Welcome!
The Rural Child Trauma Training Institute builds on Alaska Behavioral Health’s Alaska Advanced Trauma Training Institute, with a focus on providing complex trauma informed care for children living in both rural and urban communities. This year’s sessions will provide curriculum from the Complex Trauma Training Consortium, with one session per day spread out over 4 days to fit into busy lives! Register for one or more sessions.
August 28 @ 9am: Domains of Impact with Sarah Pype, LCSW
This module explores the types of chronic trauma, diagnoses, and outcomes, including the effects of complex trauma exposure in children. Eight domains of complex trauma will be discussed in depth: affect regulation, behavioral control, physical health, cognition, dissociation, self-concept, attachment, and future orientation.
August 29 @ 9am: The Students We Misunderstand; Complex Trauma, Schools, and Learning with Amanda Nalewaja, LCSW
This module illustrates considerations specific to supporting students who have been impacted by complex trauma. Discussion will include how complex trauma can impact students’ ability to learn and manage triggers throughout the school day. Participants will then review the building-blocks of trauma-informed classrooms and practical strategies for reframing and effectively responding to challenging behaviors in the moment– shifting mindset from “What’s wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?”
September 9 @ 11am: The Care Behind the Care: Supporting Caregivers of Children with Complex Trauma with Amanda Nalewaja, LCSW
This module emphasizes the importance of addressing caregiver needs and skills when working with childhood trauma. It includes techniques for engagement with client caregivers and outlines strategies for guiding clients on regulation, attunement, and effective responses to youth behavior.
September 10 @ 12: Selecting the Complex Trauma Evidence Based Practice Treatment Model that is the Best Fit with Brandi Salvatore, LCSW
This training’s purpose is to provide an overview of treatment models which are effective in the treatment of complex trauma for youth and adults. In addition to introducing various treatment models, the module will touch upon considerations for selecting treatment that is the best fit for a client and/or their family.
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The Complex Trauma Training Consortium (CTTC) is a national trainer-training and workforce development initiative designed to establish sustainable local expertise in complex trauma understanding, assessment, and treatment across all U.S. states and territories, Washington, D.C., and the four largest metropolitan areas.
Additional information about the consortium can be found here.
Presenters
Sarah Pype, LCSW
Sarah Pype, LCSW, CTTC Trainer
Amanda Nalewaja, LCSW
Amanda Nalewaja, LCSW, CTTC Trainer
Brandi Salvatore
Brandi Salvatore, LCSW, CTTC Trainer
Continuing Education
The State of Alaska Board of Social Work Examiners and the State of Alaska Board of Professional Counselors no longer offer pre-approvals for continuing education courses or events. Training courses offered in the 2026 Rural Child Trauma Institute meet statutory requirements for continuing education for both professions. We will provide certificates of attendance for each session attended and other necessary information for attendees to submit to their licensing board for CEU’s.
Professional Counselor regulation 12 AAC 62.320. (a) and (3).
Social Worker regulation 12 AAC 18.220. (b) and (5).
Conference Questions?
Contact our training team at: trainingteam@akbh.org
Past Institutes
Follow the links below to view conference and speaker information from past Rural Child Trauma Training Institutes:
