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What is TBRI  ?

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Trust-Based Relational Intervention 

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TBRI® is an attachment-based, trauma-informed intervention that is designed to meet the complex needs of vulnerable children. TBRI® uses Empowering Principles to address physical needs, Connecting Principles for attachment needs, and Correcting Principles to disarm fear-based behaviors. While the intervention is based on years of attachment, sensory processing, and neuroscience research, the heartbeat of TBRI® is connection.

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Origin of TBRI 

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TBRI® was developed by what is now known as The Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development. The Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development was created as an outgrowth of the Hope Connection®, a research and intervention project developed in 1999 by Dr. Karyn Purvis and Dr. David Cross. The Hope Connection® began as a summer camp for adopted children who experienced early orphanage care. The results proved so remarkable, they sparked a compelling scientific and personal journey for Drs. Purvis and Cross. By the end of the first week and into the second week of camp, they saw dramatic changes in attachment, social competency with peers, and in language. These outcomes formed the empirical foundations for Trust-based Relational Intervention (TBRI®), a model for children from “hard places.”

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Beyond the camp setting, TBRI® has made remarkable changes in the lives of children and youth. Since the days of the first Hope Connection® Camp, which focused on families who adopt children from hard places, the Institute has expanded it’s focus by training professionals who work in a variety of caregiving contexts, including foster homes, residential settings, court rooms and classrooms.

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