What We Do

Very simply, when we are exposed to a life-threatening event that is out of our usual experience, we are likely to experience trauma. Our beliefs about safety may be shaken, our reactions may feel strange and “not like us”. While these reactions may be disturbing, we want you to know they are normal.

Trauma is at the core of a crime victim/survivor’s experience. Impacting that experience in a unique and innovative way is at the core of CTSS programs.

CTSS is committed to filling gaps in service for victims and survivors by:

  • Expanding the definition of victims to include victims of both reported and unreported crime

  • Providing service regardless of the type of crime

  • Extending the current commitment of “trauma-informed care” to include crime survivors themselves in obtaining education and skills to address the impact of trauma

  • Providing trauma support services that are victim/survivor based rather than offender-focused

  • Offering services without any time restriction related to when the crime was committed

  • Recognizing family members, community members, and service providers who are impacted by supporting and serving victims of crime

While we are engaged in outreach and trauma support/advocacy, our primary focus is :

  1. Education and Training

  2. Victim-Centered Offender-Sensitive Facilitated Dialogue

We make referrals to practitioners of other healing support services, such as:

  • Treatment/Therapy/Sessions with a Mental Health Professional

  • Bodywork – Massage/Reiki

  • Physical Exercise – Yoga

Crime Victims & Survivors

We are here to bear witness to you and your experiences. We offer practical skills for reducing the impact of trauma. This empowering approach increases your capacity to experience a state of well-being. We know it can be challenging to obtain appropriate compassionate support to help understand what you are experiencing. We know how important it is to recognize the normal biological responses to trauma.

There are different approaches offered in the therapeutic community (talk therapy, somatic experiencing, EMDR, etc.), and given that there are many ways to recover and heal from trauma it can be confusing to decide what avenue to pursue. Most importantly, research tells us that often it is a lack of support after experiencing trauma that results in more difficulty in recovery than the actual trauma itself. Without a nonjudgmental compassionate presence and witnessing, the wound can deepen and the scar can take longer to heal.

CTSS offers programs and services that fill this current gap in trauma support. We recognize that there is no one way to heal/recover from trauma and that there needs to be comprehensive approaches offered over time. As trauma specialists we offer:

  • Education/information on trauma – thereby creating “trauma-informed” crime survivors

  • Trauma Support Coaching

  • Victim-Centered Offender-Sensitive Facilitated Dialogue

Our trauma support provides a caring relationship that offers education and wellness skills that reduce the feelings of helplessness and powerlessness that are the core injury in experiencing trauma. Through our programs you will learn to recognize what is a traumatic trigger (the mind and body’s way of saying that the harm that was done might deserve a little more attention and care), the impact on the nervous system, and how to apply specific tools to experience well being once again.

We also make referrals to practitioners of other healing support services, as needed such as:

  • Treatment/Therapy/Sessions with a Mental Health Professional

  • Bodywork – Massage/Reiki

  • Physical Exercise – Yoga

We know how common it is to feel isolated, misunderstood, left out, and generally alone. Our trauma support offers information and skills to stabilize, an empathic presence to witness, as well as a companion to follow your lead with a commitment to respond to your identified needs.

CTSS has developed a curriculum and administers training that provides specific wellness skills that empower and build resiliency. This training incorporates Dr. Zinkin’s research and experience with some of the skills of the Community Resiliency Model developed by the Trauma Resource Institute in California.

When a crime is committed, a victim (harmed party) often has questions that only the offender (responsible party) can answer. Many survivors also need to explain directly to the person responsible the consequences of his/her actions to experience direct accountability and find a way to make sense of what happened to move forward. Many people who have caused harm are left with a need to express remorse, make amends, be seen as a human being, and help the person they harmed in some way.

To address these needs, CTSS offers community-based Victim-Centered Offender-Sensitive Facilitated Dialogue. Our Facilitated Dialogue Program, initiated by the victim, offers an opportunity for deeper information, understanding, and healing. Facilitated dialogue is a process-driven approach for the harmed party and responsible party to come together and have a conversation. It is less focused on outcomes; rather facilitated dialogue gives space and opportunity for the harmed party to be heard as well as to be able to express themselves and to ask for and receive the information that only the responsible party can give.

CTSS provides the safety and support that is essential for this conversation to take place.

