When I was in college I worked at a residential treatment center for children and adolescents. Basically anyone aged 6-17 that could not function appropriately in school, community or home environment due to behavioral or mental health concerns would come to the 24 hour center for at least 30 days and up to however long was needed to successfully reintegrate (which sometimes seemed not possible). The kids that I worked with have stayed with me even though I stopped working there back in January of 2011. I remember their names, their faces, their stories. Those kids were my motivation. They were my struggle, my patience, and a heck of a lot of my learning. I originally went into social work because I wanted to make a difference in child welfare. My time at the center taught me so much about the effects of trauma and the importance of steady, stable people who care in a child’s life. I don’t have kids so I don’t know what it means to be a parent, but I do know what it means to care about a child and to struggle to understand what it is that makes them behavior or react the way they do. This video reminds me of too many of the kids I used to work with, and at times some of my own foster-siblings. One of the most important lessons I ever learned working at the center was to not ask “why are you doing that” but instead to think about “what have you experienced that makes you do that” – which I think is a simple way of viewing trauma informed care. This feels like a bit of a ramble, when really all I wanted to say is that I found this video to be powerful and bring up a lot of memories.