Stages of Change In Trauma Therapy
Understanding your stage of change is important before taking any sort of action because self knowledge is key toward change.
Change also requires less energy when we know our own stage of change.
Pressuring ourselves or forcing ourselves to heal and change rarely leads to long term, sustainable changes.
If you don’t want to change, then you don’t necessarily need to. No one can force you.
It’s also important to note social contexts matter.
Priorities are different for everyone based on where they are at on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
Physiological needs are more critical than self-actualisation, so having a safe home to live, food, and security should be prioritized first.
Having a safe place to live is important toward healing
Having a healthy social support system is important toward healing
Having accesss to quality health and mental health care is important toward healing
Having money is important toward healing
And more
Ambivalence Is About Uncertainty Of Change
A part of you wants to change
A part of you doesn’t want to change
A part of you is scared to change
A part of you is anxious to change
A part of you is nervous to change
Change is scary because it involves the unknown, giving up what we’re used to, replacing what we are used to, doing less of what we are used to, etc.
Ambivalence about change is normal. We are all ambivalent about something during some point in our lives.
Resistance to change is an expression of ambivalence about change, not a defining trait or characteristic about you.
It’s the therapist’s job (if you are in treatment), to help you resolve your ambivalence about change.
It’s your job to be honest with yourself about where you are on your stage of change instead of lying to yourself, avoiding the truth, fantasizing about what could be, pressuring yourself to heal quickly as possible, etc.
Even in therapy, it is estimated that clients and factors outside of the therapy account for about 40% of the change that takes place (Assay & Lambert, 1999).
The client change factors include the client’s level of motivation, perceptions of the therapy, commitment to the therapy framework, and integration of concepts into everyday life (Bohart & Wade, 2013).
What You Can Do
Print out the stages of change model and worksheets and fill it out
Print it out and re-read it every so often so you don’t forget and keep it top of mind
Re-print this worksheet every so often and fill it out again to see if you’ve changed where you are on the stage of change
Questions To Ask Yourself
Do you think you experienced trauma?
How do you define trauma?
In your opinion, what does someone who has experienced trauma look like?
Are you willing to make a commitment to interrupt trauma survival tendencies in the next month? In the next 2 months? And so forth.
Do you know what steps to take to interrupt trauma survival tendencies/coping methods?
Have you told others (family, friends, etc.) about your desire to interrupt trauma survival tendencies?
Do you need to change people, places, or things to help you heal from trauma?
Do you need to address new ways of dealing with upsetting feelings?
Are you willing to participate in a mutual peer support program or other form of social support?
Are you willing to seek professional help from a licensed therapist?
Do you know your personal risk factors that make you feel vulnerable to using sabotaging and acting out and have strategies to cope with these?
Do you know your personal protective factors that protect you and continue to protect you from acting out and sabotaging?
Is your life generally in balance?
Do you have a healthy support system?
Resources
References
Asay, T.P., & Lambert, M.J. (1999). The empirical case for the common factors in therapy: Quantitative findings.
Bohart. A. C., & Wade, A. G. (2013). The Client in Psychotherapy. In M. J. Lambert (Ed.), Bergin and Garfield’s Handbook of Psychotherapy and Behavior Change (6th ed., pp. 219-257). Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Pichère, P., & Cadiat, A.-C. (2015). Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Lemaitre.