In a school support meeting, therapy session or foster care planning discussion, having a structured list of trauma-informed interventions can make it easier to choose safe, developmentally appropriate activities for children affected by complex trauma. The material is especially relevant for teachers, counsellors, carers and support staff looking for attachment, self-regulation and competency strategies for children with developmental trauma disorder, attachment disruption, PTSD symptoms or repeated interpersonal trauma.
In practice, the compilation can be used to plan classroom support, counselling sessions or caregiver activities that begin with safety and connection before moving towards emotional regulation and skills. It is organised around the ARC framework, covering attachment needs, affect regulation and competency building for traumatised children and kids.
Early sections give psychoeducation for carers, including reminders to use simple language, expect repeated questions, restore predictable routines and protect children from unnecessary reminders. The safety and security activities include parent and child prompts about worries, a safety box exercise using collage, a magic shop imagery activity and a body-based feeling good drawing exercise.
The contents show a wider practical toolkit for professionals seeking complex trauma interventions, childhood trauma activities, therapeutic exercises and trauma-informed classroom ideas. Listed areas include feeling recognition, grief and loss, fear and anxiety, anger, body sensations, self-awareness, emotional regulation, self-soothing, fight-flight-freeze responses, coordination, self-esteem, empathy and social skills.
Particular value sits in the way activities are linked to real situations, such as transitions, play, caregiver attunement, lap-based mirror games for younger children and relationship mapping for older children. The compilation was prepared by Linda O’Neill, Andrew Kitchenham, Tina Fraser and colleagues at UNBC, with referenced sources throughout.
