<i>Risking Connection</i>

Abstract

Abstract Risking Connection, a mental health training curriculum, empowers clinicians, counselors and other direct-service providers to respond to the complex needs of trauma survivors within the framework of growth-promoting relationships. The program enhances success by teaching providers to notice and use their own reactions to working with traumatized individuals and to attend to their own self-care, with a focus on empowerment, collaboration, hope, and optimism. Building on construc-tivist self-development theory (CSDT), Risking Connection teaches the philosophy of relational therapy in the context of accessible, experiential learning, enabling its ready transfer into practice. This paper will discuss how, by modeling the model, collaborative relationships have nurtured the development, application, and follow-up of Risking Connection.