Balancing Being Trauma-Sensitive and Responsive to Youths’ Ability to Self-Regulate with the Need to Hold Them Accountable

Ken Ginsburg, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia; Covenant House Pennsylvania, The Center for Parent and Teen Communication

Delesha Jones, Covenant House Texas

Eugene Hall, Covenant House Texas

Alan Prince, Covenant House Texas

Lydia Sit, Covenant House Pennsylvania

Unit Contents

• Introduction
  • Treating People as Individuals While Recognizing Them as Part of a Community
  • Guiding and Shaping Youth
• Optimizing Youth Development When We Balance Responsiveness and Being Trauma-Sensitive with Holding Youth Accountable to Being Their Best Selves
• Balancing Being Responsive and Trauma-Sensitive with the Need to Hold Youth Accountable in Response to an Incident (A flowchart depicting paths taken depending on the varied nature of the incident.)

• Content to Prepare Staff to be Responsive to Youths’ Developmental Needs and Current Circumstances
  • Introduction
  • Using the AI Tool for Immediate Guidance
  • 1) A Grounding in the Core Elements of Strength-Based Practice
  • 2) Core Content on Strength-Based Practice, Coregulation, and Communication
  • 3) Core Content on Being Responsive to Individual Youth’s Needs
  • 4) Core Content on Holding Youth Accountable to Their Current Capabilities

Introduction

Caring youth-serving professionals struggle to strike the balance between being sensitive to the trauma that youth have endured and the need to prepare them to navigate the real world. Indeed, when we are sensitive to teens’ traumas, we better understand their behaviors and reactivity. We grasp why they become dysregulated. However, if we lower our standards for them because they have suffered, we do them harm. Therefore, we must create the settings bathed in caring adult presence that allows them to feel safe enough to stay regulated while taking advantage of the opportunities we offer for them to develop. As they develop skills in our trauma-sensitive setting, they become better prepared to thrive in the real world because they can use what they have learned to meet their potential.

We want staff to hold young people accountable for their actions. But this must be done in a way that is responsive (i.e., flexible) to both their need to develop and to their current ability to stay regulated. The best way to be responsive to their need to develop is to recognize the benefit of making mistakes in a safe territory—under adult guidance—that allows them to learn life lessons. This need is present for all adolescents and should not be denied young people participating in supportive programming or living in congregate settings.

An individual’s current ability to stay regulated varies by their age, developmental stage, intelligence, and mental state. Their mental state may be influenced by the presence of a psychiatric condition (e.g., bipolar disorder), learning difference or neurotype (e.g., ADHD), and trauma history (e.g., potential dysregulation in the face of a recent trigger or traumatic reminder).

Treating People as Individuals While Recognizing Them as Part of a Community

Being responsive means being fair to the individual. Just like how an effective and loving parent who is giving each child what they deserve to develop (and can handle in the moment) is called “unfair” by siblings when they are not treated the same, we can expect that youth will see our responsiveness as being unfair. However, if we create a cohesive culture that helps youth to understand our need for responsiveness, each will know they will benefit, and therefore will understand our approach.

An effective youth-serving agency undoubtedly needs a consistent approach. However, that is the not the same as always doing the same for each youth despite their circumstances. We suggest the term “guidelines” because it is less rigid than “rules.” Guidelines allow us to set clear standards and expectations, while being responsive to a person's current ability to implement the recommendations. Guidelines exist to ensure all youth who are part of the “community” can thrive, because they create an understanding not only of personal behavior but how people treat one another within the setting.

Guiding and Shaping Youth

It is our mission to treat young people as they deserve to be treated. Central to this mission, therefore, must be shaping them to reach their potential. Shaping them involves guiding them while simultaneously honoring their autonomy. Our guidance must recognize them as experts in their own lives. This does not mean they know more than we do. They do, however, grasp the lives that they navigate and therefore must be partners in any effective plan if it is to be implemented with fidelity. We also must ensure they benefit from the wisdom we've earned through both our lived experience and the knowledge we've gained while becoming a youth-serving professional. We guide them while trying to achieve the balancing act of keeping them safe and allowing them to learn the vital lessons that come through stretching into new territory…and sometimes making mistakes and recovering from their failures. As adults offering guidance, we must hold them accountable to their actions so they can best learn from life lessons.

