TRAUMA IS REAL

Have you ever had a conversation with someone who doesn’t know your history and it’s left you feeling worse than before? Have you ever gone to receive services and come out of the experience feeling heightened emotions that you don’t usually have? Emotions such as extreme anger, overwhelming sadness or unusually frightened? The person you interacted with may have even been nice and you just can’t put your finger on why you are feeling the way you do. It may be because of past traumas lying beneath the surface.

More and more, social services agencies and those who deal with the public are acknowledging “that feeling” or reaction you are having.

They are learning and using a transformative model of care called Trauma-Informed Care (TIC).

This model of service care considers the pervasive nature of trauma and promotes environments of healing and recovery, rather than practices and communication that may inadvertently re-traumatize you. The model assumes that the odds are most people have experienced trauma at one point or another in their lives rather than having had no trauma. It acknowledges the deeply personal truth that your past influences how you experience things.

TIC requires others to make a paradigm shift from asking, “What is wrong with you? to “What has happened to you?”.

“At LSSSC It’s important to take the time to learn details about those being served so we can avoid retraumatizing them. It’s not just about being sensitive; it is about being appropriate and treating others with respect for their person and past,” says Tawanda Counts, LFMT & LSSSC San Bernardino County Rural & Mountain Area Director overseeing adult and children’s mental health programs.

The intention of Trauma-Informed Care is not to treat symptoms or issues related to things like sexual, physical or emotional abuse or any other form of trauma but rather to provide support services in a way that is accessible and appropriate to those who may have experienced trauma.

The Five Guiding Principles of providing care that is Trauma Informed are:

1) safety 2) choice 3) collaboration

4) trustworthiness and 5) empowerment.

Staff learn what safety means to each client and as much as possible create that environment for them. They never tell program participants what to do. Participants receive ideas of what options are out there for them to choose from. It’s never chosen for them. Participants are asked to collaborate in coming up with solutions to their own challenges and situations. Staff must pledge to always act trustworthy."

Not surprisingly, the final principal, Empower, has already been part of the LSSSC motto to Embrace, Equip and Empower for more than a decade. “It all starts with letting clients know that we believe in them and that their trauma is real”, concludes Counts. “We’ve been trauma informed in-part and we’re now more than ever committed to practicing it even better ways.”

Individual trauma results from an event, series of events, or set of circumstances that is experienced by an individual as physically or emotionally harmful or threatening and that can have lasting adverse effects on the individual’s functioning and physical, social, emotional well-being.

There are three main types of trauma:

1. Acute Trauma – This can be the result of a single incident such as a car accident, robbery, natural disaster, a shooting, etc.

2. Chronic Trauma – This is repeated and prolonged such as domestic violence or abuse, neglect, community violence or event things like homelessness.

3. Complex Trauma – This is exposure to varied and multiple traumatic events, often of an invasive, interpersonal nature. These can include things like torture, sex trafficking, or slavery, war, etc.