Risking Connection® Training

When a child depends on an adult for nurturance, safety, and love, he or she should not be taking a risk. However, after betrayal, making connections requires risking disappointment at a minimum, if not shame, loss, and further trauma. Most clients in the mental health and child welfare systems have been hurt and betrayed many times — by parents, by other caretakers, by the system.

To heal, a traumatized client must risk connecting with caring adults who are different from those of his or her past. Yet, there are many reasons why clients would not take that chance. Over time, however, through the experience of RICH® relationships — those that demonstrate Respect, Information, Connection, and Hope (RICH®) — clients can learn to put their trust in caring adults and move beyond the wounds of the past.

Risking Connection® (RC) is a foundational trauma training curriculum and training program, rooted in relational and attachment theory. It provides a framework for understanding and healing the wide array of symptoms and behaviors that land traumatized people in a wide range of mental health settings.

Risking Connection is unique in that:

• It is a philosophy of treatment rather than a treatment technique.
• It is aimed at organizational staff from all disciplines, roles, and levels of training and creates a common language among staff to speak about trauma within treatment settings.
• It stresses that, since children have been hurt in relationships, supportive nurturing relationships are critical to healing. Therefore, every adult who has contact with a client in treatment is doing trauma treatment.
• It asserts that treating traumatized people also poses risks to those providing treatment, namely the risk of vicarious traumatization. In this model, respect for, and care of both client and treater are viewed as vital.

Risking Connection training offers organizations a pathway toward system-wide change to trauma-informed care. Through the Risking Connection Train-the-Trainer, agencies can gain the capacity to provide ongoing RC training within their organization. By doing so, they receive ongoing continuing education support for their credentialed RC trainers and join an international network of agencies using RC to create trauma-informed services.

Below is a PDF of the brochure and registration materials for the RC Basic Training

Freestanding 3-Day Basic Training Brochure GENERIC 2.3.11 

Risking Connection is a registered trademark of the Sidran Foundation.