What’s this buzzword “trauma-informed” mean? Trauma-informed means that the therapist has been trained to see client behaviors as symptoms of trauma, instead of as dysfunction.
Why is being trauma-informed useful? Understanding things from a trauma perspective allows a therapist to view the client as a whole person from the angle of trauma, with the behaviors as a function of trauma, as a means to an end, a repeating of negative patterns, a way they adapted to their environment. It allows the therapist to see the client outside of negative labels such as: willful, inappropriate, manipulative, or staff-splitting. This is especially useful for people who have developed personality disorders like borderline personality disorder. Seeing clients differently allows us to act differently and treat the behaviors with more care and usefulness.
Trauma-Informed vs. Trauma Specialist Is a trauma-informed therapist the same as a trauma specialist? No. There has been a big push to get therapists trained in trauma-informed care over the past 5 years or so, which is wonderful. This often consists of a single introductory-level training which may be only a couple of hours. A trauma specialist, by contrast, has been training in trauma-related treatments for at least dozens of hours, generally over many years. Personally, I have trained hundreds of hours over a decade in various trauma-related treatments over a decade.
Autumn Hahn is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist practicing at Clear Mind Group in Florida, Georgia, Nevada, New York, and Virginia. Call 954-612-9553 for a consultation. Follow Autumn on Twitter & Facebook.
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