By: Meryl Lawrence
Trauma informed care is a term many keep hearing about more and more, but not many know what it means. Trauma informed care is relatively new and is not a practice that has been adopted uniformly everywhere. In 2001, the term started being used by therapists and clinicians in order to support those who have experienced trauma and how it impacts their current lives and behavior.
Oftentimes, trauma carries with it a certain stigma – that only communities predominantly of low income, high crime, or racially diverse populations feel and experience the effects of trauma, but that is far from the case. Individuals who have experienced trauma interpret and interact with the world differently making it vitally important to be trauma informed. According to the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, 70% of the U.S. population has experience some sort of traumatic event or experience in their lifetime, which is about 223.4 million people.
Trauma does not discriminate at any age, no matter what community or socioeconomic background you may be a part of. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration defines trauma as a result from an event, series of events, or set of circumstances that is experienced by an individual as physically or emotionally harmful or threatening and that has lasting adverse effects on the individual’s functioning and physical, social, emotional, or spiritual well-being. Trauma informed care is a training that is grounded in an understanding of and responsiveness to the impact of trauma that emphasizes physical, psychological, and emotional safety for both providers and survivors to rebuild a sense of control and empowerment.
It’s important that we all be trauma informed so that we know how to support and interact with those who have survived trauma. We can do this by creating a safe place, utilizing strategies so that you do not re-traumatize these individuals, and helping them on a path of recovery from a strengths based approach as they need additional support with emotional regulation, social relationships, and executive functioning.
Simply put, it’s about taking the time to educate oneself to understand how to effectively create a safe place for all individuals who have experienced trauma by meeting them where they are and providing them with supportive coping skills to help regulate their emotions and choices throughout the day. It’s a term that schools and businesses in particular should be aware of as trauma affects a large amount of the population.
It’s important to understand that children and adults both process trauma and self-regulate differently and trauma informed care training adapts to its audience to be most effective. The East Greenwich School Department recognizes the importance of training teachers, administration, and support staff in trauma informed care techniques. Thrive Behavioral Health, the state’s designated Community Behavioral Health Center for Kent County, has been brought in specifically to meet the needs of those working in education with our community’s youth. In that type of training, you address school personnel and administration on what trauma is and how it affects a child’s learning and their overall development. However, in a lot of training, there will always be a review of what trauma is, how trauma can manifest itself – physically, socially, and psychologically, and then go into details regarding how to administer a trauma informed approach at a higher level – no matter the audience.
I have personally conducted approximately a half dozen trauma informed care trainings – mostly in the education environment. It’s clear to me they are having a positive impact because I am
being asked to provide them on a regular basis to certain schools as they continue to see the need and interest for the information the training provides.
As we stare down a brand new year in 2024, one of my primary goals as it relates to these trainings in the communities I serve is to provide knowledge and education within the school department on what trauma is and how it affects children, specifically in school and their behavior towards learning.
Trauma informed care is an evidence based practice for individuals who have experienced trauma to support their overall wellbeing by taking an approach of understanding what an individual may have experienced in their lifetime. If you would like to learn more about trauma informed care and find out where you can participate in a training, I invite you to reach out to me at [email protected].
Meryl Lawrence is a school services specialist with Warwick-based Thrive Behavioral Health. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Applied Science in Psychology from Stonehill College.