Understanding and Addressing Loneliness with System-Involved Youth

Brooke Hailey, PhD, LMFT

Training Description

This training explores the experience of loneliness among system-involved youth, focusing on how trauma, disrupted attachment, placement instability, and identity development contribute to social and emotional isolation. Participants will examine the neurobiological, relational, and behavioral impacts of loneliness and how it may present in system-involved youth as withdrawal, aggression, or emotional numbing . Through interactive discussion, case examples, and reflective activities, participants will build practical strategies to identify loneliness and respond with connection-focused, trauma-informed strategies that strengthen engagement and resilience in foster and system-involved youth.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this training, participants will be able to:

• Identify at least 5 behavioral and emotional indicators of loneliness in system-involved youth and distinguish them from defiance or disengagement.