Rhonda Knotts, grief services coordinator and counselor for Compass Regional Hospice, earned a Level 1 certificate in advanced trauma treatment from the Institute for Advanced Psychotherapy Training and Education.
Led by Lisa Ferentz, LCSW-C, this training gives counseling professionals skills that encourage them to focus on strengths as they work with adolescents and adults who have survived trauma, abuse and neglect.
Knotts knows firsthand about the impact that trauma can have on a person’s life. Speaking about her brother’s suicide, she explains, “A violent and unexpected death can affect the human psyche. My own experience has led me to make a career in helping people as they live with the grief and trauma that comes from loss in many forms.”
Rhonda Knotts, MSCC
Knotts is one of the grief counselors who staffs the Compass Regional Hospice Hope & Healing Center, which serves clients in Queen Anne’s, Kent and Caroline Counties. Leading the team is Sharon Loving, LCSW-C, supervisor of support services for Compass Regional Hospice. The other grief counselors are Ann OConnor, LCSW-C, and Wayne Larrimore, MEd. Other members of the Hope & Healing Center team are Rev. Nancy Greenwell, the Compass Regional Hospice chaplain, and social workers Bob Denison, LCSW-C, Roya Testerman, LGSW, and Michelle Tuttle, MSW, who help hospice patients and their families as they anticipate the end of their lives together.
“The Hope & Healing Center is a collection of programs and services we offer to family members who are mourning the death of a patient who died while in our hospice care,” says Loving. “We also provide individual and group counseling and support groups for members of the community who are grieving the death of a loved one.”
A generous donation earmarked for the Hope & Healing Center has made it possible for Compass Regional Hospice to invest in this trauma training and other staff development programs that Knotts and her colleagues have attended.
Knotts, who is also the director of Camp New Dawn, a summer grief retreat for children, teens and families, says, “More and more we are seeing how people in our community are experiencing the aftermath of traumatic events, such as suicides, car accidents and drownings. We want to be prepared and equipped to give them the level of support when and where they need it.”
The advanced trauma treatment training that Knotts completed, which takes place in nine one-day sessions over four months, is both practical and applicable. “Lisa Ferentz was the best workshop leader I have ever experienced. I left every session with some new tool that I could apply right away,” Knotts says.
For example, Knotts taught a group of social workers from Kent County how to use stress balls as a self-care technique. In sessions at Camp New Dawn this summer counselors will use scented bubbles, soothing candles and art projects that Knotts learned about during the trauma treatment training.
“Using art and music along with the five senses – smell, taste, touch, sound and sight – adds fun to therapy and teaches clients how to find comfort and peace amid the grief they are experiencing,” Knotts explains.
Knotts says she also learned that being an effective counselor for people who have experienced trauma requires being a “quiet presence.” She explains, “I don’t have to know all of the details of what happened to my clients and I don’t have to have all the answers. My clients are the experts in their trauma. My role is to create a safe space and to offer encouragement.”
Compass Regional Hospice is located at 255 Comet Drive in Centreville and provides hospice care and grief support for people of all ages in Queen Anne’s, Kent and Caroline Counties. For more information about grief support programs and services offered through the Hope & Healing Center, call Compass Regional Hospice, 443-262-4100 and visit www.compassregionalhospice.org/hopeandhealing.
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