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905-687-9176 15 Neilson Ave Unit G St. Catharines

Trauma informed care is a framework that guides our practice at OT4KIDS. It focuses on the knowledge and understanding of how trauma affects the child across the various domains of life, and the significant importance of supportive, responsive relationships in fostering physical and emotional safety through empowerment.

Trauma informed care is an integral part of our philosophy and essential when working with children whose relationships and participation in every-day activities has been significantly impacted by attachment and early trauma. We work in partnership with parents/caregivers, with special consideration to promote healing and recovery throughout the therapeutic experience, while concurrently being attentive to avoid practices that may inadvertently retraumatize the child. We work with children to identify how their sensory and motor skills have been impacted, identify their fight and flight responses, and the impact of triggers across home and school environments. Overall, the focus is on the physical, psychological and emotional safety of the child, while working together to rebuild a sense of confidence, control and empowerment that can eventually be generalized to other domains of life, and foster improved engagement in self-care, social engagement, learning activities and play.

Skills Targeted:

  • Regulation of arousal state, attention, emotions and behaviour using bottom up strategies (sensory) and top down strategies (cognition)
  • Optimum arousal levels
  • Focus and attention
  • Sensory processing 
  • Social engagement and attachment
  • Functional skills affected
  • Self-esteem and sense of self 
  • Learning

Additional Information:

https://beaconhouse.org.uk/resources/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOCTxcaNHeg

https://childhealthpolicy.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/RQ-3-11-Summer.pdf

https://oacas.libguides.com/trauma

https://www.childtrauma.org/cta-library

OT4KIDS

McGillivray Occupational Therapy Professional Corp.

15 Neilson Ave , Unit G
St. Catharines, Ontario
L2M 5V9

905-687-9176