Foster Care Training

As an internationally recognized authority on maltreatment, Dr. Perry’s work has focused on examining the long-term effects of trauma in children, adolescents, and adults, and has been instrumental in describing how traumatic events in childhood change the biology of the brain. Dr. Perry’s training will focus on his Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics (NMT), which is a developmentally sensitive, neurobiological-informed approach to clinical problem solving. NMT is not a specific therapeutic technique or intervention. It is an approach that integrates the core principles of neurodevelopment and traumatology to inform work with children, families and the communities in which they live.

This full day training will be an overview of the Neurosequential Model and will provide an understanding of the assessment process, which examines both past and present experiences and functioning. It includes a review of the history of adverse experiences and relational health factors that help create an estimate of the timing and severity of the developmental risk that may have influenced brain development. The NMT “mapping” process helps identify various areas in the brain that appear to have functional and developmental problems, in turn, this helps guide the selection and sequencing of developmentally sensitive interventions. These interventions are designed to replicate the normal sequence of development beginning with the lowest, most abnormally functioning part of the brain and moving sequentially.