Sanctuary Model

trauma informed care

The Sanctuary Model

The Sanctuary Model is a trauma-informed method for creating or changing organizational culture in order to more effectively provide an environment within which healing from psychological and social traumatic experiences can be addressed. 

WMPC and its partners are embarking on a Sanctuary training and implementation process that aims to help agencies reclaim a culture of hope and innovation. 

As a result of our Sanctuary training, we expect:

  • A decrease in physical, verbal, and emotional forms of violence leading to a greater sense of safety
  • Systemic understanding of complex bio-psychosocial impacts of trauma and what we can do in response
  • Increased focus on what happened to the individual and not “what’s wrong” with that individual
  • Better ability to articulate organizational and clinical goals and create strategies for change
  • Greater understanding of reenactment behavior and resistance to change both organizationally and clinically
  • More democratic processes at all levels

The Seven Sanctuary Commitments

The set of values that Sanctuary outlines as a way to lead individuals and organizations away from trauma-reactive behaviors

non violence

building and modeling safety skills

emotional intelligence

teaching and modeling affect management skills

social learning

building and modeling cognitive skills

democracy

creating and modeling civic skills of self-control, self-discipline, and administration of healthy authority

open communication

overcoming barriers to healthy communication, reduce acting-out, enhance self-protective and self-correcting skills, teach healthy boundaries

social responsibility

rebuilding social connection skills, establish healthy attachment relationships

growth and change

restoring hope, meaning, purpose

goals & Benefits

Participants will learn more about what causes traumatic experiences, the implication of these experiences on the organization, staff and clients, how best to treat the trauma at all levels, and how we can proactively minimize future occurrences.

The Sanctuary Model aims to improved outcomes for organizations and clients. The secret to Sanctuary is in the process.

Using the Sanctuary Model has enabled other agencies to:

  • Create a truly collaborative treatment environment
  • Work more effectively and therapeutically with traumatized clients
  • Improve treatment outcomes
  • Reduce restraints and other coercive practices
  • Decrease incidents of violence
  • Build high-functioning multidisciplinary teams
  • Improve staff morale
  • Increase employee retention
  • Reclaim the commitment upon which the organization was built

The Sanctuary Model has improved outcomes for other agencies with:

  • Fewer symptoms of trauma
  • Enhanced social skills
  • Improved relationships with family and peers
  • Improved academic performance
  • Increased ability to maintain safety
  • Improved judgment and decisions