Trust-Based Relational Intervention®, or more commonly known as TBRI, is a model developed to address the challenges inherent in caring for children who have been impacted by trauma, which often includes those impacted by adoption and/or foster care. It is a care model that can be used in individual homes as well as every sector of society that touches the life of a child: church, school, the justice system, the doctor’s office, and more.
TBRI Practitioners are individuals who have gone through approximately 10 weeks of pre-training work, including an Adult Attachment Interview to learn their own attachment style. This preparation culminates in a one-week, in-person intensive with other candidates, which includes a mix of teaching and practicing new knowledge and skills through mentor groups.
TBRI Practitioners have both the privilege and responsibility of teaching others about TBRI, so they can utilize the model in their caregiving as well as integrate TBRI principles throughout their own organizations.
Key Takeaways
- TBRI Practitioners need encouragement too — Gaining more knowledge through training doesn’t make the work easier. Those doing trauma-informed care often face a gap between what healing could look like and the reality they see daily, making ongoing support essential.
- Hope for the Journey serves as a lifeline, not just a resource — Even experienced Practitioners and trainers find ongoing value in the platform, using it to restore compassion, regain perspective, and stay energized for difficult relational work.
- Annual recalibration keeps teaching accurate — Just like a clock that drifts over time, TBRI teaching can drift from the source. Hope for the Journey, which features seasoned trainers from the Karyn Purvis Institute, offers a way to regularly check and refresh one’s understanding.
- It’s a strategic tool for expanding reach — Practitioners are using Hope for the Journey to introduce TBRI to new audiences (families, clinicians, community groups), creating a foundation that Practitioners then build on with hands-on implementation support.
- TBRI is a lifelong practice — It was never meant to be learned once. Both TBRI and Hope for the Journey invite continuous growth, whether you’re a first-time learner or a seasoned teacher.
Don’t we all need encouragement?
I love hearing the stories of individuals who persevered to get into the coveted TBRI Practitioner Training. For many of these individuals, they are investing their lives in child welfare and family strengthening because of their personal journeys through trauma and grief. That’s why I’m a TBRI Practitioner. It’s because of the two precious teenagers I come home to each evening. But let’s be honest: Going through the training and gaining a lot of knowledge doesn’t make the work any easier. In some ways, it can feel harder, and we may be tempted to despair. We see a big gap between what healing could look like compared to our own circumstances or the reality in our ministry contexts. We realize over and over that the work of bringing healing to children and families is a journey.
That’s why we all need encouragement. We need a cup of cool water on the journey. We need someone to look us in the eye and say, “Yes, it’s hard. But you’re worth it. Your kids are precious, and so are the people you work with every day. Keep going.”
Finding encouragement in Hope for the Journey
That’s what I see in Hope for the Journey. Show Hope’s online educational platform is grounded in the TBRI model and shaped through the lens of the Christian faith. I’ve been at Show Hope for several years now, and I became a TBRI Practitioner in 2022. You might think Hope for the Journey would become an “old hat” for me; rather, it has become a lifeline. Take, for instance, Naomi Strawhorn’s bonus session on Big Behaviors, Big Needs. In about 10 minutes, Naomi completely washes away my frustration with my child’s behavior, restores my compassion and curiosity, and energizes me to keep pouring myself into hard relational situations. There are many more resources available on the platform that are meant not just to educate but to encourage the practitioner.
Hope for the Journey is an annual refresher for TBRI Practitioners
I have a small battery-operated clock that sits on my bathroom counter. It’s been there for a long time. The problem is, it’s never quite right. It’s close enough to fool you at a glance, but off just enough to make you late if you rely on it. Over time, I’ve learned not to trust it.
What it really needs is a reset, a recalibration against a clock that’s actually keeping true time. When it comes to accurately teaching TBRI, I think we can agree it is wise to check our facts against the source periodically.
A really valuable element of Hope for the Journey is that the four 60-minute teaching sessions on TBRI are taught by seasoned TBRI trainers from the Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development at TCU, or KPICD, where Karyn Purvis and David Cross developed the care model. These trainers are the same instructors who teach during TBRI Practitioner Training week. It’s the same high-quality content yet distilled into shorter sessions. Many TBRI Practitioners will utilize Hope for the Journey to watch the “TBRI Greats” explain and break down the concepts into easily understandable language. They’ll use these sessions as a template for their own teaching. They might even utilize an infographic or an illustration to help deliver a stronger message.
The more concise 10-15 minute videos on sensory integration, TBRI in schools, connecting with teens, and shifting our mindset around correction … just to name a few … also give practitioners ideas for how they can address these types of scenarios in their own communities. Reviewing Hope for the Journey annually or throughout the year can be a great way to recalibrate one’s TBRI teaching.
A tool for teaching others TBRI
No matter what field you’re in, having the right tools makes all the difference. And when those tools expand your reach or multiply your impact, their value increases even more. Hope for the Journey is one of those tools. Yes, it’s a source of personal encouragement and growth, but it can also be used strategically to introduce others to TBRI. Let me explain.
A clinic serving foster and adoptive families shares Hope for the Journey’s An Introduction to TBRI module with every family accessing their services. The parent and clinician now approach their first session with a shared understanding of how trauma has impacted the child. The clinician can now apply their expertise to helping the family implement the principles of TBRI in their home. Another group of TBRI Practitioners uses Hope for the Journey to introduce large groups in their community to the TBRI Principles and then use their expertise to provide implementation support over the next 12 months.
Answering TBRI questions
In other words, Hope for the Journey helps answer the question, “What is TBRI?” Then, a local TBRI Practitioner helps answer the next question: “How do we actually put TBRI into practice?” Together, they create a pathway for TBRI to take root so its impact on individuals, families, and systems becomes lasting and sustainable.
TBRI is a powerful model, but it was never meant to be learned once and then put back on the shelf. It’s something that must be regularly revisited, refreshed, practiced, and deepened over time, even by those who teach it to others. That’s part of what makes TBRI and Hope for the Journey so valuable: Both invite ongoing growth. Both can bring healing and transformation to anyone willing to do the hard work, whether you’re a student learning for the first time or a teacher continuing to learn.
Summary
The work of caring for children impacted by trauma is a journey. Even the most trained and knowledgeable among us need encouragement, recalibration, and the right tools to keep going. As a TBRI Practitioner, I speak from personal experience about the value Hope for the Journey brings, not just as an introduction to TBRI for new learners, but as an ongoing resource for those already deep in the work.
From restoring a caregiver’s compassion after a hard day to helping practitioners recalibrate their teaching against trusted source material, Hope for the Journey meets people where they are. And when used strategically alongside the expertise of local TBRI Practitioners, it becomes a powerful pathway for TBRI to take lasting root in individuals, families, and communities. We are all invited — whether student or teacher — to embrace the ongoing nature of this work, because both TBRI and Hope for the Journey are most valuable when we keep coming back to them to bring healing and transformation.
© 2026 Justin Myers. Used with Permission.
