Dr. Steele’s experiences in the field of grief and trauma date back to the 1970’s when he was the director of the only 24-hour walk- in crisis center in the county that provided short-term crisis intervention for those whose lives unraveled, were shaken by significant emotional and physical losses or terrified by incidents we would refer to today as trauma inducing. In 1980 he published Preventing Teen Suicide, which led to requests from schools from across the country for training. Dr. Steele wrote the first article on preventing teen suicide published by USA Today in 1985. His experiences with non-fatal attempters and survivors of suicide was acknowledged in 1986 when the Michigan Chapter of The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences awarded Dr. Steele’s production of Preventing Teen Suicide a Michigan Emmy. In the mid-80s he also began assisting survivors of homicide. His production of Where Have All The Children Gone, which focused on childhood violence, was nominated in 1987 for Outstanding Program Achievement by the Academy.
Always a practitioner and passionate about bringing practitioners interventions he found helpful for survivors, led to his founding of the National Institute for Trauma and Loss in Children (TLC) in 1990. In 1997 he initiated a trauma and loss certification program. Today over 6,000 TLC Certified Trauma Specialists and Consultants, that Dr. Steele personally trained, are using TLC’s published evidence-based intervention programs in 55 countries. These interventions are now registered as evidence-based programs with the California Evidence Based Clearinghouse and the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Agency (SAMHSA) Registry of Evidence Based Practices.
Trauma In Schools and Communities: Recovery Lessons from Survivors and Responders (New York, Routledge), Working with Grieving and Traumatized Children and Adolescents: Discovering What Matters Most Through Evidence-Based, Sensory Interventions (New Jersey, Wiley) and Trauma Informed Practices With Children and Adolescents(NY, Routledge), his three most recent publications, reflect his knowledge and expertise. His work has been featured in such books as Understanding Mass Violence, Creative Interventions with Traumatized Children, Critical Incidents in Counseling Children, Clinical Handbook of Art Therapy and in varied journals including, National Social Sciences Journal, School Social Work Journal, Journal of Residential Treatment for Children and Youth and Child and Family. (See Publications for more information)
Additional Training and Leadership Experiences