What is Trauma-Informed Counselling?
What is Trauma-Informed Counselling?
Written by Ljudmila Petrovic
“Trauma-informed” has become one of those terms that’s been popping up everywhere but what does it really mean? Essentially, “trauma-informed” care means that the structure of care is built around the understanding of how trauma might impact someone’s experience of that care. When someone is seeking out care, trauma can often manifest as hypervigilance or mistrust, a sense of powerlessness or lack of autonomy, fear, flashbacks – amongst other symptoms. Being aware of how this can show up for folks and creating a space that values and cares for trauma survivors is an important part of trauma-informed care. In practice, this looks like a client/service user having full informed consent and agency in making decisions about their care. It can also look like de-stigmatization and understanding how trauma can play out for people (i.e. moving from “what’s wrong with you” to “what happened to you”).
Examples of what trauma-informed counselling can look like in practice are:
Your counsellor going through informed consent, checking in throughout the counselling process, and building a space that feels like the client has autonomy and agency in the process. This includes the client being able to stop the process at any point, withdraw consent, ask more questions, and/or slow down the pace.
A counsellor understanding how trauma may manifest in the counselling space and responding compassionately, rather than stigmatizing a client as “treatment-resistant” or “difficult.”
The physical space of the counselling room being trauma-informed (e.g. the client feels like there are clear exits).
The counsellor ensuring there is containment throughout the process (e.g. grounding or checking in at the end of a session).
Building trust and rapport before asking the client to dive into a retelling of their trauma history or going straight into trauma treatment.
Furthermore, true trauma-informed counselling would be anti-oppressive and also take into consideration not only the individual’s experiences of trauma, but also understanding the client within a bigger picture. This might include understanding how marginalized communities such as BIPOC, 2S/LGBTQIA+, immigrant, and sex worker communities have been historically harmed by psychology and medical systems. Trauma-informed counselling would also acknowledge and consider the client’s larger context and define “trauma” more broadly to include intergenerational, collective, and historical traumas. We live under violent systems that continue to traumatize and harm so many of us. Being actively anti-oppressive and trying to change the conditions in which trauma occurs in the first place is also trauma-informed care.
Trauma survivors deserve a space that not only does not retraumatize them but centers their care and supports them in moving towards healing – whatever that looks like for them.