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Becoming a Tutor

The Survivor Moms’ Companion^® (SMC) meets the needs of perinatal workers seeking to provide childbearing people with the highest standards of trauma-informed care, as specified by the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). This groundbreaking program is offered only through an end-user license from Growing Forward Together.

Because the SMC is an educational program, we refer to the individual one-to-one service providers as "tutors." SMC tutors work with survivor moms who are learning about how past trauma can affect pregnancy and parenting. Trauma heals in relationships, so the tutoring role is central. Tutors work by telephone, video-conference, or in person to deliver the three core parts of psychoeducation: new information, skills practice, and emotional support. 

Tutors are trained to deliver SMC with fidelity, reflective supervision, and clinical consultation. Training is followed by a supervised training case and ongoing reflective supervision. Nurses, social workers, psychologists, midwives, physicians, doulas, health educators, community outreach workers, or other experienced staff can become Tutors.

Training involves pre-learnings and either remote, video-facilitated training held for 3 hours a week over 6 weeks or a two-day training retreat in-person. At the end of training there is a knowledge quiz and a capstone role play to demonstrate basic skills of tutoring a module. Completers earn 16.0 contact hours for nursing or social work professional development. New tutors go on to participate in a training case and reflective supervision as needed. The SMC is fully manualized; workbooks, fidelity guides, assessment, charting tools, and checklists help tutors and clients stay on track.