What is Trauma Informed Care?
Mental health issues, no matter what they are, are challenging to deal with. When someone is suffering from a mental health disorder, it can affect their everyday life and overall feelings of well-being.
Trauma, especially, can be very hard for someone to deal with. Also known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), can completely transform someone's life and personality in the aftermath. Left to pick up the pieces, trauma can affect someone for years after the event or situation has happened.
Trauma is an emotional response to a highly stressful situation. A person may experience trauma after being in a car accident, being a victim of a crime, or even physical or mental abuse. These are some of the most common incidents that can cause someone to feel traumatized. However, any event or situation can be traumatizing if it causes enough emotional turmoil in a person.
Symptoms Of Trauma
This is not an exhaustive list of all symptoms someone may experience after a traumatic event. However, these are the most common symptoms:
● Nightmares
● Flashbacks
● Avoidance of events, people, or places that remind someone of the traumatic memory
● Insomnia
● Digestive Issues
● Social isolation
What Exactly Is Trauma Informed Care?
After someone goes through a traumatic event, it can impact their life in so many different ways. Oftentimes, a survivor of trauma will try to push the memory of the distressing event out of their mind. It's a misconception that if you don't think about something, it will just go away. Our brains are powerful pieces of equipment that, unfortunately, can hold on to the memory of trauma even if it is not being actively thought of.
Trauma-informed care is specifically used to help someone feel safe and taken care of. Often with PTSD, someone will not feel safe or relaxed no matter their environment. No matter the client or their situation, mental health professionals will treat their clients with compassion. However, in order to provide a true trauma-informed care experience, there are a few key things a therapist will remember when seeing a survivor of trauma.
Trust
The relationship between a client and their therapist is important. However, it is especially crucial when you have gone through something traumatic. More than likely, in some ways, your trust has been broken in the aftermath of trauma. Maybe your trust was broken because a person directly caused you trauma. Or, after the trauma happened, people did not respond to you with kindness or sympathy towards your situation.
Your relationship with your therapist should be one that is built on transparency and trust, on both sides of the coin.
Safety
After a traumatic event, it is really common for someone to always feel on edge. As if they are on constant alert for danger, even if there is no threat. In counseling sessions where trauma is discussed, you should never feel uneasy or on edge when talking about it.
Support
Struggling with trauma or PTSD can sometimes make someone feel very lonely. As if no one could possibly understand what they are going through. As therapists, we aim to give our clients the support they need to not feel alone. To not feel as if they are crazy or overreacting to what happened to them. While we may not have experienced what you went through, we do understand how it feels to try and pick up the pieces and move on with your life.
The Importance Of Trauma-Informed Care
Seeking out a therapy experience that takes care and consideration into your experience is so important. You have gone through enough and should never feel like you aren't getting something out of your counseling sessions.
My goal as a licensed therapist is to help you heal and mend all of your broken pieces. Through trauma therapy, I want to help you see that what you went through does not define you and that you can break yourself from the chains of the past. Let's connect soon so I can help you on this journey.
Click here for more information on Trauma Therapy.