Instructor: Dr. Dawn-Elise Snipes PhD, LPC-MHSP, LMHC

Podcast Host: Counselor Toolbox & Happiness Isn’t Brain Surgery

Objectives

~ Define Trauma Informed Prevention and Treatment Objectives

~ Highlight Treatment Issues

~ Understand When and How to Make Referrals to Trauma Specific Services

~ Explore Trauma Specific Treatment Models, Integrated Models for Trauma, and Emerging Interventions

~ Trauma-informed care (TIC) places considerable effort in creating an environment that helps clients recognize the impact of trauma and determine the next course of action in a safe place.

~ TIC also focuses on prevention strategies to avoid retraumatization in treatment, to promote resilience, and to prevent the development of trauma-related disorders

Establish Safety

~ Types of Safety

~ Personal Safety

~ Safety from trauma symptoms

~ Strategies

~ Help the client label and gain more control over trauma symptoms when they arise and use grounding techniques when flooded with feelings/memories.

~ Establish some specific routines in individual, group, or family therapy (e.g., have an opening ritual or routine when starting and ending a group session). A structured setting can provide a sense of safety and familiarity. ***Use carefully

~ Facilitate a discussion on safe and unsafe behaviors. Have clients identify, on paper, behaviors that promote safety and behaviors that feel unsafe for them today.

~ Refer to Seeking Safety: A Treatment Manual for PTSD and Substance Abuse (Najavits, 2002a). This menu-based manual covers an array of treatment topics.

~ Encourage the development of a safety plan.

~ Creating Safety

~ Help client feel in control and prepared for the unexpected.

~ Encourage thinking about how supports will respond and connect in the event of another crisis.

~ Encourage thinking about future steps that could help make the client safer/prevent a recurrence.

~ People with histories of trauma and substance abuse are more likely to engage in high-risk behaviors

~ Early treatment should focus on helping clients stop using unsafe coping mechanisms, such as substance abuse, self-harm, and replace them with healthy coping strategies

~ Balance preparation and the realization that one cannot prepare for all possible traumatic events.

Establish Safety

~ Scenarios

~ Date rape

~ Home invasion

~ Natural disaster (Fires)

~ House fire

~ Child neglect

~ Car accident

Prevent Retraumitization

~ Examples of unintentional trauma

~ Compassionate inquiry into a client’s history can seem similar to the interest shown by a perpetrator many years before.

~ Direct confrontation about behaviors can be seen by someone who has been abused as a sign of impending assault

~ Strategies

~ Be sensitive to the needs of clients who have experienced trauma

~ Do not ignore clients’ symptoms and demands when clients with trauma are triggered and act out; doing so may replicate the original trauma.

~ Walking out of a tense group

~ Avoiding particular clients or topics

~ Be mindful that efforts to control and contain a client’s behaviors remind them of being trapped as part of the trauma.

~ Listen for specific triggers driving the client’s reaction and help the client identify these cues and thereby understand their reactions and behaviors.

~ Education can play a pivotal role in enhancing motivation, in normalizing experiences, and in creating a sense of safety.

~ Understand the client’s expectations and reasons for seeking help

~ Educate the client and other family members about the program

~ After obtaining acknowledgment of a trauma history, gi