REGULATING TRAUMA-RELATED SPECIALIZATIONS IN PRIVATE PRACTICE BY ALEC STRATFORD, MSW, RSW
Recently the NSCSW Board of Examiners implemented new policy regarding the approval of trauma specializations for private practitioners of social work. As articles in this issue of Connection address, the effect of trauma is becoming a more regular part of the public discourse regarding mental health, and there has been an increasing demand for trauma-related specializations within provision of mental health services. This is coupled with increasing and long-overdue public discourse on Canada’s legacy of enslavement and colonization and entrenchment of anti-black and anti-Indigenous racism. In addition, there is a continued entrenchment of patriarchy and neo-liberalism, which both aim to place the provision of care into the private sphere: where the labour of caring often falls to women and gender-diverse people, and men are diminished in their role of providing care and their need of care.
DESCRIBING TRAUMA Trauma can be defined as anything that results from experiences that overwhelm an individual’s capacity to cope, such as abuse and neglect, sexualized violence, family conflict, poverty, having a life-threatening illness, undergoing single/repeated and/ or painful medical interventions, accidents, natural disasters, grief/loss, witnessing acts of violence, experiencing war, intergenerational and historical violence. Trauma and traumatic experiences are inherently complex.
IDENTIFYING A NEED The Board of Examiners holds that social work practitioners need to be aware of the need to contend with issues involving colonialism and racism, justice, legal redress, and protection against further harm. In addition, working with trauma-exposed clients can evoke distress in providers that makes it more difficult for them to provide good care. Given the complexity of trauma, practitioners need to take due care to ensure that they are immersed in professional development in various models of trauma therapy and advance their knowledge of vicarious trauma and their own selfawareness, while having a clear understanding of the current and historical political context and the ongoing harm created by neoliberalism. Given the risk to the public and the practitioners the Board of Examiners has created policy regarding the provision of trauma-related specializations in a private setting.
RIGHT-TOUCH REGULATION The NSCSW utilizes right-touch regulation as a to guide its regulation of the profession. Regulators need to understand a problem before jumping to a solution, to make sure that the level of regulation is proportionate to the level of risk to the public. Right-touch regulation is also grounded in the understanding that there is no such thing as zero risk.
Trauma occurs in a broad context that includes individuals’ personal characteristics, life experiences, and current political and historical circumstances. Intrinsic and extrinsic factors influence individuals’ experience and appraisal of traumatic events; expectations regarding danger, protection, and safety; and the course of post trauma growth.
There are eight elements that sit at the heart of right-touch regulation: • Identify the problem before the solution • Quantify and qualify the risks
Trauma recovery is possible but presents specific challenges.
• Get as close to the problem as possible
In the context of exposure to significant adversity, resilience
• Focus on the outcome
is both the capacity of individuals to navigate their way to the psychological, social, cultural, and physical resources that sustain their well-being, and their capacity individually and
• Use regulation only when necessary • Keep it simple
collectively to advocate for resources to be provided in culturally
• Check for unintended consequences
meaningful ways.
• Review and respond to change.
16 Connection | Winter 2022
