interesting, impactful, and meaningful
mental health training
Florence Crittenton is committed to providing high-quality training across the State of Montana to share our decades of experience. We have provided training to school districts, law enforcement officers, healthcare workers, and those working in therapeutic caregiving roles from infants to the elderly. For more information on training please contact [email protected].
Available Trainings
Daniel also offers individual consultations to groups where specific challenges can be addressed. These can be added to any of the trainings or booked separately.
Booms, Bangs, and Body Odor (1.5 hours)
This training explores the role that physical environment plays when working with individuals who have experienced trauma. Concepts regarding the science of trauma and how our physical beings experience the world around us are explored. Participants learn how to recognize negative, neutral, and positive environmental factors and create a plan to use physical environments as active interventions in helping relationships.
What Lies Beneath (2-3 hours)
This training utilizes attachment theory, neuroscience, and child development to explore the reasons why humans do the things that they do. The participant will learn that every human behavior is driven by an underlying emotional need. Participants will learn how to recognize the need behind the behavior and respond with an effective and connected intervention.
The Harder Side of Helping (3-4 hours)
Interacting with individuals whose lives have been affected by trauma often has unintended consequences for the individual trying to help. The concepts of “big t” and “little t” trauma, attachment and human development will be explored. These ideas will be used to explain the concept of secondary trauma and why it affects us as helpers. The four types of secondary trauma will be introduced in order to better understand the specific ways that helping can impact our lives outside of our work. This training also includes an introduction of reciprocal restoration and resilience building as an alternative framework for the imperfect term “self-care.” Participants will learn to develop an R&R plan that is individualized and addresses the effects of secondary trauma in a fluid and holistic manner.
The Brain Architecture Game (1 hour)
This tabletop board game experience was designed to engage policymakers, community and business leaders, health and education service providers, and government officials in understanding the science of early brain development—what promotes it, what derails it, and what are the consequences for society. Originally developed in 2009 through a partnership of the Center on the Developing Child and the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts, the game has been play-tested by more than 12,000 people in teams at small workshops and large conferences.
Healing from the Harder Side of Helping (2-3 hours)
Designed for professionals who have experienced the cumulative impact of supporting others through trauma, adversity, and crisis. Drawing on the latest research in neuroscience and trauma recovery, this training offers practical strategies for processing and healing from the emotional residue that helping work often leaves behind. Participants will learn how to recognize signs of compassion fatigue and burnout, explore effective tools for fostering personal and team resilience, and develop individualized plans for sustained well-being. The training is interactive and supportive, equipping attendees to reconnect with their sense of purpose and rediscover meaning and satisfaction in their work. This training introduces Reciprocal Restoration—an alternative framework that moves beyond self-care to a more integrated, co-regulated approach to nervous system healing.
Wired for Healing (2-3 Hours)
The dominant discourse around secondary trauma recovery often emphasizes self-care as an individual responsibility. However, emerging neuroscience suggests that trauma recovery is inherently relational and embedded in broader systems. Participants will gain a deeper understanding of how secondary trauma disrupts nervous system regulation through the lens of the limbic system, neurotransmitters, hormones, and Polyvagal Theory. We will explore the physiological responses to trauma—fight, flight, freeze, feed, and fornicate—alongside strategies for restoring balance, including co-regulation, self-regulation, and communal regulation. Special emphasis will be placed on pairing the appropriate regulation strategies with specific dysregulation patterns. This training will include an easy-to-understand overview of neurobiology and chemical messengers (neurotransmitters and hormones) and how to intentionally participate in activities that regulate the nervous system.
Practical applications will include grounding techniques, vagal nerve stimulation, and environmental adjustments such as red-light therapy, circadian rhythm alignment, and reducing dysregulating factors like blue light, EMF exposure, and excessive phone use. This training equips participants with a holistic toolkit to support resilience and healing within themselves and their communities.
Human Development (4-6 hours)
In the 1950’s, Erik Erikson introduced the theory of Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development. Erikson posited that all humans are designed to learn specific skills and develop self-identity throughout the lifespan. The modern study of attachment, neuroscience, and trauma has further complimented Erickson’s work and provided a deeper understanding of the effects of disruptions that occur in the lives of individuals. This training explores each stage of development and discusses the results of “successful” and “unsuccessful” completion of each developmental task. The training also discusses how trauma can disrupt and suspend these tasks and how behavior may manifest in subsequent stages. The participant will learn how to see the developmental need behind all behaviors and develop patterned interventions that meet the developmental need in a chronologically appropriate way.
Sexual Reactivity (2 hours)
We live in a world where the stark reality is that children and youth are exposed to sexual content at a frequency and intensity that has never before been seen in the history of our world. Exposure to sexual abuse and pornography is occurring at alarming rates and mainstream media continues to reduce standards and safeguards that have historically limited sexual content. As a result, many individuals with whom we interact often express emotions through behaviors that are sexualized and often deemed inappropriate for the situation in which they are functioning. This training explores health sexual development throughout the lifespan and provides the participant with information regarding sexual reactivity as well as interventions and strategies to address reactive behaviors in a variety of settings.
Therapeutic Language (1.5 hours)
This training emphasizes the importance of language choices when interacting with others. Language choices can often derail relationships and put individuals at odds. Parents and children, teachers and students, healthcare professional and patient, employer and employee (and many more)are all relationships that struggle with rapport and compliance as a result of poor language usage. Relational concepts are introduced and used as a way to reframe commonly used phrases and communication patterns in an effort to strengthen relationships and improve outcomes.
When S#!* Hits The Fan (2 – 3 Hours)
One definition of trauma is an event that is disruptive to an individual’s personal experience and sense of “normal.” Trauma is often unique and specific to the perception of an individual. However, there are events that affect large portions of the population. This training explores the disruption caused by COVID and the effects that global trauma has on each of our everyday lives. The training includes harm mitigation strategies as well as resilience building techniques for us and our communities.
Heads in the Sand (1 Hour)
The topic of mental health has become more prevalent in our current society and culture. Yet, a significant stigma still exists when an individual is struggling to maintain their mental health and seeks help. This talk defines mental health and wellbeing and presents the discussion as a spectrum rather than a hierarchy. This talk is designed for all groups and communities who are interested in promoting healthy conversation around mental health and wellness.
For more information about trainings offered by Daniel Champer please contact
Elizabeth Flynn at [email protected] or call 406 442 6950 x209