NEWS

Get trauma-informed at half-day workshop

“Trauma-informed” might seem like the latest cultural buzz word, but Danielle Vander Linden knows it can help in everything from work to home life. 

“Whether they apply it to their professional life or their personal life, there’s something for everyone in this,” Linden said. 

Linden will be leading the training Becoming Trauma Informed on July 8 at 9 a.m. 

The five-and-a-half hour training helps individuals develop skills to better navigate their work and personal lives. 

United Way of the Mid-Willamette Valley, 455 Bliler Avenue Northeast, is hosting. The training costs $150 per person. Seats are limited, visit tinyurl.com/salemtrauma to register.

Linden has a master’s degree in special education, and was trained by Sandra Bloom, who started the Sanctuary model in 2012, at the Sanctuary Institute in Yonkers New York. 

“It sounds religious but it’s not at all,” Linden said. “The idea of being trauma informed is pretty universal. We know that at least two-thirds and possibly more of the population has experienced childhood adversity which impacts the way that you interact and perceive the world.” 

One of the goals of the training is to give people a frame of reference for why people act the way they do. The initial reaction when someone has a bad interaction is to take it personally. The training is designed to help people think of others and what stressors in their lives caused them to act like they did.

“Organizations today are under so much stress and so much intensity that this really helps bring some of that personalization back into it,” Linden said, “we have to look at each other first as human to human.”

She offer a follow-up training, which has been postponed from July 9 is called Training of Trainers, that session is also open to anyone who’s interested in gaining more knowledge, though it does require an application. 

“Training of trainers just allows people to build their skill and knowledge so they can go back and train the workforce in their organization,” she said. The application helps Linden understand the motivation behind perspective participants.

Trauma informed training was something she wanted to bring to Salem, so much so that she formed her own consulting business, Linden Consulting.

“Really, if you want to get training you have to go to Portland or Eugene or even further down to Medford,” she said. “I saw it as a need here in the Willamette Valley. That’s what drove me to get this going.” 

The United Way is partnering with Linden to sponsor her trainings in the area.