Why It Matters

Kendra founded UpTIC after working with countless youth who, in spite of their trauma, longed for healing and connection with others. The desire is to bring healing to future generations, one child at a time. This cannot be done alone. UpTIC offers hope for educators, families, parents, and agencies to foster resilience in the children they serve by raising awareness of trauma’s impact and providing strategies for healing.

What Is Trauma

Trauma is a stressful event that a person experiences, leaving a lasting, negative impact on the person’s stress response system. Trauma can be a multitude of situations or events but is unique to each person in how their brain and body interpret the event(s). The body’s stress response system serves to protect us. However, trauma disrupts how a person interprets the world around them, causing the stress response system to be overactive.

The impact of trauma can cause deficits in how children relate to others, learn, behave, and manage emotions. It can negatively impact school functioning, motivation, and academic performance. Trauma can impair higher-level thinking and problem-solving.

Attachment, simply put, is a bond created through repeated experiences with a caregiver. Trauma can lead to children having disrupted attachment, making it challenging and scary for children to trust adults.

Traditional discipline strategies in schools and homes do not consider the effects of trauma. Since trauma has disrupted a child’s usual way of functioning, discipline needs to be viewed through a trauma-informed lens. Shifting one’s perspective on what daily structures and procedures look like will help meet the biological/neurological needs of children impacted by trauma. Trauma-informed practices will provide opportunities for children to learn the skills that are lacking, slowly eliminating unwanted behavior altogether.

What Now

UpTIC is committed to helping you understand the biological impact of trauma and learn approaches that will meet your student’s or child’s needs. UpTIC will work with you to implement proactive strategies for regulation and relationships, reducing the time spent managing unwanted behavior. 

     -Teachers will have more time to teach. 
     -Administrators will have more time to oversee instruction.
     -Parents will have more time for fun family activities.