What is Trauma Informed Care?

Trauma Informed Care is an approach, based on knowledge of the impact of trauma, aimed at ensuring environments and services are welcoming and engaging for clients, patients, staff, and employees.

Trauma-informed care is based on the understanding that:

• A significant number of people living with mental health conditions have experienced trauma in their lives

• Trauma may be a factor for people in distress

• The impact of trauma may be lifelong

• Trauma can impact the person, their emotions and relationships with others.

What is Trauma?

Any situation leaving you feeling threatened, overwhelmed, and frightened can be traumatic, even if it doesn’t involve physical harm. Unresolved trauma distorts our values, sense of self, and identity impacting how we show up in the world.

Once someone has experienced trauma, they’re often on guard, almost perpetually afraid that it will happen again. And it’s not only the brain that learns this lesson. The body and nervous system do, too.

While many people recover from trauma over time with support and resiliency, others may experience persisting effects of trauma, forcing them to live with deep emotional pain, fear, confusion, or post-traumatic stress long after the event has passed.

Trauma is Pervasive & Comes In Many Forms

• Abuse

• Neglect

• Assault

• Violence

• Bullying

• A serious illness

• Sudden death of a person

• Abandonment

• Divorce

• Separation

• Migration and immigration

• War

• Trafficking

• Religious abuse

• Narcissistic abuse

• Violence in a relationship

• Car accident

• A natural disaster

• As well as historical, intergenerational, state, community, familial and interpersonal violence such as:

  • Racism

  • Misogyny

  • Enslavement

  • Forced migration

  • Colonization

  • War

  • Genocide

  • Imperialism

What Are Trauma Informed Techniques & Examples?

Core Trauma-Informed Principles: 

• Safety

  • Emotional as well as physical e.g. is the environment welcoming?

• Trust

  • Is the service sensitive to people’s needs?

• Choice

  • Do you provide opportunity for choice?

• Collaboration

  • Do you communicate a sense of ‘doing with’ rather than ‘doing to’?

• Empowerment

  • Is empowering people a key focus?

• Respect for Diversity

  • Do you respect diversity in all its forms?

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are negative experiences that happen during childhood. ACEs are divided into three categories: abuse, household challenges and neglect.

ACEs can disrupt a child’s development and can impact social, emotional and cognitive impairment, which can lead to poor health outcomes and can negatively impact life expectancy.

Examples of ACEs:

• Abuse

  • Physical

  • Emotional

  • Sexual

• Neglect

  • Physical

  • Emotional

• Enduring or being exposed to abuse or neglect, familial violence

  • Domestic violence

  • Intimate partner violence

  • Gender based violence

• Mental illness

• Incarcerated immediate or extended family member

• Parental separation

• Divorce

• Substance abuse

ACEs have been linked to:

• Risky health behaviors

• Chronic health conditions

• Low life potential

• Early death

The good news is that ACEs can be prevented.

Three R’s

• Realizes

  • The widespread impact of trauma and understand potential paths for recover;

• Recognizes

  • The signs and symptoms of trauma in clients, families, staff, and others involved with the system;

• Responds

  • By fully integrating knowledge about trauma into policies, procedures, and practices; and seeks to actively resist re-traumatization”

What Should Therapists Not Do In Session?

• Invalidate their clients

• Victim blame their clients

• Dismiss their clients

• Focus on the positive constantly

• Force their clients to answer questions

What Should You Look For When Seeking Out A Trauma Informed Therapist?

• Someone who has experience, knowledge, and skills with trauma

• Someone who understands the relationship between trauma and addiction, self-harm, suicidality, relationships, trust, depression, and anxiety

• Someone who has hope and respect for your healing journey

• Someone who you feel comfortable with being vulnerable with (trust your gut and instinct)

• Someone who considers all your intersecting identities and stories

• Someone who practices from an anti-oppression, anti-racist, and/or liberation method of therapy

• Someone who understands there is nothing wrong with you and your ways of survival, but that you were doing the best you can and just trying to survive the best you could

• Someone who considers pacing in therapy (not moving too fast or too slow) at a pace you’re comfortable with

• Someone who helps you learn skills and tools such as grounding, relaxation, compartmentalization, etc.

• Someone who wishes to hear your stories and understand more of who you were, who you are, and what matters most to you as you heal and recover

Also, just because a therapist has training in trauma doesn’t mean they will be a good fit for you. Sometimes, we don’t feel safe with others for a variety of reasons (e.g. counter transference, personality, style).

Building a Trauma-Informed Workforce

• Adopt a trauma-informed organizational mission and commit resources to support it

• Really listen to your employees and do something with their feedback

• Understand what trauma is and the impacts of trauma

• Understand ways to manage trauma including: living in the window of tolerance, identifying common reactions to traumatic experiences, grounding skills, listening and befriending your nervous system

• Understand how to heal from trauma including: neuroplasticity, post traumatic growth, and resiliency

• Normalize secondary trauma as an accepted part of working in behavioral health settings and views the problem as systemic—not the result of individual pathology or a deficit on the part of the employee or staff member

• Seek out lifelong training, consultation, and workshops

• Ask your employees and staff how they feel and what they need to thrive in and outside of work

• Offering competitive wages, benefits, and performance incentives that take into account education, training, and levels of responsibility in providing trauma-informed or trauma-specific services

• Provide adequate mental health, health, paid time off, and other benefits that promote the well-being of the staff

Trauma Informed Therapy Training, Workshops & Consultation in Seattle, Washington

I am a Seattle based therapist specializing in trauma. I provide therapy and mental health services for those wishing to heal from PTSD and trauma. I also provide mental health training, workshops, and lectures to organizations, agencies, and nonprofits nationwide.

Looking for more trauma resources? Click here for a list of evidenced based trauma therapies, books, and workbooks.