Accountability must be a cornerstone of our approach to youth. In fact, it should be so integral to our approach that it is not reserved for when a young person strays from our guidelines or misbehaves. Rather, it must be part of our cultures. Many people use the word “discipline” interchangeably with “accountability.” If you or your agency do this, it is critical to start by understanding the true meaning of the word itself. “Discipline” shares the root with the word “disciple” and is about teaching or guiding, ideally in a loving manner. For many people, recognizing the true nature of discipline means unlearning what they have previously associated with the word.

Discipline can be used when a course correction is necessary, but it does not mean to punish. When youth feel “punished” they feel like victims and rarely learn the desired lesson. When they feel controlled, they actively resist against (or reject entirely) the adult who feels controlling. On the other hand, when an adult roots their advice and even consequences in caring terms, while underscoring that their intent is to positively shape the youth, the young person will likely appreciate their guidance.

This model depends on a well-prepared staff.

Pathway A recognizes a safety issue that puts staff or other youth in harm's way. We hope that a cool-off space and de-escalation strategies will allow us to move the young person into pathway D. However, sometimes this is not a reality, and a transition away from our services is merited. We hope that circumstances allow a smooth transition to other services better equipped to handle escalating behaviors. In an emergency, when smooth transition may not always be possible, safety takes the immediate priority, and appropriate resources need to be called in. Ideally, we should obtain contact information that will allow us to later reach out to offer the youth transition guidance and alternative services.

Pathway B recognizes that “safety” can refer to more than physical safety. For our services to be “safe for everyone,” we must ensure emotional safety so each person's identity can be safely expressed, learning can happen, and positive development can occur. There are many opportunities to help a youth remediate their actions through developmental supports and restorative practices offered in pathway D. However, in the rare circumstances when these practices cannot be successful, a youth may be asked to transition away from services to create an environment that is safe for everyone. Ideally this kind of separation is temporary, as people should be given the opportunity after reflection and space to engage in restorative practices that will enable them to rejoin our community.

Each of us may inadvertently trigger reactivity in a youth. Youth should not be held wholly responsible (excluding physical safety issues) for their reactivity. This is an opportunity for effective apologies and restorative practices. Feedback should enable professional growth for the staff member.

Repeated incidents on the part of a staff member who is not responsive to feedback should be noted and appropriate action taken.

We hope to facilitate developmental growth in our youth. This includes learning from their actions and seeing each mistake as an opportunity for improvement. A core element of developmental growth is learning how to self-regulate behavior and function in a community, workplace, or family setting. Everyone has different needs to be met and potential to be realized. This pathway is about optimizing development while being responsive to current realities.

Content to Prepare Staff to be Responsive to Youths’ Developmental Needs and Current Circumstances

Introduction

Being responsive to the unique needs of an individual—in the moment—involves an understanding of their experiences and capabilities. The following content offers a grounding for youth-service professionals enabling them to strike the balancing act that allows them to be responsive to:

• The unique current capabilities of a youth. The word “current” is emphasized to point out that the goal is behavioral growth.
• The need for the youth to feel protected and nurtured.
• The imperative that the youth is supported in their development.
• The need for the youth to be held accountable, as one strategy to support their positive development.

The recommended content is presented in four sections. This module holds a large amount of content because the topic represents the essential struggle youth-serving professionals have in behavioral management. Because many settings will start their Reaching Teens journey here, it includes orientation materials long-standing users of Reaching Teens will not need.

The four sections are:

1)   A grounding in the core elements of strength-based practice.

This large grouping of background chapters presumes this is your setting’s entry point into Reaching Teens. If you have been working with Reaching Teens previously, it is likely that you will already be comfortable in these practices, and most of this content should not be considered essential to your learning the specifics of being responsive to youth while holding them accountable. 

This section is hidden unless you click on it.

2) Core content on strength-based practice, coregulation, and communication.

This section will include key chapters drawn from Section 1 above. These concepts are the underpinnings of responsive practice. If you are well versed in the Reaching Teens practice, we recommend you start here to refresh core concepts.

3) Core content on being responsive to individual youth’s needs.

4) Core content on holding youth accountable to their current capabilities.

Using the AI Tool for Immediate Guidance

This module offers a wide breadth of professional-development content that positions youth-serving professionals to consider how our effort at accountability is responsive to a youth’s current ability to stay regulated. Building this knowledge base takes time and solidifying it takes experience. However, in any moment, you might have to respond to a specific situation. Reaching Teens can be navigated through AI in real time to help you address an immediate concern. If you ask a targeted question, you will receive a brief answer that can be read in 60-90 seconds. Each key point will be referenced and offer a direct link to a chapter for a deeper dive if desired. Films are found at the end of most chapters. 

