TRAUMA-INFORMED PRINCIPLES

TRAUMA-INFORMED PRINCIPLES

TIC differs from trauma resolution therapy, although trauma work may be a treatment goal for many clients. Trauma-focused cognitive–behavioral inter- ventions help clients to discuss painful memories and reduce anxiety to a more tolerable level, and to increase their ability to modulate emotion and behavior (Cohen,Mannarino, Kliethermes, &Murray, 2012). Rather than focusing on specific interven- tions, TIC seeks to create a safe environment for clients that enables trust, choice, collaboration, and empowerment across treatment modalities so that clients can experience healthy relationships with others (Elliott, Bjelajac, Fallot, Markoff, & Reed, 2005; Harris & Fallot, 2001). Trauma-informed social workers appreciate how common trauma is, and that violence and victimization can affect psy- chosocial development and lifelong coping strategies; they emphasize client strengths instead of focusing on pathology, and they work on building healthy skills rather than simply addressing symptoms. TIC delivers services in a manner that recognizes the emotional vulnerability of trauma survivors, and most important, the worker avoids inadvertently repeating dynamics of abusive interactions in the helping

106 Social Work Volume 62, Number 2 April 2017

relationship (Elliott et al., 2005; Harris & Fallot, 2001; Knight, 2015; Morrison et al., 2015).

Trauma-specific interventions are aimed at re- ducing symptoms resulting from the negative sequelae of trauma in the life of the individual. TIC models of service delivery, on the other hand, reflect the needs of survivors to connect with others, to be respected, and to become hopeful regarding their own recovery (Bloom & Farragher, 2013; Harris & Fallot, 2001; SAMHSA, 2013). Recog- nizing that presenting problems, in actuality, often are indicators of trauma and interrelated emotional wounds, trauma-informed social workers develop partnerships with consumers in a way that empowers them. Social services can be oppressive, and margin- alized clients often approach services with a mistrust of authority figures and a wariness of professional helpers. Instead of interpreting this response as hos- tility, lack of motivation, or resistance to services, social workers should view it as a normal protective reaction when an individual feels vulnerable. Social workers recognize that the burden is on us to facili- tate trust and that this requires a compassionate and respectful way of engaging with clients.

A trauma-informed approach views presenting problems as maladaptive coping and regards trauma not as a distinct event but as a framework for understanding experiences that can define and deeply affect the core of a person’s identity (Harris & Fallot, 2001; SAMHSA, 2014a). By understand- ing how early adversity shapes a client’s fundamen- tal beliefs about the world, the trauma-informed social worker helps the client to construct new ways to organize feelings, coping skills, behaviors, and relationships (Knight, 2015; Morrison et al., 2015). The social worker can conceptualize nega- tive behaviors as coping strategies that were once adaptive in the traumagenic environment but which have become self-destructive or harmful across different domains of human functioning. By viewing the collective experiences of the individ- ual in this holistic way, client behaviors that seem irrational, self-destructive, or even abusive are re- conceptualized as survival skills that once helped the individual respond to threatening encounters but which now impede the ability to tolerate distress and set boundaries (Levenson, 2014). Con- sistent with a strengths-based approach to posttrau- matic growth, trauma-informed workers can help clients change problematic behavior, manage crises more successfully, and parent their own children in

a more nurturing and responsive fashion (Levenson, 2014; SAMHSA, 2014a). These strategies are es- sential to interrupting the intergenerational cycle of victimization (Harris & Fallot, 2001; Larkin et al., 2014).

TIC prescribes a set of basic principles: safety, trust, choice, collaboration, and empowerment (Elliott et al., 2005; Fallot & Harris, 2009; Harris & Fallot, 2001; SAMHSA, 2014a). These concepts are consis- tently interwoven and applied throughout the intake, assessment, engagement, treatment, and termination phases of social work services. The principles, when infused into practice, minimize the likelihood of repeating dysfunctional dynamics in the helping rela- tionship and capitalize on the opportunity to create a corrective experience for consumers of services.

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