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square bulletTraining for Change

September 19, 2019

From Dr. Alisha Moreland, MD, ABPN, ABMS, Executive Director, OHSU Avel Gordly Center for Healing, Assistant Professor, OHSU School of Medicine

This book offers an integrated training and coaching system to facilitate change in systems (education, healthcare, and juvenile justice) by emphasizing brain development, cultural responsivity, and trauma-informed practices. The book provides a comprehensive overview of the neurobiology of fear, brain development, trauma, substance use, mental health, structural bias, and environmental factors that pose a threat to healthy brain development. Equally, it employs practical applications/recommendations and case examples that help solidify understanding of key concepts. Each chapter begins with a set of objectives and interactive exercises that builds on the next, thoughtfully challenging the reader (and giving specific, practical ways for the reader) to apply the information presented with the goal of “change.” The text is written from the perspective of a trauma-informed addiction psychiatrist who has effectively facilitated systems change.

Topics featured in this book include:

  • Common threats to healthy brain development.
  • The neurobiology of trauma.
  • Application of trauma-informed practices and approaches.
  • Cannabis and its impact on the brain.
  • Labeling theory and implicit bias.
  • The connection between fear and trauma.
  • Rehabilitation versus habilitation.
  • Stress management through mindfulness.

Training for Change: Transforming Systems to be Trauma-Informed, Culturally Responsive, and Neuroscientifically Focused will be of interest to graduate and advanced undergraduate students and researchers in the fields of cognitive psychology, criminology, public health, and child and adolescent development as well as parents, teachers, judges, attorneys, and preventative medicine and pediatric providers.