Introduction to a Trauma Informed World

What is trauma informed care and who needs to care about it?  We all do! We are all facing life together, at various and unique angles. And, as if we haven’t noticed yet, life can be raw, traumatizing, and sometimes stressful at the least. Every person has a responsibility as we move forward in a more trauma informed society. The mailman, the neighbor, the EMT, the school teacher, the surfer, the homeless; everyone has a role to play.  Many of the issues that get under our skin, are related to trauma in some direct or indirect way.  It is not personal, though we react and respond in a personal way often causing the triggered person to miss another chance at a corrective experience.
 
And why should we care if they have a corrective experience or not? 

1. We are prosocial beings who care about one another.
2. We are all in this boat together.
3. It feels good to treat other people kindly.
4. We learn something from every human interaction we have.
5. We actually form and strengthen positive neural connections through our positive social interactions with others.
6. As we all collectively get better at this, you may have a better experience down the road when you are in need of such a corrective experience.
7. Insert your own amazing reason here.

 
So, what does it mean to be “trauma informed”?  We hear it a great deal in medical settings, or in residential, therapeutic settings.  “Trauma informed care” has been one of the buzz phrases for over ten years now, though has not been very quick to ‘take off’ in the broader sense.  Implementing changes in residential care in order to move towards a trauma informed paradigm, for example, may involve systemic changes in how staff talk to (and about) residents, how resident behaviors are treated (sent to room versus patiently talked through it), and having a focus on coping skills and tools available, versus punishment for ‘behavioral outbursts’.  
 
It is easy to see, why talking about forming a more trauma informed WORLD can be somewhat overwhelming.  What systemic changes will need to take place in our societal expectations and social interactions, and on what scale of the population in order to create lasting effects? This is why I am just writing to you, personally.  See, if you and I can begin a change within, then we have something to focus upon that is not so overwhelming.  We start with learning to understand trauma and how it affects the nervous system, and brain/body connection. As we gain in understanding, we can begin to notice and frame the behaviors and actions of others differently. 
 
The hostile woman in the ER is actually in a legitimate fight response, (a normal limbic system response to danger and threat), which means that finding ways to help her feel safe and heard are the only means of helping her nervous system to calm down.  Spanking the screaming child at Walmart will only serve to further escalate.  Through that may appear to be calming down in one sense (dissociation/freeze response), it is not actually regulation. The chronically depressed woman is not just ‘being negative’, or ‘not trying’, but is actually in a stuck freeze response. The way out of the freeze response is terrifying (fight/flight) and not one of the woman’s doctors or medical team has adopted this theory, nor do they know how to treat it.  
 
These are only a few examples of how trauma is often misunderstood by most of the world’s people.  This blog is dedicated to an exploration of knowledge and examples, with the mission of promoting a deeper understanding of trauma and how we can all begin to take deliberate, small steps to being a stronger and more integrated people; people who care about other people enough to be informed.  Stay tuned for more information weekly, and feel free to comment below.