TRAUMA-INFORMED THERAPY SESSIONS
The risk is particularly high among people facing systemic inequality. This includes frontline workers, as healthcare, social care, and emergency personnel face trauma as an inherent occupational hazard. But anyone, of any age, and from anywhere, can experience trauma.
Unfortunately, health systems, despite their intent to help, can inadvertently re-traumatise the very people seeking their support.
Trauma-informed care recognises the profound biological, psychological, and social impact of trauma. The core focus of therapy is to avoid re-traumatisation by removing any triggers that may cause them to relive their distress during care.
Whether you are seeking support for trauma or want to learn coping strategies that work for you, therapy with MindNLife can help you heal and move forward.
THE BENEFITS OF TRAUMA-INFORMED CARE
BETTER ENGAGEMENT Trauma-informed mental health care is delivered with coproduction, in other words, delivering services with people rather than for them. It recognises that those who use mental health services hold vital knowledge about what works for them and can advocate for themselves in therapy.2
Naturally, people feel understood since they are included in their therapeutic decisions. They are more likely to attend appointments, take part in planning, speak up about what they need, and return for follow-up as well.
So, making services trauma-aware improves the chances that someone will engage with therapy.
THERAPY IS LESS TRIGGERING
Therapy delivered in trauma-informed contexts gives people real choices and control over their treatment.Active efforts are made to lessen any cues that can trigger the pain of trauma. Reducing these triggers leads to measurable drops in trauma symptoms and distress during treatment.
Additionally, there is evidence that trauma-informed therapy reduces the severity of drug use among people in therapy, alongside improvements in anxiety, depression, and emotional regulation.3
Trauma-informed clinicians do not begin with detailed exposure if someone cannot regulate distress yet. Instead, they introduce grounding and stabilisation skills that build tolerance in people so they can go ahead with difficult conversations.
LOWER LIKELIHOOD OF RE-TRAUMATISATION
The standard therapy approach requires people to recount their distressing experiences, after which therapy is introduced. Trauma-informed therapy is different in that you do not need to open up until you are ready to do so.Therefore, there are fewer instances of people becoming overwhelmed or withdrawing from care because the interaction itself does not activate their fear response.
Research shows that healthcare services are less likely to cause re-traumatisation when they adopt trauma-informed approaches compared with standard care.4
Above all, trauma-informed therapy reduces the disparity in mental health care for people who are underrepresented in services or who have been harmed by services in the past. They include people from minoritised ethnic groups, care-experienced people, survivors of violence, and so on.
SIGNS YOU MAY NEED TRAUMA THERAPY
You do not need to meet every diagnostic criterion for post-traumatic stress disorder to access trauma-informed care.
If your history of trauma affects your daily functioning, you are eligible for trauma-informed mental health care. Some signs you may need trauma therapy include:6
- Being constantly alert to danger
- Experiencing sudden emotional shifts that feel out of proportion to current situations
- Avoiding certain places, conversations, or sensations because they remind you of trauma
- Struggling with sleep
- Feeling disconnected from yourself or the world
- Physical symptoms such as headaches, muscle aches, bowel disturbances, or chronic tension that do not have a clear medical explanation
HOW DOES TRAUMA-INFORMED THERAPY WORK?
Trauma-informed practice is embedded across the health services in many countries. For many countries, such as the UK, it is built on the following six principles:7
- Safety: Your therapist must prioritise your physical and psychological safety during therapy. If your nervous system does not feel sufficiently safe, meaningful trauma processing cannot occur. It includes physical safety in the room, emotional safety in how conversations unfold, and psychological safety in knowing what to expect.
- Trustworthiness and transparency: Trauma-informed therapy is transparent. The therapist explains what they are doing and why they are making certain decisions.
- Choice: A core impact of trauma is the erosion of choice. Therapy can restore your choices by involving you in decisions about pacing and methods of your recovery. You will be offered clear options, and your refusal of anything will be respected.
