Holroyd High School counsellor Kim De Deckker will travel to Lithuania and America on a premier’s teaching scholarship.

Ready to research: Psychologist and school counsellor Kim De Deckker is a Premier’s teaching scholarship recipient. Picture: Gene Ramirez

Holroyd High School counsellor Kim De Deckker will travel to Israel, Lithuania and America on a premier’s teaching scholarship to research post-traumatic growth.

She received a 2014 Premier’s Anika Foundation Youth Depression Awareness Scholarship of $15,000 to examine programs that follow the branch of positive psychology she describes as the ‘‘antithesis of post traumatic stress disorder’’.

About 60 per cent of the school’s students are refugees and a large portion are in community detention or have experienced trauma.

‘‘I think we have some really wonderful things happening in NSW schools around resilience, but when you look at the setting we’re in ... post traumatic growth is just so relevant,’’ Ms De Deckker said.

‘‘It’s a fairly new area and there is not a lot of study in terms of what works for children and adolescents.

‘‘After trauma some people suffer quite a lot and have psychological distress and mental illness, but also there is a significant amount of people who are quite resilient and who end up growing, and thriving and flourishing.

It’s not to negate that trauma is always awful, but [to see] that after trauma positive things can still happen for people.

‘‘In schools so much of it is hidden. If you go into the Blue Mountains now there are a lot of kids who experienced the bushfires last year. It can come in so many forms.’’

Ms De Deckker’s May itinerary includes a  post traumatic stress conference in Lithuania and visits to schools in New Orleans, where trauma programs were put into place after Hurricane Katrina’s 200 km/h winds decimated buildings in 2005.

She will also tour Kansas, where an early childhood trauma focus exists, and Boston, which has a high population of Somali refugees.

Ms De Deckker will then share her findings with The Department of Education and Communities and other schools.

‘‘Awareness is very good start,’’ she said.

‘‘There’s a really lovely focus in this school [Holroyd High] on wellbeing which research shows really contributes to academic success.

‘‘If you have students who are happy and who have good, positive mental health academic outcomes are better.’’