TLC's History • TLC's Value

• TLC is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization established in 1990.
• Began researching, field-testing and developing school-based, structured trauma intervention programs in 1992.
• Invited by Kuwait Social Development office in 1993 to train non-professionals to assist children and families traumatized by the Gulf War.
• Established a certification program for Trauma and Loss School Specialist in 1995; later added a clinical certification.
• As of 2007 over 3,000 professionals across the country use TLC intervention programs and resource materials for children 3-18 years of age.
• In Michigan there are 700 Trauma and Loss Specialists and 400 Trauma and Loss Consultants giving TLC a strong referral base.
• Since 1990 over 60,000 professionals have attended TLC trainings.
• Trauma-specific resource materials developed and distributed by TLC have been published in several countries. In 2004, 3,000 copies of Brave Bart: A Story for Grieving and Traumatized Children was translated in Timor and jointly published by the European Commission-Austrian Development Cooperative and Timor Aid, DKA-Austria.
• Following the September 11, 2001 attack on America, TLC donated and distributed 5,000 copies of Brave Bart to families of victims and families who had children directly exposed to the terror of that day in New York, New Jersey, Virginia, and Washington D. C. Many of our members worked in the Family Assistance Centers in New York, Washington, and Los Angeles.
• Yearly, hundreds of consultations are provided to schools and practitioners dealing with traumatic situations/traumatized children.
• Each month, over 40,000 individuals visit TLC's web site www.tlcinstitute.org
• In 2003-2004 juvenile court systems in three (3) counties in Georgia are using TLC's Trauma Intervention Program with juvenile offenders and researching outcomes to validate its value and initiate similar efforts in other counties.
• What Do I Tell My Child When I'm Scared, Too?; I Feel Better Now!, What Color is Your Hurt? Trauma Intervention Program, and Club USA are structured trauma-specific intervention programs and resource materials being used by well over 3,000 schools and agencies across the country.
• In 2001, Mellen Press LTD, New York published Structured Sensory Interventions for Children, Adolescents and Parents: Strategies to Alleviate Trauma (SITCAP). The book details TLC interventions, it's field-testing and research findings.
• TLC trainings are approved by the major national continuing education associations: American Psychological Association (APA), National Board of Certified Counselors (NBCC), Association for Play Therapy (APT), National Association of Social Workers (NASW); and many state boards: Michigan Nurses Association (MNA), California Board of Behavioral Sciences, Florida Board of Clinical Social Work, Marriage and Family Therapy, and Mental Health Counseling, Illinois Department of Professionals Regulation of Social Workers, Marriage and Family Therapy, and Counselors/Clinical Counselors, Ohio Counselor and Social Worker Board, Texas Board of Professionals Social Worker and Professional Counselors, Michigan State Board of Education.
• TLC courses are now approved as graduate level and extension level courses through Grand Valley State University, Michigan and the University of San Diego, California.
• TLC's director is a contributing author of Handbook of Art Therapy (2003), Guilford Press and Understanding Mass Violence: A Social Work Perspective (2004), Pearson Education, Allyn and Bacon.
• The school-based debriefing model developed by TLC is now the primary model of debriefing provided by thousands of schools across the country following exposure to traumatic incidents.
• Since 1995, TLC has brought international leaders in the field of childhood trauma to TLC trainings to present to attendees: Dr. Lenore Terr, Beverly James, Cathy Malchiodi, Dr. Alan Woolfelt, Dr. Ileana Gil, Dr. Linda Peterson, as well as those individuals who were primary responders after major tragedies, e.g. Anita Walker, Guidance Director, Oklahoma City Schools, after the bombing of the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, Barbara Ertl, after the school shooting/killing in Edinburough, PA, and Pierre LeMueller, Executive Director, New York Elementary School Principals Association. Many other highly valuable experiences have been shared by front-line professionals who faced tragedies that may not have received national media attention, but were none-the-less devastating for the children, families, schools, and communities struggling to endure and over-come traumatic incidents.

TLC Endorsements