Female Trauma, Recovery & Empowerment Program

Program Overview

This female-specific trauma program is 14 weeks long and is provided at Catholic Charities of Southeast Michigan. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) focuses on long-term cognitive, emotional, and interpersonal consequences of sexual and physical abuse, trauma, and substance. The Trauma, Recovery, and Empowerment Model (TREM) by Maxine Harris is used. The TREM approach utilizes a supportive, skill-building curriculum that teaches the participants techniques for mastery that will enhance their existing strengths for coping with life events. TREM emphasizes the development of trauma recovery skills including:

  • Self-awareness
  • Self-protection
  • Self-soothing
  • Emotional modulation
  • Relation mutuality
  • Accurate labeling of self and other
  • Sense of agency and initiative-taking
  • Consistent problem-solving
  • Reliable parenting
  • Possessing a sense of purpose and meaning
  • Physical, emotional, and sexual abuse 
  • Judgment and decision-making

The group process begins with understanding trauma, with a transition through recovery, and ends in empowerment for each individual. The provider completes a Psychosocial Assessment / ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experience Screening) with each participant.

Eligibility Criteria

Participants must:

  • Score moderate to high on the overall risk scales or moderate to high in a minimum of 2 needs scales, including criminal thinking, criminal personality, criminal involvement or substance abuse, and moderate to high in any two gender-specific needs scales
  • Be psychologically and physically able to participate in the program

Resources