What is TBRI??

Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI®):
A systematic approach to complex developmental trauma.
{Marythemom: For my brief review of Karyn Purvis developer of TBRI, see this post.}

Dr. Purvis gives an overview lecture of Trust-Based Relational Intervention®. TBRI® is an attachment-based, trauma-informed intervention that is designed to meet the complex needs of vulnerable children. TBRI® uses Empowering Principles to address physical needs, Connecting Principles for attachment needs, and Correcting Principles to disarm fear-based behaviors. While the intervention is based on years of attachment, sensory processing, and neuroscience research, the heartbeat of TBRI® is connection.

Guest Post By: Trauma Mama - Lori Van Roo
In October of 2013, my husband and I were at the end of our rope with our oldest child (adopted from foster care). By this time, he had have five mental health hospitalizations and his mental health care team recommended several times placement into a residential treatment center (RTC), which was not covered by traditional Medicaid. In addition, my husband and I had concerns over placement into an RTC, as it did not foster attachment and love in our child’s eyes. His biological mother always pushed him to the side, and favored his younger brother (also adopted by our family) who has type 1 diabetes.

TBRI®  is more of a parenting intervention for the adults. It has helped my husband and I make a 180 degree change in our home. Now we can tell our kids, "No" or give an alternative answer without a meltdown and a 2 year old tantrum out of our 12 yr old.

Here is the website on it: http://child.tcu.edu/about-us/tbri/

What I have learned the most is that we as parents of "children from hard places" need to have choices so that they still feel in control. This was huge because my 12 yr old would want to eat 1/2 a chocolate cake at 8 PM right before bed and I would tell him no and we would have 2 hrs of "I hate you, your not my real mom, I wish you were dead, I wish you didn't adopt me, etc.” I'm sure you get the picture of the tantrum!

First read chapter 4 from the book The Connected Child by Karyn Purvis. If you do not have the book and just want the chapter on disarming fear, here it is

http://empoweredtoconnect.org/wp-content/…/CTC-Chapter-4.pdf

The basic premise of TBRI®  is you want to fill up the "yes" bank as much as possible. 
So you say yes to everything as much as possible so that when you have to say no, or give a compromise there isn't a power struggle.

The other biggest thing is that our kids need to eat every 2 hrs. And have high protein snacks available like hard boiled eggs, cheese, etc. So our normal day is breakfast, 2 hrs later snack, 2 hrs later, lunch, 2 hr later, snack, 2 hrs dinner, 2 hrs snack. Do we follow this to a T every day? No, not at all! Most important is the snack prior to bed. As we all know, most of our kids have food dependency issues. Making sure that they get a snack prior to bed is critical to aid in breaking this dependency. (If you can -- I have a child with type 1 diabetes, so it's hard)

The hard part is to find a professional who is:

1. Trained in TBRI 
2. Who practices doing it. 

Here is a list off of TCU's website of professionals who have taking the professional's training class and are certified professionals in TBRI. http://child.tcu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/2016.02.10-TBRI-Practitioners.pdf

My oldest (15) who has had 9 mental health hospitalizations in 2 yrs, now calls me Mom, says he loves me, helps around the house, walks the dogs, grades are going up, and is down from six medications to two. He hasn't had a mental health hospitalization in a year.

YouTube videos from TCU on TBRI® :

• Introduction to TBRI®  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vjVpRffgHQ
• TBRI® An Overview: Putting the Pieces Togetherhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T43zJDgTNPA

Opinions within this post are not those of Texas Christian University, but those of fellow Trauma Momma, Lori Van Roo. If you have any questions please feel to contact her via Facebook.

{Marythemom: For my brief review of Karyn Purvis developer of TBRI®, see this post.}