UT University Charter School (UT Charter) partners with a variety of facility partners across Texas to provide education for youth in their care. Our facility partners include long-term placements for children in Residential Treatment Centers where the majority of students have experienced trauma from abuse or neglect.

UT Charter trains our faculty in a variety of trauma-informed practices that create safe, nurturing and predictable relationships and environments to help our students succeed in their education. One of these practices is Trust-Based Relational Intervention® (TBRI®).

TBRI® is used to create a healing environment for children with complex trauma histories. Staff are trained to:

• Build trusting relationships with residents through consistent, compassionate care.
• Use sensory and regulatory strategies to help children manage emotions and behaviors.
• Implement structured, yet flexible routines that promote safety and predictability.
• Respond to behavioral challenges with empathy and skill, focusing on connection before correction.

Trish Clifford teaches at UT Charter’s campus at the Texas NeuroRehab Center where she not only incorporates TBRI® into her classroom, as a certified TBRI trainer she trains UT Charter staff and recently trained TNC staff as well.

“Here on the education side, we typically get to see the best of the kids.” Said Ms. Clifford “But then a student would tell me: ‘I got in a fight last night’ and it’s hard for me to picture that. So, we began to discuss what is different when they are in school versus in the facility?”

The difference was TBRI
In spring 2025, Trish began working with TNC directors to train their staff in TBRI®. The 24-hour intensive TBRI® training equips staff with practical strategies they can immediately apply with the children they serve—strategies that align with those already used by UT Charter teachers in their classrooms.

Ms. Clifford shared a story: “We had a young man in one of our acute units who was physically imposing and not a typical communicator. He was getting worked up and TNC pulled one of the therapists during our training to help him. When she returned, she was beaming. She said she used the connecting principles she had just been learning in our TBRI training and it worked.” She added, “I could not have paid for that kind of promotion.”

Children benefit from consistent, nurturing interactions with all of the adults, while staff report a reduction in negative behaviors. So far, Trish has had two rounds of training with TNC direct-service staff and TNC is realizing the benefits.

Meg Haden, LCSW, COO at TNC helped bring the TBRI training to the TNC direct service staff. She said: “The TBRI principles of connecting, empowering, and correcting create the pathway for healing that our kids need. We are grateful to Ms. Clifford and UTCS for helping us to bring those skills to TNC.”

UT Charter is proud to collaborate with facility partners to implement strategies like TBRI®, because the ultimate beneficiaries are the children. When educators and caregivers align their approaches, children experience greater consistency, safety, and support—laying the foundation for healing and growth. That shared commitment to children’s well-being is what drives all of us in this work.