Trauma-Informed Support for Supervisors: Trauma Informed Workplace Policies

Creating formal policies and procedures grounded in trauma-informed principles demonstrates a commitment to sustaining a trauma-informed approach. Organizational policies should incorporate SAMHSA’s (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) six principles and four key assumptions of a trauma-informed approach. Participants will explore strategies for developing trauma-informed policies, in collaboration with individuals who have lived experiences of trauma, that promote the wellbeing and safety of both employees and families.

Alison has a background in nonprofit management, grassroots organizing, volunteer management, 1:1 and group coaching, emotional intelligence, interpersonal trust and communication, and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) science education. She worked in the Fair Trade industry, which seeks to end violence against women through economic empowerment, from 2011-2013 and 2015-2017, trying out the tech industry in 2014. Concurrently she launched a health coaching business to help people develop emotion management skills for better health, teaching the popular Give Up Sugar for Good Program from 2017-2019.

Her work as a health coach led her to realize that Adverse Childhood Experiences are barriers to people attaining their health goals—the same realization the original researchers had when their weight loss intervention failed—leading them to ask deeper questions about childhood trauma and publish their findings in the landmark 1998 ACEs paper. This led Alison to go back to school for an MPH to work in trauma prevention.

She has worked professionally with trauma experts such as Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, Dr. Gabor Maté, Dr. Ed Tronick, and more as the producer of live events at PACEs Connection (2019-2022). She holds a BS in Conservation and Resource Studies from UC Berkeley (2009) and a Master’s in Public Health from Boston University (2019). She received her Health Coach Certification in 2014.

Bri Twombly has worked in mental health, educational, government, and non-profit organizations providing consultation and training to create equity-centered trauma-informed systems. She has experience integrating research-supported equity-centered trauma-informed principles into organizational policies, employee recruitment and retention practices, and program evaluation.

As a licensed therapist and consultant, Bri has over ten years of specialized experience in the treatment of infant and early childhood trauma, toxic stress, and positive childhood experiences. She is trained in Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP), Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), and Components for Enhancing Clinician Experience and Reducing Trauma (CE-CERT). She is endorsed by the Michigan Association of Infant Mental Health as an Infant Mental Health Specialist.

Bri is a certified Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Interface Master Trainer, Trauma Smart facilitator, and HOPE (Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences) facilitator. She has experience training on many topics including early childhood trauma, equity-centered trauma-informed care, positive childhood experiences, and employee retention. She has presented nationally and internationally: at the Zero to Three annual conference, the Michigan Association of Play Therapy conference, and the World Association of Infant Mental Health conference. She holds a BA in History from the College of the Holy Cross and a Master’s in Clinical Social Work from the University of St. Thomas and St. Catherine University.