Our Story

While attending a conference for caregivers of vulnerable children, I began hearing about trauma-informed care for foster and adopted children.  That peaked my interest since I was, at the time, part of an orphan care ministry for children and teens overseas.  From the first time I heard about TBRI®, I began reading everything I could to learn more.  I knew we needed to implement trauma-informed care for the orphaned children overseas to give them the opportunity for the best possible future.  But I wasn’t prepared for the impact TBRI® would have on my own life.

In order to learn all I could, I eventually went through TBRI® Practitioner training through the Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development at Texas Christian University. It was during this training that I realized this information was not just for “kids from hard places” as Dr. Purvis called her beloved children, but it was for me and my family as well.  The more I learned, the more I realized how much my own family had been affected by those “hard places.”  And I wanted to do everything I could to find healing for myself and my family members.

The more I learned about trauma, the more I realized that I wasn’t just learning about foster and adopted children.  I was learning about my own birth daughter who experienced trauma due to a childhood brain tumor.  The subsequent surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, and physical challenges left scars on her brain, body, and emotions; and eventually on her beliefs and behaviors.  It dawned on me for the first time that her struggles had a source that I had never considered!  

Once I learned the impact that trauma has on a person, it all made sense.  I asked my daughter’s forgiveness for making so many mistakes through her childhood and early adult years. My mistakes were not due to a lack of love, but a lack of understanding. She responded, “That’s OK, Mom.  It’s not like you had a handbook for this.”  And she was so right.  I had no idea how to relate to the struggles she was having.  And she was my birth child who had been loved and nurtured from conception!  I was overwhelmed trying to imagine the impact relational trauma had on children who didn’t have that love and nurture; and far too often experienced neglect and abuse instead.  I didn’t know what I could do to help those kids, but I knew I had to do something.

So, today I am doing all I can to help caregivers who are confused, frustrated and at their wits end just as I was. Perhaps that is you. You are trying to help the child you love but have no clue how to help.

Today, we DO have a handbook–and it is called TBRI®.

My husband and I didn’t know. But we want you to know. There is help. There is hope. There is healing.

Barbara Stewart

Founder & President