Our trained facilitators are sensitive to victims’ needs, respond from a trauma-informed perspective, and keep the process victim/survivor-centered. Through the presence of a caring and compassionate third party, people who have been harmed and people responsible for the harm experience healing and accountability in the involuntary relationship created when a crime is committed.

CTSS’s experience providing Victim-Centered Offender-Sensitive Facilitated Dialogue has demonstrated the positive impacts that can occur through this process. The connection with the person responsible for the harm provides an experience that often results in deep healing for victims/survivors. Through this deeper understanding of the harm they caused, responsible parties feel more accountable, resulting in healing and a stronger commitment to change.

Family Members of Victims & Survivors

We know it can be very difficult to be alongside loved ones who have experienced harm. We also know how important it is that crime survivors be responded to with as much care and support as possible. In order to provide this, we know family members of victims and survivors need care and support as well.

CTSS offers programs and services for family members to help them provide support for crime survivors. We recognize that there is no one way to heal/recover from trauma and that there needs to be comprehensive approaches offered over time. As trauma specialists, we offer:

  • Education/information on trauma – thereby creating “trauma-informed” crime survivors

  • Trauma Support Coaching

  • Victim-Centered Offender-Sensitive Facilitated Dialogue

Our trauma support provides a caring relationship that offers education and wellness skills that reduce the feelings of helplessness and powerlessness that are the core injury in experiencing trauma. Through our programs families of crime survivors will learn to recognize what is a traumatic trigger (the mind and body’s way of saying that the harm that was done might deserve a little more attention and care), the impact on the nervous system, and how to apply specific tools to experience well being once again. 

CTSS has developed the curriculum and administers a training that provides specific wellness skills that empower and build resiliency in survivors. This training incorporates Dr. Zinkin’s research and experience, with some of the skills of the Community Resiliency Model developed by the Trauma Resource Institute in California.

Youth & Families Services 

Focus Groups
Group dynamics include specific topics that impact today’s youth. Our youth are facing issues daily. It’s our goal to create a positive, comfortable environment for them to talk about what they may be going through. 

Youth Advocacy & Case Management 
The Center for Trauma Support Services provides youth with one-tier case management. Staff act as advocates and assists youth in connecting with service providers and programs to help them address issues they may be facing. Contact is made with the youth in the home, school, or social settings to ensure they understand that they have around-the-clock support. 

Intervention & Prevention 
Intervention and prevention services are provided to deter youth from at-risk behaviors. This is done through consistent interaction at school and/or in the community while attending sporting and social events. Activities (i.e. fishing, camping, and field trips) are offered as incentives for successful participation in the program. These trips are to get the youth to see new things outside of the city limits. 

Employment 
Assistance with job searches, resume writing, obtaining state-issued identification, and job readiness classes is available for youth that have a less-than-favorable criminal history. 

Other Services 
We provide connections to resources relating to emergency housing, rental assistance, job and life skill training, health and wellness education, domestic violence awareness, conflict resolution, goal setting, alcohol and drug abuse prevention, peer support groups, and gang prevention.

Professionals

We thank direct service providers for the work you do to support trauma survivors. CTSS recognizes how critical it is that you learn ways to take good care of yourself in order to continue this important work.

CTSS has developed a curriculum and administers training that provides specific wellness skills that empower and build resiliency in professionals, and educates participants to create trauma-informed communities. This training incorporates Dr. Zinkin’s research and experience, with some of the skills of the Community Resiliency Model developed by the Trauma Resource Institute in California.

This training can be offered in half-day, full-day, or 2-day formats depending on the needs of the participants.

The training is appropriate for a wide array of individuals and descriptions of experiences and benefits from those attending our trainings are:

  • Crime survivors attending these trainings have learned more about what they’ve experienced, and specific skills to build their resiliency and well-being.

  • Inmates at the Oregon State Penitentiary found this training informative and accessible for managing their own stress reactions, which led to improved behavior. 

  • Portland State University staff and students who participated in the training commented that they were not only “trauma-informed” about others but that the focus on using trauma resiliency skills for their own self-care was uniquely transformative and sorely needed.

  • Law-enforcement officers, often a difficult population to reach in training, have found Dr. Zinkin’s unique style approachable and the information accessible.

In our trainings for professionals working with trauma survivors, we stress that in addition to being “trauma-informed,” they can build resiliency by utilizing similar approaches in their work.