7 Strategies for a Trauma-Informed Practice
Photo by Deniz Altindas on Unsplash
Trauma Informed or trauma responsive practice is in essence, creating a way of being with the families and children you interact with through which they have the opportunity to heal some aspects of the trauma they have experienced. This might sound scary if you’re not a psychotherapist or counselor… hang in there!
As we talked about in the previous post, trauma impacts every system in the body and brain. When a child experiences adversity like abuse, neglect, chronic fear, a natural disaster and they lack a community of attuned, attentive, responsive, responsible caregivers, their brain and body hold the consequences of that. There are disruptions to their arousal state, their mood and emotions, their ability to form and benefit from relationships with others, and their thinking and communication.
Being “trauma responsive” is a dynamic state- there’s no end goal at which point you can check the box and move on in your practice.
The National Child Traumatic Stress Network has 7 components of trauma-informed practice. In this post, we’ll discuss how to operationalize or implement these strategies in your own practice.
Make sure you’re trained and supported!
The process of working with families on their trauma experiences is tender and emotional. Doing any kind of work or therapy to support trauma recovery is challenging for you as the provider as well as for the family you’re working with. Remember to work within your scope of practice and expertise. Before you begin asking families about their trauma experience, make sure you have the training and support you need to stay regulated and respond in a respectful and helpful way.
Implementing the 7 Components of Trauma-Informed Care in Your Practice
Routinely screen for trauma exposure and related symptoms
Seek out training and use “low resolution” screeners like the ACE Screener on new clients
If you haven’t already, invest in training to do more specific trauma measures such as the Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics metric on clients who have experienced early adversity
Collaborate with parents/caregivers and consult with other providers on the child’s team and ask questions about trauma and stress exposure
Use evidence-based, culturally responsive assessment and treatment for traumatic stress and associated mental health symptoms.
Keep up with the literature by subscribing to resources like your professional association journal and other databases
Use tools like Google Scholar to regularly search for new studies and papers about topics like trauma informed care, the impact of trauma on child development, and trauma-focused treatment models
Ensure you include robust questions in your intake and evaluation about your client’s culture, beliefs, affiliations, and values. When you start off treatment with at least a little bit of information about your client’s culture, you can better filter your intervention ideas through that lens and approach families with interventions that are attuned to their beliefs.
Make resources available to children, families, and providers on trauma exposure, its impact, and treatment
Provide information about child development, the impact of trauma & stress, and other resources to families and providers in various ways
With families, you can communicate information during parent meetings, in your evaluation and progress reports, and in written or video form
For other providers, share your knowledge about your client and what may be driving their symptoms and behaviors, including respectful information about how they are impacted by trauma. Of course, remember to have all appropriate releases of information from caregivers prior to sharing any information with other professionals.
For children, use age-appropriate games and activities to teach basic concepts. For example, I often talk with children about their “lizard brain” and their “kid brain” and how when they get scared or angry, their lizard brain takes over and makes their body do unsafe things like run away or throw something. When they are more calm, their kid brain takes over and allows them to learn new things, play with friends, and make sense of directions from their teacher.
Engage in efforts to strengthen the resilience and protective factors of children and families impacted by and vulnerable to trauma.
Provide linkage to community resources to clients such as free legal services, adult education or accessible play groups.
Focus on building and strengthening relationships which are a key element in preventing traumatic symptoms and treating them. This might mean your relationship with the family and it could also mean helping the family better access their natural supports like neighbors, extended family, or peers in their community or faith groups.
Address parent and caregiver trauma and its impact on the family system.
Make space to talk with caregivers about their own experience of caregiving. If it makes sense, make referrals to psychotherapy or other supportive services for the adults in your client’s life.
Build and nurture your working relationship with the parents of your clients so you are a trusted and safe person for them to share their experiences. Even though you aren’t providing counseling for them directly, all positive relationships contribute to healing and are worth the time and effort!
Emphasize continuity of care and collaboration across child-service systems.
As early in treatment as you can, seek out releases of information to collaborate with other providers on your client’s team. Building a strong care team allows the family to be surrounded by a network rather than several individual, siloed providers. It also means all of the providers, if there are more than one, get the benefit of each other's knowledge and expertise.
When it’s time to discharge, ensure there is adequate time to pass services on appropriately if needed. If services are ending, ensure that caregivers have access to the people they can reach out to if a need arises in the future.
Maintain an environment of care for staff that addresses, minimizes, and treats secondary traumatic stress, and that increases staff wellness.
This goes beyond “self care” for providers! Managers can take concrete steps to ensure that their staff are cared for such as providing mentoring for all staff regardless of tenure, respecting time off boundaries and breaks during the work day, and encouraging staff to build meaningful professional relationships with their colleagues.
In solo practice, engage in regular, consistent reflective practice or mentoring to get support with cases as well as with your own reactions and responses. Trauma work is incredibly emotionally taxing for providers and it’s impossible to do it alone for very long!
What does your trauma-responsive practice look like? What elements are you in a position to add or build on to continue your trauma-responsive journey?
Resources & References
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Disclaimer
The information provided on this blog is for informational purposes only. It is not intended to assess, diagnose, treat, or prevent any medical or mental health conditions. The content shared on this site should not be considered a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician, mental health professional, or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical or psychological condition. Never disregard professional advice or delay seeking it because of something you have read on this blog.