- Collaboration: Traditionally, therapy places power in the hands of the clinician. Trauma-informed therapy works differently, so the therapist acts as a skilled collaborator rather than an authority figure.
- Empowerment: Those who endure trauma may feel as though they’ve lost control over their lives and that they’re left to face their pain in isolation. During trauma-informed care, active efforts are made to validate the emotional responses that developed as survival strategies.
- Cultural consideration: Traumatic experiences are influenced by culture, identity, and structural inequality. Trauma-informed therapy, therefore, pays attention to racism, gendered violence, disability and displacement, special needs, and so on. So a culturally responsive practice adapts its trauma-informed care according to the cultural context of the patient.
BOOK TRAUMA-INFORMED PRIVATE THERAPY
If you have been exposed to a traumatic experience in the past and would like to take charge of your life ahead, MindNLife is a great place to access trauma-informed therapy.
We are a private psychology practice with a client-centred approach to therapy. Our psychologists bring together a combined experience of over 75 years in supporting people with a traumatic past.
We use clinically proven therapeutic models to help you understand, process, and eventually grow out of your trauma.
If you believe you can benefit from trauma-informed therapy, make an appointment at MindNLife today.
FAQS ABOUT TRAUMA-INFORMED THERAPY
HOW IS TRAUMA-INFORMED CARE DIFFERENT FROM REGULAR THERAPY?
In regular therapy, you must open up about your trauma before appropriate therapy approaches are used. In contrast, trauma-informed care stabilises your nervous system first and does not require you to be vulnerable about your trauma unless you are ready.
WHO NEEDS TRAUMA-INFORMED THERAPY?
Anyone who has experienced physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, violence, neglect, discrimination, or harmful care in the past likely needs trauma-informed therapy.
CAN CHILDHOOD TRAUMA BE TREATED IN ADULTHOOD?
Absolutely. Trauma-informed cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR) are two models of therapy that have been validated to treat childhood trauma in adults.
REFERENCES
- World Health Organisation. (2024, May 27). Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. World Health Organisation. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/post-traumatic-stress-disorder
- McGeown, H., Potter, L., Stone, T., Swede, J., Cramer, H., Horwood, J., Helena, M., Connell, F., Feder, G., & Farr, M. (2023). Trauma‐informed co‐production: Collaborating and combining expertise to improve access to primary care with women with complex needs. Health Expectations, 26(5), 1895–1914. https://doi.org/10.1111/hex.13795
- Han, H.-R., Miller, H. N., Nkimbeng, M., Budhathoki, C., Mikhael, T., Rivers, E., Gray, J., Trimble, K., Chow, S., & Wilson, P. (2021). Trauma informed interventions: A systematic review. PloS One, 16(6), 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0252747
- Grossman, S., Cooper, Z., Buxton, H., Hendrickson, S., Lewis-O’Connor, A., Stevens, J., Wong, L.-Y., & Bonne, S. (2021). Trauma-informed care: Recognising and Resisting re-traumatisation in Health Care. Trauma Surgery & Acute Care Open, 6(1), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1136/tsaco-2021-000815
- Dodge, J., Sullivan, K., Grau, P. P., Chen, C., Sripada, R. K., & Pfeiffer, P. (2023). Retention in Individual Trauma-Focused Treatment Following Family-Based Treatment Among US Veterans. JAMA Network Open, 6(12), e2349098–e2349098. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.49098
- Emsley, E., Smith, J., Martin, D., & Lewis, N. V. (2022). Trauma-informed Care in the UK: Where Are we? a Qualitative Study of Health Policies and Professional Perspectives. BMC Health Services Research, 22(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-022-08461-w
- Office for Health Improvement & Disparities. (2022, November 2). Working definition of trauma-informed practice. GOV.uk; Office for Health Improvement & Disparities. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-definition-of-trauma-informed-practice/working-definition-of-trauma-informed-practice