Trauma-Informed Care

A traumatic event can be defined as any event that dysregulates a person's mind and body beyond their ability to cope. Trauma itself is the internal experience of the mind and body. Events that cause trauma are relative and vast. What may cause trauma for one person won't cause trauma for another. It all depends on the biochemistry and environment of each person. 

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Trauma research has grown leaps and bounds within the past 18 years with the work of Dr. Bessel Van Der Kolk (writer of The Body Keeps the Score) and other researchers who have advanced our understanding of how trauma impacts folks neurodevelopmentally. In other words, the issues stay in the tissues and the nervous system. For example, folks who have experienced trauma may have a sensitized fight-flight-freeze response.

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Trauma-informed care is any service that acknowledges how trauma impacts the mind and bodies of people who have experienced it. ​

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At our clinic, we follow SAMHSA's 6 guiding principles of trauma-informed care:

• safety

• trustworthiness and transparency 

• choice

• collaboration and mutuality

• empowerment