A Treasure Box for Creating Trauma-Informed Organizations

Think about your life for a minute. Along the way, you have learned a great deal - formally and informally, cognitively and emotionally. Now imagine that you were somehow able to take everything you have learned, expressed in words and images, and then put it all into a very large box. Of course, it would need to be a very big box and such a thing would be almost impossible to organize. So, imagine now that you found a way to organize all of it so you could immediately draw upon that knowledge and convey it to other people. That is what Dr. Karen Treisman has done with these two volumes.

Dr. Karen Treisman is a sensitive, knowledgeable, creative clinician and teacher. She is an artist who is able to integrate two distinctly different ways of knowing, given our divided brains, and in doing so produces tools that are easy to understand and easy to use. This new toolbox is precisely that - a set of powerful and imaginative tools that help individuals and organizations understand what has gone wrong for the people in their care and how to make it right. But it also offers tools for everyone who works within those organizations to better understand themselves and what we need to do to bring about healthier treatment environments and healthier systems.

-- Sandra L. Bloom, M.D., Associate Professor, Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University

This is such an exciting and much-needed contribution to the field of trauma-informed care. Recognizing that this work must be done at systemic, organizational, community, and interpersonal levels can be overwhelming. However, to only focus in one area is insufficient. Dr. Treisman's book demonstrates the importance and interconnectedness of the multiple layers and levels of this work in a way that is accessible and inspiring. The illustrations and practical applications offer the small steps to the big changes needed to create environments where all people can flourish.

For those beginning in this work of creating Trauma, Adversity, and Culturally informed systems you could not have a better resource to start the journey. Dr. Treisman demonstrates how important and comprehensive this work is while offering practical (multisensory and creative) steps for change. For those who have been doing this work I hope you experience the validation, inspiration, and connectedness I did through the teachings, illustrations, and personal narratives.

-- Mandy Davis, LCSW, PhD, Director of Trauma Informed Oregon, and Associate Professor of Practice, School of Social Work, Portland State University
In keeping with her ground-breaking role in integrating the creative arts into the treatment of trauma, Dr. Karen Treisman has done it again. Her new two-volume work, 'A Treasure Box for Creating Trauma-Informed Organizations', is a comprehensive resource for organizations. This highly practical and accessible guide reflects her deep clinical and organizational understanding of trauma and is enhanced by her wonderful creative talent. This impressive resource is a welcomed gift to the field and a major contribution! -- Stephanie S. Covington, Ph.D., Author of 'Healing Trauma, Exploring Trauma, Beyond Trauma', Center for Gender & Justice, La Jolla, Califo