Lesson 2 of 9
In Progress
Gay Bradshaw & Sandra L. Bloom, “Elephants, Us, and Other Kin: Shifting from Traumatogenic to Trauma-Informed Paradigm”
Gay Bradshaw March 4, 2026
G. A. Bradshaw is the founder and director of The Kerulos Center for Nonviolence (www.kerulos.org). She was the first scientist to diagnose Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD) in free-living Elephants, and subsequently Orcas, Bears, Chimpanzees, and Pumas, which launched the field of trans-species psychology. She holds doctorate degrees in ecology and psychology, and a master’s in geophysics and was a Fellow at the National Science Foundation National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis. She is a certified mindfulness and meditation teacher. Her books include the Pulitzer-nominated Elephants on the Edge: What Animals Teach Us about Humanity;Carnivore Minds: Who These Fearsome Beings Really Are;Talking with Bears: Conversations with Charlie Russell and The Evolved Nest: Nature’s Way of Raising Families and Creating Connected Communities. She is the primary carer for rescued colonized Animals including disabled endangered Tortoises and Wildlife at Grace Village, Oregon, USA.
Dr. Sandra L. Bloom is a Board-Certified psychiatrist, graduate of Temple University School of Medicine and currently Associate Professor, Health Management and Policy at the Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University (www.sandrabloom.com). She is also the Founder of Creating Presence, an online organizational approach for creating trauma-informed systems.In extending her work to include an online delivery program for Leaders, Clinicians, Direct Service Staff, and Indirect Service Staff called Creating Presence, Dr. Bloom hopes to make the innovative approach to service delivery known as “trauma-informed” and “trauma-responsive” more available and cost effective.
From 1980-2001, Dr. Bloom served as Founder and Executive Director of the Sanctuary programs, inpatient psychiatric programs for the treatment of trauma-related emotional disorders and during those years was also President of the Alliance for Creative Development, a multidisciplinary outpatient practice group. Dr. Bloom is recognized nationally and internationally as the founder of the Sanctuary Model. Between 2005 and 2016 over 350 social service, juvenile justice and mental health organizations were trained in the Sanctuary Model.
Dr. Bloom is a Past-President of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies and author or co-author of a series of books on trauma-informed care: Creating Sanctuary: Toward the Evolution of Sane Societies published in 1997 with a second edition in 2013; Destroying Sanctuary: The Crisis in Human Delivery Service Systems published by Oxford University Press in 2010 and Restoring Sanctuary: A New Operating System for Trauma-Informed Systems of Care, published by Oxford University Press in 2013.
She is currently co-chairing a new national organization, CTIPP – The Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice whose goal is to advocate for public policies and programs at the federal, state, local and tribal levels that incorporate up-to-date scientific findings regarding the relationship between trauma across the lifespan and many social and health problems. Since 2012, Dr. Bloom has also served as Co-chair for the Philadelphia ACEs Task Force. Sandy is also c-founder in collaboration with The Kerulos Center for Nonviolence of Creating Presence with Nature.
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