At the core of supporting a youth in your care is understanding their history and story, as we have explored in the first Parenting Teens trainings. Part 5 and Part 6 are an in-depth look at understanding and managing challenging behaviors.

This training focuses on the strategies that come into play in everyday situations. The session begins with an evaluation of your own emotional responses to posed situations, with the intent of leading you through coping skills that will help you manage those emotions in critical times. You will then look at ways to respond to a youth’s rejecting, testing and challenging behaviors, and ways trauma factors into those situations. The focus of this section is that strong relationships are essential, and nurturing attachment plays a key role in parenting.

A large portion of this course focuses on positive behavior management strategies, grounded in the idea that the focus of trauma-informed parenting is teaching skills not punishing for behaviors that aren’t intentional. You will learn a wide variety of techniques that will help you respond effectively in challenging situations.

Finally, you will be led through trouble-shooting of a potential relationship under stress, and will learn indicators of that. This is important because positive relationships are foundational to empowering youth. Something as simple as conversation can do a lot to build trust and safety.

Each part should be taken in order.