Understanding Fight, Flight, Freeze & Fawn Responses for System Involved Youth, with a Focus on Fawn

Nancy Acosta & Kwonta Phatiphong

Training Description

Given the amount of trauma system involved youth and families have experienced, it’s crucial for social service providers and others who support system involved youth to understand common trauma responses and how they may manifest. When we don’t understand this information, we often respond with judgement and punishment. Although fight, flight, and freeze are more commonly known, there is now acknowledgment of the fawn response. This training will provide an overview of the four trauma stress responses, how they manifest and how to support system-involved youth who may be experiencing them. Since the fawn trauma response is new for many, we will focus on ways it manifests. One common way is people pleasing. The training will provide an overview of people pleasing and strategies to support system-involved youth to develop healthier interactions with others.

Learning Objectives

· Identify at least one characteristic of the fawn response

· Identify at least one strategy to support system-involved youth stuck in the freeze trauma response

· Identify at least 1 strategy to support system-involved youth with people pleasing tendencies

Agenda

10:00-10:15am  Introduction

10:15-11:30am  Trauma response overview part 1

· Autonomic nervous system

· Survival mode

· Fight, flight and freeze

· Tonic immobility

· Fawn defined

11:30-11:45am  Break (CE hours will not be offered for this time)

11:45am-1:00pm  Trauma response overview part 2

· Fawn examples

· Can trauma responses be healthy?

· Healthy and unhealthy aspects of fight

· Healthy and unhealthy aspects of flight

· Healthy and unhealthy aspects of freeze

1:00-2:00pm  Lunch (CE hours will not be offered for this time)

2:00-3:30pm  Freeze and fawn

· Supporting clients stuck in freeze

· Healthy and unhealthy aspects of fawn

· Fawning and people pleasing part 1

· Fawning and people pleasing part 2

· People pleasing quiz

· Signs of people pleasing

3:30-3:45pm  Break (CE hours will not be offered for this time)

3:45-4:45pm  Fawn

· Risk factors for people pleasing

· People pleasing mindset

· Consequences of fawning/people pleasing

· Supporting system involved youth who fawn

4:45-5:00pm Closing

Meet Our Trainer

Nancy Acosta is a bilingual therapist who has 7 years of experience working with trauma at a sexual assault center. She has provided services to children and adults in various settings including outpatient community mental health centers, college counseling centers, crisis centers, and in an integrated behavioral health setting. She has completed training in Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing Therapy as well as Cognitive Processing Therapy. She has experience providing training and supervision to doctoral level graduate students in trauma related topics including crisis intervention, vicarious trauma, and grounding techniques. In addition to developing a training manual for a student training program at a rape and crisis center, she also has experience supervising practicum students and providing support to staff and advocates. Nancy has experience working as a behavioral health consultant with multidisciplinary staff to improve recognition, treatment and management of behavioral problems and conditions.

Kwonta Phatiphong is  a Registered Psychological Associate with 6 years of counseling experience in clinical and social service settings. Experienced in supporting trauma and crisis, substance abuse, learning disabled, homeless, and low and high functioning client populations. Trained in substance abuse, Seeking Safety, TF-CBT, Motivational Interview, Crisis Prevention Intervention, Trauma Resiliency Model, and psychological assessments.

This course meets the qualifications for (5.5) BBS CE hours for LCSWs, LMFTs, LPCCs, and LEPs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences & is provided by Fred Finch Youth Center, CAMFT Provider #045295.