In October of 2009, Gillis began the process of becoming a Sanctuary organization with the help of the Sanctuary Institute. Sanctuary was developed in the late 1980’s by Sandra Bloom and her colleagues in Philadelphia. The following description of the model is excerpts taken from Sanctuaryweb.com. :
The Sanctuary Model® is an organizational and treatment intervention based on the tenets of trauma theory and an understanding of systems theory. Sanctuary addresses the ways in which trauma, adversity and chronic stress influence individual behavior as well as recognize the ways in which whole organizations can be influenced by trauma, adversity and chronic stress. Sanctuary is based on a set of guiding principles as well as some specific tools that reinforce the philosophy when practiced by the staff and clients on a daily basis.
The Seven Sanctuary Commitments represent the guiding principles for implementation of the Sanctuary Model – the basic structural elements of the Sanctuary “operating system” - and each support trauma-related goals for clients and for staff:
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A Commitment to Nonviolence – helping to build safety skills and a commitment to higher purpose
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A Commitment to Emotional Intelligence – helping to teach emotional management skills
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A Commitment to Social Learning – helping to build cognitive skills
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A Commitment to Open Communication – helping to overcoming barriers to healthy communication, learn conflict management, reduce acting-out, enhance self-protective and self-correcting skills, teach healthy boundaries
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A Commitment to Democracy – helping to create civic skills of self-control, self-discipline, and administration of healthy authority
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A Commitment to Social Responsibility – helping to rebuild social connection skills, establish healthy attachment relationships, establish sense of fair play and justice
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Commitment to Growth and Change – helping to work through loss and prepare for the future
The road to recovery from trauma and adversity can be a long one for both individuals and organizations. When you are lost, it’s useful to have a compass and that’s what S.E.L.F. is – a compass on the road to healing. S.E.L.F. is an acronym that represents the four interactive key aspects of recovery from bad experiences. S.E.L.F. provides a nonlinear, cognitive behavioral therapeutic approach for facilitating movement – regardless of whether we are talking about individual clients, families, staff problems, or whole organizational dilemmas.
