Transforming Trauma: Episode 130

The “goal” of incarceration varies depending on who you ask. Whether you consider prison fair retribution for engaging in criminal activity or an opportunity at redemption, most people agree that the punitive nature of the US criminal justice system neither rehabilitates nor curbs recidivism rates. But one allied mental health professional has witnessed the profound impact that a trauma-informed approach can have on inmates, formerly incarcerated individuals, and society at large.   

 

On this episode of Transforming Trauma, host Emily Ruth invites Christine Marallen to share her extensive insight into the criminal justice rehabilitative process. Christine is a NARM-Informed Professional, as well as certified prison chaplain and former Director of Prison Ministries for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, a position she left in 2019 to further build Damascus, a nonprofit reentry and staffing organization founded in 2015. As the Chief Strategy Officer for Damascus, she created and facilitated the Damascus Trauma Reentry Program inside numerous correctional facilities around Ohio. The pair also explore the link between incarcerated populations and those who score at intermediate or high risk on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) evaluations, as well as the role that NARM plays in Christine’s work.

 

“The word trauma, in terms of trauma-informed care, is new even though the business of prison is trauma,” explains Christine, who’s worked with folks experiencing incarceration since 2002. In a desire to bridge her lack of understanding around how complex trauma manifests within this population, Christine discovered NARM. Even at the introductory level of her NARM Training, she was struck by how powerful and intense this work is, as well as its potential impact on so many helping professionals and their clients.

 

Christine credits NARM for helping her develop language around complex trauma and establish avenues for deep-rooted healing. “It’s hard work, but worth it because how better, especially for practitioners, to sit across from someone who says, I really don’t wanna go to that place, and I know my healing is in that place, and I get to say, I’ve been there!”

 

Transforming Trauma is grateful to Christine for her work with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people and is inspired by her commitment to creating a more trauma-informed and compassionate criminal justice system.

RECOMMENDED EPISODES

129: A Trauma-Informed Approach to Shifting the Juvenile and Criminal Justice Systems With David and Katya Dow

118: Listening to What Survivors Need to Address Sexual Trauma and Complex PTSD with Dr. Judith Herman

107: Restorative Justice and the Journey Towards Redemption with Dr. Elaine Leeder

068: Community-Based and Trauma-Informed Tribal Court with Judge Abby Abinati

017: Compassion Prison Project: Bringing Trauma-informed Care into the Prison System with Fritzi Horstman

 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

 

Damascus 

NARM Online Basics Training (Level 1)

 

GUEST CONTACT AND BIO

 

Working with the incarcerated since 2002, Christine Marallen is the former Director of Prison Ministries for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, a position she left in 2019 to further build Damascus—a non-profit reentry and staffing organization founded in 2015. As the Chief Strategy Officer for Damascus, Christine facilitates the Damascus Trauma Reentry Program inside numerous correctional facilities around Ohio—a curriculum she created after a decade talking with individuals who struggled to understand what drove their decisions that led them to incarceration.

 

Christine has lived throughout the U.S. while working with USA Today Newspaper in various sales and marketing management roles from 1988 to 2002. She holds a B.A. in English from Miami University, an M.S. in Criminal Justice, and an M.A. in Theology from Xavier University. She is a certified prison/jail chaplain, a member of the Cincinnati Enquirer Editorial Board, and past President of the American Catholic Correctional Chaplains Association. From 2006 to 2018, Christine taught Criminal Justice at Xavier University and has taken hundreds of undergraduate students into Ohio prisons to learn alongside incarcerated students in the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program, based out of Temple University. Christine is a NARM Trauma-Informed Professional and excited to apply the model to the curriculum and work she does.

 

Christine currently resides in Cincinnati, Ohio. Her Damascus Trauma Reentry Curriculum can be facilitated in any correctional facility; contact Christine for more information at christine.marallen@teamdamascus.com