What does it mean to be Trauma-informed?

16 Key's to being Trauma-informed

What does it mean to be Trauma-informed?

16 Keys

1. A trauma-informed professional doesn’t pathologize. We don’t label or put anyone in boxes or categories. We honor complexity.

2. We’re curious about what happened and what’s happening now. Not judging anything as wrong or bad. Simply bringing curiosity.

3. We’re not focused on behaviors as symptoms that need fixing.

4. We humanize and honor the complex ecosystem that makes up each individual we come in contact with.

5. We allow for the work to be client lead without an agenda by the therapist or helper.

6. We know the client knows best. We trust that with the right environmental conditions people heal. We help create those conditions.

7. We are here to help people become mindful experts of their own internal experience. Not to be the experts they need to rely on.

8. Bringing a proactive approach rather than a reactive approach to healing is a trauma-informed orientation.

9. We don’t focus on fixing because we know nothing is broken.

10. We’re focused on what’s driving behavior, not the behavior itself. 

11. We work collaboratively rather than being the one that knows. This way of working isn’t hierarchical like much of the western medical model.

12. We’re emphasizing containment rather than catharsis out of respect to the nervous system and each individuals unique capacities.

13. We honor adaptations because they were brilliant technologies that saved our lives at one time and deserve honoring.

14. We work at making the shift from a western medical industrial mindset of objectification to one of authentic empathy and curiosity. We bring beginners mind.

15. We always put connection first. Connection comes before correction. 

16. We hold it all in the spirit of interconnectedness. Your well-being is directly related to my well-being. 

Helping illuminate the contrast between the western medical industrial philosophies that dominate healthcare, and trauma-informed approaches. A trauma-informed approach differs greatly both in what we’re doing and in how we do it, and mostly in how we are being as humans and helpers.

Thank you for reading. I hope this was informative and I’d enjoy hearing from you.

Patrick

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