What Is Trauma-Informed Therapy?
A trauma-informed approach seeks an awareness of the widespread impact of trauma on life experience and relationships. It recognizes trauma’s role in the outlook, emotions and behavior of a person with a trauma history. A trauma-informed approach also accepts that trauma’s impact is far more prevalent than most people realize.
As trauma-informed therapists, we choose to focus not only on the behavior someone is trying to change —but also on the underlying reasons for the behavior and the relief it provides currently.
We focus on behavior, beliefs and desired relief so we can do repair work at the deepest level to make the change long lasting. A trauma-informed approach attends to the underlying trauma from any cause.
Trauma-informed care can apply to anyone. It’s not just for people with obvious sources of trauma like physical or sexual abuse. Trauma-informed care applies as well to people with a history of depression or anxiety that has wreaked havoc on life, people with emotional abuse or attachment wounds, or any kind of trauma.
A trauma–informed therapist is aware of the complex impact of trauma (any perceived trauma) on a person’s suffering and how it shapes a person’s efforts to cope. A trauma–informed approach integrates a thorough knowledge of this impact into every aspect of treatment. A therapist who is trauma-informed knows that the mind and body of a person with unhealed trauma is functioning in an altered way. That person may be easily triggered to feel too much emotional intensity (hyperarousal), or shut down and unable to feel much at all (hypoarousal).
Someone offering trauma-informed care uses all the tools and treatments they can to promote healing, while preventing further harm from hyper- or hypoarousal. An organization or person offering trauma-informed care prioritizes six key principles says SAMHSA (the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration):
- Safety
- Trustworthiness and Transparency
- Peer support
- Collaboration and mutuality
- Empowerment, voice and choice
- Cultural, Historical, and Gender Issues
