Training Offered

Upcoming Training and Events

'Train the Trainers'                      5  Days, July 7-11,    2008                                 Connecticut, USA For more information contact: intentionalpeersupport@gmail.com Peer Support, an Alternative Approach   5 days November 10-14, 2008              Vermont, USA  For more information contact: lenorakimball@gmail.com

Using WRAP and Peer Support Training

The combination of WRAP and peer support can be incredibly powerful in helping us grow, learn from each other, and challenge each other beyond what we thought we were capable of.

Peer support centers and programs all over the country are including WRAP groups as part of their program. At a recent meeting in Washington, the directors of these peer support programs reported on the positive effects of this connection on both personal and group recovery process. In order to make that connection possible for more and more centers and groups, and to do it in a way that truly supports relationship building wellness and recovery, Shery Mead and Mary Ellen Copeland have written a manual, WRAP and Peer Support Manual: Personal, Group and Program Development. This training will be based on this manual.

Peer Support: An Alternative Approach

Peer support has traditionally meant informal, non-professionalized help from people who have had similar life experiences. In mental health peers come together with many shared experiences including a negative reaction to traditional services. However without a new framework to build from it is not uncommon to find people re-enacting “help” based on what was done to them. Some people take on positions of power and others fall into passive recipient roles. Therefore, all training emphasizes a critical learning experience in which people mutually explore “how they’ve come to know what they know.” In other words, through intentional conversations, people examine their assumptions about who they are, what power-shared relationships can look like, and ultimately what’s possible.

This is accomplished through a process of learning about:

• What makes trauma informed peer support different
• First contact and how it controls the way we see the world
• Listening with intention
• Challenging old roles
• Understanding trauma worldview and trauma re-enactment
• Working towards shared responsibility and shared power
• Creating a vision
• Using supervision as a tool to maintain values in action

Peer Run Crisis Alternatives

Peer run crisis alternatives are beginning to spring up around the country. These programs support many people in avoiding psychiatric hospitalization while allowing them to reconsider crisis as an opportunity to learn and grow. While trauma informed peer support training provides the basic framework, this training also provides more extensive information on maintaining mutuality in uncomfortable situations. It also places an emphasis on pro-active crisis planning in which potential guest and respite worker negotiate how they will work together to “do crisis differently.”

Specific training components include:

• Basic trauma informed peer support training
• Working with high end situations
• Working with conflict
• Flexible boundaries
• Pro-active crisis planning
• Supervision and evaluation

Working with Professionals to Develop Recovery Based Relationships

Although clinicians have extensive education in their field it is sometimes difficult to figure out what a recovery oriented relationship looks like. This training helps participants explore some of their underlying assumptions and provides tools for developing mutually responsible relationships in which both people become the expert.

Training includes:

• First contact
• Issues of power
• Understanding trauma worldview and trauma re-enactment
• A new look at boundaries
• Maintaining mutual responsibility