... Caring for traumatized people and the professionals who work with them...

Our Purpose: The Institute’s purpose is to provide education, training, consultation and crisis intervention services for those impacted by a disaster, either natural or human-caused.    

Our Origin: The Oklahoma Traumatology Institute was established in 1999 as a result of the immediate and long-term response to individuals, families and professionals impacted by the Oklahoma City bombing. Founder Chaplain Joe B. Williams brings the perspective of a first-responder, addressing immediate needs of victims and professionals on-site and in the aftermath. Co-Director Dr. Jay Martin brings a clinical perspective to treating traumatized people in the months and years after a traumatic event, as well as providing support to professional caregivers subject to secondary traumatization and compassion fatigue resulting from their work.

Our Mission is twofold: 1) to train and support professional caregivers as they work with persons who have experienced the terror and tragic loss due to traumatic events and, 2) to provide support and crisis intervention services to trauma victims, thereby empowering both victims and professional caregivers to discover renewed hope, meaning and purpose with the goal of transforming such experiences into opportunities for growth.

Our Goals: We strive to achieve this mission through providing

• Accurate information through trauma-related education

• Training for trauma-related certification of professional caregivers

• Consultation with other professionals involved in working with the traumatized

• Deployment to post-disaster areas to offer crisis intervention services to those directly impacted by traumatic events

• Interdisciplinary cooperation and collaboration with other trauma specialists and caregivers

• Affirmation, support, education, networking and encouragement in self-care for professional caregivers

• All services with integrity and the highest ethical standards of professional practice

While our previous trauma work had been with an individual or family dealing with their personal disaster, or a community responding to tornadoes or random acts of violence, the Oklahoma City bombing presented challenges beyond our professional preparation and experience. It called for a larger perspective and understanding of human-caused disasters, a deepening awareness of the magnitude of their impact,  greater appreciation for the necessity of interdisciplinary and interagency cooperation and collaboration, respect for the diverse strengths and contributions of various professional disciplines,  additional training and refinement of skills, and a growing realization that the need for healing and recovery is so vast that all of us are essential to its achievement.

We are pleased to partner with Nazarene Compassionate Ministries, Inc. in developing their Disaster Response Program. Our Field Traumatology or Disaster Mental Health course has been adopted as their training module for those they deploy. Trainings have already been held in Oklahoma City; Orlando, Florida; Kalamazoo, Michigan; Wichita, Kansas; Sumter, South Carolina; Kansas City, Missouri. Others are scheduled in Quincy, Massachusetts and Colorado Springs, Colorado, with another potentially in Michigan.     

We offer the lessons learned from our experiences in Oklahoma City, Kenya, New York and now Louisiana, but recognize the uniqueness of each traumatic event and those impacted by it. We strive to honor all our teachers, including other trauma specialists and the traumatized who trusted us with their anguish, by continuing to learn, with the hope that our shared wisdom will strengthen all of us for this essential work.

Warmly,

Dr. Jay Martin       Joe B. Williams

The Oklahoma Traumatology Institute is a licensed site of the Green Cross Academy of Traumatology based in Tallahassee, Florida.

Copyright © 2010 Oklahoma Traumatology Institute