r/c/cs' experiences reveal. Misguidedly, workers (Jesus, at least this former worker) set about trying to meet this need to process by badgering the client about it. So in a youth context, I think the aim of TIC is to move the focus back to the needs of the kid. Yet I agree with your nausea of beginner insights masquerading as practice-changing information. It's horrifying that he or she with the most letters behind his or her name gets to stand up and announce such fucking pedestrian information and collect a speaker's fee. But it's more horrifying still how much of social work practice is conducted without said pedestrian info. (J.R., what does Paul say about whining for meat when you still need milk?) I feel I should speak up for TIC, as its implementation in group homes for children and youth helps pull staff out of the dark ages. A lot of the TIC trainings I sat through in that environment focused on, say, the radical notion that helping a displaced kid feel safe was going to do her/him more good than manipulating her/him into talking about their shitty, shitty childhoods. Novel.

So much of social work just turns into a whack-off therapy session for the workers. Faced with the horror of what residents/clients/consumers have seen, it is often the worker who needs to talk about it. The worker needs to process the appalling injustices their r/c/cs’ experiences reveal. Misguidedly, workers (Jesus, at least this former worker) set about trying to meet this need to process by badgering the client about it. So in a youth context, I think the aim of TIC is to move the focus back to the needs of the kid.

Yet I agree with your nausea of beginner insights masquerading as practice-changing information. It’s horrifying that he or she with the most letters behind his or her name gets to stand up and announce such fucking pedestrian information and collect a speaker’s fee. But it’s more horrifying still how much of social work practice is conducted without said pedestrian info. (J.R., what does Paul say about whining for meat when you still need milk?)

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