Understanding & Addressing Complex Trauma and Loss In Childhood (Virtual)
Event Date: 09/05/2025
Event Time: 08:30 AM - 04:30 PM
Event Type: Live Virtual
Total CE Credits: 5.5
Clinical Hours: 5.5
General Admission: $0 CE Cost: $55
You must login to register for this event.
Description
In this day long workshop on trauma responsive care, we will strengthen our understanding of what complex trauma looks like in children who have been separated from the parents they were born to, and the impact on their bio-psycho-social development throughout childhood and adolescence. We’ll take a look at how the experience of foster care, adoption or being raised by relatives can impact overall wellbeing and the critical importance of our roles in providing specialized treatment and parenting support. By targeting the intersection of interpersonal trauma and pronounced loss, we’ll practice with meaningful strategies for professionals and parents to meet children’s needs and to help them onto a meaningful road of healing.
Appropriate audiences: Those who care professionally or personally for children who have been adopted, are in foster care or being raised by relatives.
Objectives:
- Understand the impact of trauma and loss on child development.
- Identify behavioral and developmental manifestations of complex trauma and loss in children and adolescents.
- Explore meaningful, empowering interventions for healing.
Speaker & Bio
Laura Ornelas
Laura Ornelas is a licensed clinical social worker who has been working in foster care and adoption for 30 years. Originally immersed in child placement in both public and private adoptions in Los Angeles, Laura has been instrumental in the startup of multiple programs throughout California. For nearly a decade, Laura served as the Regional Director of Mental Health Services for Kinship Center, during which time she designed and oversaw specialty mental health clinics for children who had been adopted and/or were being raised by kinship caregivers. Having studied with the leaders in attachment and trauma, she created a powerful clinical model rooted in relationship-based healing and remains passionate about broadening collective understanding of children’s development to include loss, trauma, attachment and intersecting identities. Laura educates parents and professionals across the country, has authored numerous curricula and published works on the effects of ruptures in relationships and best practices, and was recently the lead writer for the federally funded NTDC, the National Training and Development Curriculum for foster and adoptive parents. In 2022, Laura was asked to join the full-time team at the Center for Adoption Support and Education (C.A.S.E) where she is currently launching the Academy of Elevating Clinical Practice in Permanency for mental health professionals.
Itinerary
8:30-9:00 Check-In
9:00-9:10 Welcome and Introductions
9:10-10:30 Training Session 1: Understanding the Childhood Brain
10:30-10:45 Break
10:45-12:00 Training Session 2: Understanding Complex Childhood Trauma
12:00-1:15 Lunch (Provided)
1:15-2:45 Training Session 3: Loss and Trauma Implications on the Psycho-Social Development
2:45-3:00 Break
3:00-4:15 Training Time 4: Our Role as Caregivers/Support Systems
4:15-4:30 Closing remarks
