How the Center on Trauma and Adversity is pioneering new approaches that nurture healing and resilience—in classrooms, on campus and in communities across the country
By Daniel Robison
Ruth Bieber-Stanley understands the power of a steady, supportive presence.
Growing up in New Mexico, and during summers in college, she worked with kids in camps and after-school programs—experiences that deepened her commitment to youth and helped her see the impact that empathetic mentors can have on young lives.
Now, as a second-year Master of Social Work (MSW) student at at Case Western Reserve University’s Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, she’s training to become that guiding figure for others: a therapist dedicated to helping youth and teens overcome trauma.
Trauma, a severe form of adversity, is often deeply distressing, sometimes life-threatening, and can leave lasting impacts on mental and emotional well-being. It can be an intense, disruptive experience that shapes a person’s inner world in ways that can linger long after the event itself.
For Bieber-Stanley, this path is personal. As a teenager, she faced her own difficult period, a time when the encouragement of a mental health professional helped her find strength and understanding.
“A therapist really helped me through a rough time,” she said. “That experience inspired me to enter the field; it made me want to be that support for someone else.”
Her drive to make a difference comes at a crucial time: Nearly 50% of all mental health conditions emerge by age 14, and around 75% by age 24, according to recent figures from the National Institute of Mental Health.
“Our teenage years are such an important period,” said Bieber-Stanley. “It’s a time when you can really intervene, honor someone’s agency and help them develop skills that can lead to a happy, healthy adulthood.”
Seeking a trauma-informed approach to her work, she chose the Mandel School, where a recently introduced certificate in trauma-informed care aligned perfectly with her goals.
Bieber-Stanley’s view mirrors a growing shift in mental health: an understanding of trauma not as an isolated experience but as a pervasive force affecting behavior, relationships, and personal development. Trauma-informed care—an approach grounded in empathy, safety and strategies to prevent re-traumatization—has become a guiding principle for the Mandel School’s work on trauma and adversity.
Since its founding in 2018, the trauma center has become a hub for specialized courses, fellowships, and training certificates to equip future social workers with skills to support trauma-affected clients and communities.
“Our students see that we not only have a responsibility as social workers to acknowledge the presence of trauma,” said Megan Holmes, PhD, professor of social work at the Mandel School, “we also have a responsibility to discover new knowledge and practices that promote healing and connect people to help.”
In research, faculty have also woven these principles into a range of studies and community initiatives.
“When we work together,” said Holmes, co-founding director of the trauma center, “we can make collective progress rather than isolated efforts.”
Pioneering trauma solutions
In the trauma center’s first six years, several of its initiatives have attracted national attention, helping shape best practices and advancing the field.
For instance, in a project that’s the first of its kind in the country, Mandel School faculty trained nearly 300 Cleveland recreation center staff—from desk workers to custodians—to recognize and address trauma. Rotating teams of social workers and counselors also provide direct support to patrons of all ages. Research from the project’s first phase shows that this approach has increased positive interactions at the centers, particularly among youth and those impacted by violence.
Targeting trauma “on three fronts”—education, community outreach and research—is what sets the trauma center apart among academic institutions, said Amy Korsch-Williams (SAS ’04), senior instructor at the Mandel School and trauma center faculty affiliate.
“This work has never been more critical,” she said, pointing to the staggering global reach of trauma. Research shows that 61% of adults report at least one adverse childhood experience (ACE), such as abuse, neglect or household dysfunction. Often, trauma registers deeply in both brain and body and is linked to long-term health risks—including heart disease, substance abuse and mental health struggles.
With six or more ACEs, a person’s lifespan may be shortened by up to 20 years, and with four or more, the risk of suicide increases fourteenfold.
At the Mandel School, social work students are taught to see trauma as “a normal human response to abnormal events—experiences that can be terrifying, overwhelming and deeply violating,” Korsch-Williams explained.
Though the effects of trauma can be severe, she emphasizes the potential of trauma-informed strategies to restore a sense of safety, empowerment and self-worth.
“Trauma is one of the most treatable conditions there is—and everyone deserves opportunities to heal,” Korsch-Williams said. “It affects everyone, and we’re working to make spaces safer and supportive for all.”
Centering empathy
A core principle of trauma-informed care is a commitment to inclusion. This applies even in unexpected places, and to individuals who may seem far removed from the concept of vulnerability—for example, men on probation for assaulting women.
Laura Voith, PhD, led a research team at the Mandel School in conducting a study on participants in Cuyahoga County’s largest court mandated batterer intervention program. Their study examined how trauma shaped these men’s lives and how a trauma-informed approach might improve their outcomes.
“We learned firsthand the extent of trauma many of these men endured,” said Voith, an associate professor at the Mandel School. “They’re often isolated, deeply stigmatized and pushed to society’s edges. Conducting this research required us to handle their stories with care and respect.”
Traditional research methods often overlook the trauma and marginalization participants face, a limitation Voith’s team recognized. They understood that standard approaches—such as rigid surveys or detached interviews—could risk re-traumatizing participants or fail to capture their full experiences.
“Ethically, we wanted to acknowledge the complexity of working with this population,” Voith said.
“When research is purely extractive—focused only on data collection or publications—it’s less meaningful for the people it can benefit the most.”
— Tyrone Hamler, PhD (GRS ’23, social welfare)
This sensitivity to trauma transformed the researchers’ methodology. Rather than simply collecting data, they focused on building trust, a process they found essential to gaining honest and comprehensive responses. As they built relationships with the men in the program, they also recognized the need for a deeper shift in how academic research engages communities that are often underserved.
