Ruth Place Services

Ruth Place is a program offered by NCJW Arizona, Inc., an Arizona nonprofit corporation in Scottsdale, Arizona. Ruth Place services are designed to help facilitate traumatic growth through a strengths-based, wellness approach (also known as salutogenic approach) that recognizes symptomology such as anxiety and depression as the body’s natural and predictable neurobiological responses to traumatic stress.

The premise of this program is to help survivors understand that trauma is an injury rather than an illness and that a trauma survivor is a “normal person having a normal response to an abnormal event”.

Our services include both an initial one-on-one consultation and three stages, or 8-week sessions, of education and empowerment groups as follows:

One-On-One Consultation

Candidates will meet individually with a qualified facilitator trained in salutogenic-based trauma recovery to discuss candidate goals and chart a journey plan and program goals.

After this Orientation, the participant may go directly into Brain-Body Education Group. Some participants may be encouraged to seek external individual sessions, by referral, to prepare for groups.

Brain-Body Education Groups

Each session in this 8-week program is led by a qualified group facilitator trained in salutogenic-based trauma recovery.  During these groups, participants will learn about

  • the biology and neurophysiology of trauma
  • the sensory/somatic systems of the body
  • body and mind self-regulation
  • patterns and themes that the participant has used to confront and manage stressors and normalize their experiences and
  • common challenges and share stories of success including navigating hurdles successfully

“I needed to feel like I’m worthy, that I’m not alone. And I’m not the only one this happened to.”

Self-Regulation Groups

Each session in this 8-week program is led by a qualified group facilitator trained in salutogenic-based trauma recovery.  During these groups, participants will learn to

  • develop an ability to distinguish between a real threat and a perceived threat
  • develop a repertoire of regulation, grounding and containment skills
  • introduce self-regulation exercises and identify their individual self-regulation profile
  • strengthen the participant’s ability to regulate in all of the environments that are activating for them personally
  • identify internal and external resources for activation and stressors
  • develop active strategies, plan new strategies and develop a positive reframing of strategies used in the past

After completing the Brain-Body and Self-Regulation Groups, the participant and their Ruth Place team will identify consolidated gains on their personal journey plan and assess whether or not they would like to engage in individual trauma processing before post-traumatic growth groups. 

Options to be referred for individual or group trauma processing will be discussed and agreed upon between the facilitator and the participant.  These options may include but are not limited to: Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET), Somatic Trauma Release, Creative Arts Trauma Processing, and Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR). 

Post-Traumatic Growth and Peer Support Groups

“We need to get to a place where you don’t carry around this burden, this guilt, this shame.”

Each session in this 8-week program is led by a qualified group facilitator trained in salutogenic-based trauma recovery.  During these groups, participants will learn about

  • maintaining self-regulation through adaptive and action techniques
  • creating positive expectancy and celebrating resiliency and growth
  • focusing on solution possibilities and reframing limiting thoughts and beliefs
  • self-reliance and improving self-esteem
  • recognizing your own capacities and assets and using those to make clear, concrete, self-empowering choices
  • maintaining forward movement and building purpose and
  • building hope for a future and working on healthy and supportive relationships

Graduation from the Program

Following completion of the Post-Traumatic Growth Groups, participants and the Ruth Place team will review their individualized journey plan and program goals to identify post-traumatic growth gains. 

Goals of the program include:

  • increased understanding of chronic and complex trauma and how it affects the participant’s brain, body and behaviors
  • decreased activation in the participant’s day-to-day life and reduced avoidance and dysregulation
  • development of balanced and realistic beliefs about oneself, others, and the world
  • significantly improved day-to-day personal functioning at the social, occupational, scholastic and emotional level
  • significantly improved family and community connections, community cohesion, and readiness for healthy boundaries and relationships
  • increased capacity for recognizing positive experiences and successful management of stressors
  • movement into a post-traumatic growth identity
  • confidence in moving forward into the next phase of their personal growth journey
  • actively living in a more regulated body and brain
About Us

Ruth Place is a project of NCJW (Arizona Section), Inc., which is recognized as a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

To support Ruth Place, click here.

To learn more about the NCJW Arizona Section, visit ncjwaz.org or click the links below.

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