Using this AI tool ensures answers will be drawn only from the Reaching Teens toolkit, avoiding the downsides of internet-based searching. You can be certain the response will be rooted in evidence and offered through a strength-based and trauma-sensitive lens. Further, you can be confident the response will not incorporate undermining or mistaken online content about adolescents, their identities, or behaviors.

The AI tool can serve as a navigator. You can ask it to direct you to any topic of concern. If Reaching Teens has a chapter or film that meets your needs, it will offer a link to it.

You can ask the AI tool about the interplay of any of three elements: 1) A specific behavior; 2) the condition(s) that affect the youth’s behavior or ability to self-regulate (e.g. developmental stage, trauma history or psychiatric condition); and 3) your communication response.

Questions you might ask the Reaching Teens AI tool are limitless, but include:

• What should I say when __________?
• How might I better meet the needs of a young person with a history of ___________?  
• How might I better meet the needs of a young person with a condition such as ___________?
• How might I communicate more effectively with a person with a history of ___________?
• How might I communicate more effectively with a person who has a condition such as ___________?
• How can I help a young person with ___________ better understand that a consequence they have received is related to their behavior?
• How can I help a young person who has experienced ___________ feel safe?
• How can I help a young person who has experienced ___________ better self-regulate?
• How can I help support a young person with (a condition of) ___________  to better understand why we need them to behave   ___________ , even when  ___________ ?

Most youth have intersecting concerns. You can ask the AI tool to create a plan for a specific youth with multiple concerns. For example, “How can I support an immigrant youth who is depressed and has a history of trauma who is currently using substances to mask his emotions?” After you receive a response, you can even add another layer, saying for example, “The same youth is also gay.” or “The same youth is failing school.”

Remember, however, that no matter how many details you offer, AI does not know the youth standing in front of you. This tool can offer you guidance but it does not substitute for clinical advice or offer the richness and detailed strategies that you can develop with a colleague.

1) A Grounding in the Core Elements of Strength-Based Practice

If you are well-versed in the practice of Reaching Teens, you can proceed directly to the next section, which offers core concepts as a refresher. If you wish to see the foundational content relevant to preparing staff to be responsive to youths’ developmental needs and current circumstances, click below.

2) Core Content on Strength-Based Practice, Coregulation, and Communication

Preliminary Reflective Staff Work

This is meaningful, but deeply challenging work. It brings up staff members’ own traumas. Every person who has navigated adolescence (that’s all of us!) gets stuck in some aspect of identity development and will re-live their own pain as they bear witness to others’ journeys. More critically, people with a history of their own trauma may be more likely to experience vicarious trauma as they witness pain. This generates an emotional burden on our staff and contributes to burnout. Critically, it also contributes to dysregulation and reactivity, interfering with staff ability to coregulate with youth and to create the felt-safety that youth who have endured trauma need to optimally function. Next, we must examine and work through our own biases lest they flavor our interactions with youth in ways that may trigger them.

Ongoing Reflective and Group Work on Self-Care

The previous section was on self-reflection that should be part of the onboarding process. However, self-care concepts should be ongoing throughout our length of service. It reminds us how our own ability to be well and to self-regulate impacts our service. It should be explicitly stated that while these topics are about service, they are also purely about staff—we deserve to be well unrelated to our service.

Guiding Staff to Understand the Effects of Trauma on Behavior and Reactivity

Guiding Staff to Understand the Strengths of Adolescents and, in Particular, the Strengths of Youth Who Have Experienced Hardships

Guiding Staff to Understand How to Co-Regulate with Youth to Offer Felt Safety

Guiding Staff to Understand How to Build Self-Regulation Skills in Youth

Guiding Staff to Understand How to Co-Regulate with Optimal Communication

3) Core Content on Being Responsive to Individual Youth’s Needs

How Mental-Health Conditions, Varied Neurotypes, Developmental Delays, and Emotional Stress Can Influence Behavior, Reactivity, and the Ability to Self-Regulate

This section includes both chapters and brief films that first explain what a young person may be experiencing and then underscore communication strategies we can use to support and guide them.

Guiding Staff to Understand the Imperative of Healthy Development, Including the Role of High Expectations

Guiding Staff to Understand How to Respond to Escalation

4) Core Content on Holding Youth Accountable to Their Current Capabilities

Guiding Staff on Effective Models of Consequences (Accountability)

Guiding Staff to Understand How to Debrief Critical Incidents and to Create Ongoing Quality Improvement