Charles “Chip” Benight, professor, Psychology Department, and director, Trauma Health and Hazards Center, is featured in a new City of Colorado Springs effort to help community members recover from recent violent events.
The City of Colorado Springs announced Jan. 26 the launch of a new web-based psychological trauma recovery program developed by Benight. This site is designed to help those affected by the Nov. 27 Centennial Boulevard shooting or Oct. 31 downtown shootings but is available to anyone who has experienced a traumatic event.
Pikespeakstrong.com, offers an interactive platform for teaching skills people can use to overcome trauma. The site is intended as a self-help tool for affected individuals, offering advice to those seeking support and guidance about when professional help is needed.
Benight created the website through his company, BlueSun, Inc. He has built several other trauma recovery websites following events including the Aurora theater shootings and hurricanes.
I really appreciated your senior seminar- trauma. Since graduating, I started working at a foster care agency. Recently, we’ve started moving towards becoming a trauma-informed agency and we have started utilizing Van der Kolk’s books and lectures to help guide us. In our seminar, we used one of his books, which helped open my eyes to the complexities of trauma and what it means. Thank you for offering this class. I still have my text book and I often go back and read chapters from time to time.