Trauma-Informed or Not Trauma-Informed?

Trauma-informed care provides a framework that works towards curbing the impact of a psychological trauma attack. This framework also helps survivors to have a feeling being in control of situations and empowered.

What is trauma? It is defined as extreme stress that limits or hinders a person’s ability to cope.

Trauma-informed care incorporates five principles to mediate the impacts of trauma:

1. Safety – service providers in this field ensure that the victims are physically and emotionally safe.
2. Empowerment – the victim s strengths are evaluated and validated.
3. Choice – this is to ensure retraumatization doesn’t take place by helping the victims make their own choices however small.
4. Collaborations and mutuality – this principle helps create relationships between the service provider and the victim creating a bridge into each other’s world.
5. Trustworthiness and transparency – being consistent during treatment helps to build trust and maintain it for quicker healing.

A trauma-informed organization will seek to:

1. Realize the prevalence of trauma and ways to remedy.
2. Recognize the signs and symptoms of trauma among its staff.
3. Respond by making policies, procedures and practices.
4. Resist the occurrence of re-traumatization.

TEACHERS AND TRAUMA

Trauma in school children is inevitable due to the prevalence of trauma in our society.

Teachers would do well to incorporate trauma-informed care to enhance the affected student’s academic and social mastery.

A traumatized student may behave defiantly or aggressively and it’s up to the trauma-informed teacher to recognize the situation and help divert the child’s attention and bring them back to focus.

TRAUMA-INFORMED LEADERSHIP

Trauma informed care can build a person ‘s ability to become a good leader in whatever field applied. Through it, the virtues of true leadership are instilled.

A leader has empathy, takes bold risks, motivates others, has the ability to make decisions even in difficult situations.

Leadership can be traumatic itself since it involves representing others and being responsible for them. What happens when there is unrest among the group being led? When things are not working out positively? A leader who has undergone the training will find it easier going through such situations.

In short, trauma-informed training will be an asset to anyone, in any field, anywhere in this wide, wide world.