At the Center for Optimal Brain Integration® (COBI), we specialize in both virtual, in-person and self-paced professional development.  Training may be designed to meet the unique needs of your organization, no matter the size. We offer services that deliver training through multiple pathways and will partner in developing a unique and individualized plan for you and/or your system of care. 

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The most popular series to start with is:

Module 100, 200, and 300 

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Core Training Modules: 

Participants learn about foundational content and strategies for understanding trauma and resilience.

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Going Deeper Training Modules:

Neuroscience and reinforcement literature shows that for new skills, we learn better by doing, and through trial and error than by merely watching. Studies have shown that those who get to practice a new skill or behavior engage the habit system part of their brain and master the behavior better. Those who only watch and observe don't engage the habit part of their brain.  Going deeper modules create training environments that allow participants to "practice" what they learned in the core foundational trauma-responsive training.

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Spotlight Modules:

Participants learn about one key concept or strategy included in one of the Core trainings. There are several examples of possible Spotlight Topics found on our Onsite, Virtual and Self-Paced links (click below). We can also create a Spotlight based on your program’s specific interests and needs.

 

GUIDING PRINCIPLES for our TRAINING:

“Understand the realities of trauma. Intentionally promote resilience, healing and wellness.”

 

“Together, strengthening connections, resilience and hope.” 

 

“Every door leads to learning in community.”

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Contact us and together we will design a service delivery that fits your individual and organizational needs.​

• Training Virtually, Asynchronously, Self-Paced or Onsite 

• Coaching to Practice and Implementation 

• Technical Assistance

• Consultation

• Authorization/Certification for Coaches and Trainers in Trauma-Responsive Modules 

• Communities of Practices

• Reflective/Resilience Groups

• Resources to Build Organizational Systems to Become Trauma Responsive

• Learning and Reflecting Book Clubs

• Strategic Planning

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'Do No Harm' Training Guidelines 

• We only offer training with skilled and authorized trainers who can engage participants toward windows of tolerance, not lead them to dysregulation. 

• We create a space of safety, engaging interactions and skilled facilitation using adult learning principles.

• We promote nurturing and attuned connections.

• We strive to build a training environment that is safe and predictable. 

• We foster a community with safety to express feelings and to invite others to share their experiences, stories and narratives.

• We use protocols where we learn to listen to stories with different perspectives and begin to make visible values, perceptions, beliefs, assumptions and bias.  

• We believe that top down and adult lead lecture does not offer guidance to challenge world views. 

• We won’t use technology that perpetuates the banking model of learning (one directional sharing of knowledge).  

• We co-construct meaning and thinking partnerships during our training and apply to practice.  

• We strive to build capacity for people to learn, to cope, thrive, build resilience, heal in community, cultivate leadership skills.  

• We scaffold next steps to build capacity and practices that lead to healing and resilience for adults and children.

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Adult Learning Principles

Building on the principles described above, adult learning is most successful when it is a learner driven process in which adults are supported to have control and agency in their own learning process. Adult learners’ interests, background experiences and professional goals inform learning objectives, curricula, and instructional approaches and adults participate in constructing the goals that guide their learning and engage in the process of continually assessing their progress related to these goals. Adult learners are supported to relate new ideas and content to their personal experiences and to draw on what they know from their real-world contexts and personal experiences to engage in authentic problem-solving.

 

Research suggests that adults learn most effectively through experiential learning. Specifically, understanding of new information is strengthened when adult learners can connect what they have learned from their current experiences to what they learned in the past as well as when they can imagine possible applications of the ideas for their future practice. Additionally, supporting adults to learn new information in a variety of interactive formats is a cornerstone of experiential learning. Experiential learning recognizes the specific expertise and experiences of adult learners as valuable resources to draw upon to enhance the learning process (e.g., adults’ experiences can be included as stories or examples shared in the curriculum, and authentic dilemmas adults have experienced in their jobs can be discussed and analyzed in a group).

 

Adult learning is supported in contexts that involve peer learning and collaboration. Adult learners construct meanings through their interactions with others. Research highlights that learning is inherently a social process, not an individual passive phenomenon that takes place inside our minds. Adult learning is enhanced when adults develop relationships with others that are built on a foundation of trust so they feel safe to take risks in learning new ideas and skills. When adults work in environments where they are supported to collaborate with their colleagues, they can build trusting relationships that enhance their ability to teach and learn from one another. Opportunities that support professionals to reflect on their practice in collaboration with others offer a rich context for adult learning. This is seen in a wide range of adult learning experiences, in particular, participation in learning communities where adults dialogue together about their practice, sharing ideas and exploring solutions to the complex dilemmas they face in their professional work.

 

Self-reflection is an important skill to support adult learning and involves the examination of personal assumptions, values, and beliefs. As adults develop skills in self-reflection, they strengthen their awareness of how they come to know what they know, including an awareness of the specific cultural and contextual experiences that inform how they understand and make meaning. Adult learners just beginning to use reflective thinking may not engage in questioning their assumptions but as their reflective skills develop, they begin to see knowledge as contextual, subjective, influenced by cultural assumptions and presuppositions, constructed by each individual, and supported through the process of inquiry and reflection.