The Sanctuary Model ®, developed by Sandra Bloom, MD is a trauma-informed method for creating or changing an organizational culture. Although the model is based on trauma theory we have found its tenets have application in working with children across a wide diagnostic spectrum.

Originally developed in a short-term, acute inpatient psychiatric setting for adults who were traumatized as children, the Sanctuary Model has since been adapted by residential treatment settings for children, public schools, domestic violence shelters, group homes, outpatient settings, substance abuse programs, parenting support programs, and has been used in other settings as a method of organizational change.

The Sanctuary Model is not an intervention but a full system approach focused on helping injured children recover from the damaging effects of interpersonal trauma. Because it is a full system approach, effective implementation of the Sanctuary Model requires extensive leadership involvement in the process of change as well as staff and client involvement at every level of the process.

The aims of the Sanctuary Model are to guide an organization in the development of a culture with seven dominant characteristics all of which serve goals related a sound treatment environment:

Culture of Nonviolence – building and modeling safety skills and a commitment to higher goals

Culture of Emotional Intelligence – teaching and modeling affect management skills

Culture of Inquiry & Social Learning – building and modeling cognitive skills

Culture of Shared Governance – creating and modeling civic skills of self-control, self-discipline, and administration of healthy authority

Culture of Open Communication – overcoming barriers to healthy communication, reduce acting-out, enhance self-protective and self-correcting skills, teach healthy boundaries

Culture of Social Responsibility – rebuilding social connection skills, establish healthy attachment relationships

Culture of Growth and Change – restoring hope, meaning, purpose

The impact of creating a trauma-informed culture should be observable and measurable. The outcomes we should expect to see include:

Through the implementation steps of the Sanctuary Model, staff members engage in prolonged dialogue that serves to surface the major strengths, vulnerabilities, and conflicts within the organization. By looking at shared assumptions, goals, and existing practice, staff members from various levels of the organization are required to share in an analysis of their own structure and functioning, often asking themselves and each other provocative questions that have never been overtly surfaced before.

If you think your program is a candidate for this opportunity or you would like to learn more about the Sanctuary Model, please email Sarah Yanosy for more information.

For more research and publications on the Sanctuary Model, please click here.