What does trauma-informed mean?
It is a program, organization, or system that is trauma-informed and recognizes the widespread impact of trauma in clients, families, staff, and others involved with the system and understands potential paths for recovery. Trauma-informed advocacy fully integrates knowledge about trauma in policies, procedures, and practices and seeks to actively resist re-traumatization.
The six key principles fundamental to a trauma-informed approach include:
Principle 1: Safety
People are at their best and most productive when they feel emotionally and physically safe. When threatened, the stress response system is activated, causing a more reactive response instead of a thoughtful response. By prioritizing the physical and emotional safety of employees, clients, friends and family, people are empowered to be more responsive and less reactive. Science has revealed that without a sense of safety, the pre-frontal cortex cannot develop or use the executive functions needed to carry out decision-making, goalsetting, planning, task initiation and self-controlb . Because of this, people learn and work better in environments where they feel safe and supported. A safe and healthy workplace is one that takes a strategic and comprehensive approach to creating conditions that maximize the health and well-being of staff. In turn, these conditions improve quality of service and organizational performance.
Principle 2: Trust and Transparency
Trustworthiness involves providing clarity and establishing rules and expectations for each staff position. It also involves ensuring accessibility to information. Trustworthiness means maintaining respectful and professional boundaries, prioritizing privacy and confidentiality, and ensuring interactions and rules are consistent with an emphasis placed on follow-through. Trustworthiness also recognizes that that people in marginalized groups may need more time to develop rapport and working relationships. Professionals can be trustworthy by doing what they say they will do and address any issues that arise. Trust takes time to build and involves actively participating in a give-and-take relationship. A clear, consistent and predictable environment creates stability and builds trust. A stable environment calms the nervous system and allows people to feel safe. Setting clear and consistent, stable boundaries also allows people to be aware of personal boundaries. Professionals who are transparent answer questions, disclose information clearly, and work to ensure information is understood. Trustworthy and transparent professionals are honest, especially about difficult situations.
Principle 3: Peer Support and Mutual Self Help
Peer support and mutual self-help occurs when people with shared common experiences or challenges come together as equals to give and receive help. This can happen through informal peer support, such as getting coffee with colleagues and sharing professional experiences. Another example is parents sharing stories about the challenges of raising children. Guidance here is not designed for formal peer support staff, but rather to provide universal standards for people who occupy a variety of positions across systems of care. Peer support builds healing relationships, providing individuals the opportunity to process and learn from their own lived experiences and the experiences of others. Peer support can reduce the impact of secondary traumatic stress and to experience professional growth. Themes from peer conversations may be used to advocate for professional learning opportunities or organizational changes.
Principle 4: Collaboration
Collaboration is creating an environment of “doing with” someone rather than “doing to or for” someone. Collaborative interactions and protocols create space for people to explore circumstances and options from their own perspectives. Collaboration and mutuality are centered upon understanding how individuals feel regarding their readiness to engage with programs and services. Provide individuals ways to contribute to planning services and shaping program activities and organizational policies.
Principle 5: Empowerment, Voice and Choice
Empowerment means:
Recognizing and building on individual strengths and skills. Highlighting supportive cultural, community or spiritual practices and connections.
Communicating a realistic sense of hope for the future.
Fostering an atmosphere of validation and affirmation.
Empowerment is different than cheerleading. Rather than providing a direct compliment or encouragement, empowerment is asking someone to identify capacities and strengths.It also includes the use of strengths-based language focused on solutions rather than problems. An organization should allow people to contribute to its overall mission and goals. It allows people to contribute in meaningful ways based on their experience and expertise to develop policies and procedures.
Principle 6: Humility and Responsiveness
Humility and responsiveness enable individuals and organizations to respond respectfully and effectively to people of all backgrounds in a manner that recognizes, affirms and values their worth. It involves critical self-reflection, lifelong learning and growth, a commitment to recognizing and sharing power, and a desire to work toward institutional accountability. Trauma-informed and healing-centered providers actively recognize and address racial and cultural stereotypes and biases and provide culturally responsive and culturally affirming services. They leverage the healing value of traditional cultural connections and highlight personal strengths when working with those who have traditionally faced discrimination and address historical trauma and present-day racism. The trauma-informed and healing-centered provider understands that the concept of resilience has been applied to people of color in ways that are biased, stigmatizing, and pathologizing. Instead of focusing interventions only on the internal resources of the person doing the coping, the trauma-informed and healing-centered provider works to address the systems and narratives that discriminate and cause people to need to cope.
References
The Six Principles of Trauma-Informed Care, Texas Health and Human Services, July 2024, www.hhs.texas.gov/sites/default/files/documents/six-principles-trauma-informed-care.pdf.
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