A Preliminary Trauma-Informed Guide for School-Based Occupational Therapists and Other Disciplines to Address Students that have Experienced Trauma

This doctoral capstone experience focused on gaining expertise in trauma-informed and trauma-specific care to address the needs of school-aged children who had experienced psychological trauma. One of the objectives of this capstone project was to increase the understanding of acute, chronic, and complex trauma and the occupational impact that trauma could have on children within the school system. Existing research supported the role of occupational therapists in integrating trauma-informed care into practice to address trauma-related symptoms that interfered with rest, sleep, education, play, social participation, behavior, emotional regulation, sensory processing, and overall health and well-being. As revealed in the literature review, there was no occupational therapy-specific guideline that existed for integrating trauma-informed care into practice. To address this gap, this doctoral capstone project, “A Preliminary Trauma-Informed Guide for School-Based Occupational Therapists to Address the Needs of Students Who Experienced Trauma,” was developed to meet this need and add to the body of knowledge. This project took place at Fort Worth Independent School District (FWISD), where I educated the occupational therapy staff on trauma's impact on occupations and created a guide for them to integrate trauma-informed principles and interventions into their practices to address trauma and improve occupational performance and well-being.