“There’s frequently a disconnect between the research process and the communities we work with,” said Tyrone Hamler, PhD (GRS ’23, social welfare), who helped conduct the research as a graduate student and now serves as an assistant professor at the University of Denver. “When research is purely extractive—focused only on data collection or publications—it’s less meaningful for the people it can benefit the most.”
To address this challenge, Voith’s team designed a trauma-informed framework that shaped every part of the study. Rather than relying on traditional methods, they prioritized collaboration, viewing participants as active partners. This approach required more thoughtful research practices, such as giving participants advance notice before discussing sensitive topics.
“For some men, questions about not working felt like a blow to their identity as providers,” Voith said. “Small adjustments, like alerting them ahead of time, helped build trust.”
The study—published in Social Work Research in 2020—has attracted widespread attention for its methodology. It’s led to training requests on the trauma-informed framework from organizations such as the Urban Institute and has been cited in studies in diverse fields, including in healthcare and computer science.
What’s more, the Mandel School research team also found the methods improved the quality of their data.
“Trust leads to truth,” Hamler said. “Without it, participants may hold back or give superficial answers—but when they feel safe and respected, they’re more likely to share.”
Classrooms of care
At the Mandel School, faculty often start classes not with a lecture, but with a simple question: ”How are you doing today?”
This small yet intentional gesture invites students to pause, reflect and feel grounded. It’s a hallmark of a trauma-informed classroom, where empathy and connection are prioritized to create an atmosphere where students feel safe, understood and ready to learn.
New findings underscore the need for this tack: A 2022 peer-reviewed study of over 1,500 undergraduates found that 85% had experienced at least one traumatic event, with 21% encountering trauma within their first two months of college. Trauma can significantly affect learning; during states of alert or fear, functional IQs effectively drop.
“The more stressed we are, the more regressed we are,” Jennifer King, DSW, co-director of the trauma center and assistant professor at the Mandel School, said during a recent trauma-informed training for educators.
Simple steps such as using mindfulness exercises can help students stay engaged. Quick, sensory-rich activities like doodling or crocheting can calm stress responses and restore balance within minutes. Instructors encourage students to meet their basic needs—trusting them to take breaks, move around or snack.
“It’s like surgeons wearing gloves—a universal precaution,” King said. “It’s important to provide ongoing support for everyone. Even if these practices don’t apply to you, they might help the person next to you.”
Trauma-informed teaching isn’t just a classroom approach or subject of study—it’s also a guiding practice. At the Mandel School, professors intentionally model these behaviors in everyday interactions.
“Each student is a future social worker,” said Korsch-Williams, “so we aim to prepare them to apply these principles professionally.”
Alina Dumbauld, a second-year MSW student, applies her trauma-informed training directly in her fieldwork. As a counseling intern at The Village Network—a behavioral health organization for youth and families in Cleveland—she uses sensory aids and flexible participation techniques to support children dealing with trauma.
At the Mandel School, Dumbauld is also a Trauma-Informed Practice NMT Fellow—receiving specialized training in the Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics(NMT), which blends neurodevelopment and trauma theory to guide her work with children and families.
“I’m already using these methods to build strong, supportive relationships with clients,” she said. “That’s experience I can build on as I start my career.”
Empowering educators
Trauma-informed educational practices are also gaining traction across Case Western Reserve University—evolving from a specialized approach to a cross-disciplinary movement.
For years, Mandel School faculty refined these methods in their classrooms, while also aspiring to expand their use. That vision moved closer to reality last spring when the trauma center launched a teaching certification program, drawing faculty from medicine, business and the social sciences.
“Education changes lives, and trauma-informed methods make that transformation accessible to all students. It’s not an add-on—it’s central to how we should teach going forward.”
— Tracey Messer, PhD
Nathan Howell, PhD, an assistant professor of biochemistry in the School of Medicine, has found trauma-informed approaches helpful when his students are facing personal challenges.
“I teach a lot of cancer-related courses, and some students are undergoing chemotherapy or have loved ones facing a diagnosis,” he said. “It’s important to recognize that class material isn’t the only thing happening in their lives.”
Trauma-informed practices have positive potential across educational levels, according to Tracey Messer, PhD, an assistant professor of organizational behavior at Weatherhead School of Management.
“Education changes lives, and trauma-informed methods make that transformation accessible to all students,” she said. “It’s not an add-on—it’s central to how we should teach going forward.”
For Messer, the approach also bridges emotional intelligence—her expertise—with classroom management, a critical need in post-pandemic settings, where reported traumas have risen.
“Emotions are contagious, especially negative ones,” she noted. “As educators, we’re not just teaching content; our behavior can impact student outcomes for the better.”
Scaling change
While trauma-informed teaching is taking root in classrooms across the university, the trauma center’s leadership has ambitions of extending these practices beyond campus.
With support from the university’s Veale Institute for Entrepreneurship, the certification workshop is being rolled out nationally. Hundreds of administrators, staff and faculty completed the training last fall at the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities conference in Minneapolis.
The workshop’s launch marks another achievement in the trauma center’s short history. Increasingly, its leaders see their work having potential to reach a much broader audience and spread trauma-informed approaches to more sectors of society.
“Trauma will always exist,” Holmes said, “but how we respond to it makes all the difference.”
Read more stories like this in the Winter 2025 edition of Action.