In some ways it is obvious – when someone has experienced trauma which has left them avoidant, emotionally shut down, acting out or crippled with anxiety, then you might recommend they see a trauma informed therapist, but what does that even mean?

Trauma Informed Therapy is a practice embedded in fundamental principles of empowering and equipping a patient with skills and knowledge, prior to helping them confront and process their unresolved traumatic experiences.

This approach honours the importance of:

• The patient setting the pace of therapy and feeling safe/safely held (therapeutic containment)
• Collaboration (ie awareness of power dynamics within the therapy)
• Information and knowledge re effects of trauma and nervous system activation shared to empower a patient
• Keen attention to autonomic-nervous-system regulation
• Attending to the somatic experiences of unprocessed trauma

This approach to therapy is fundamental for people who have been psychologically harmed during experiences where they felt powerless and terrified, which means that it is also the treatment approach indicated for many other psychological disorders in the anxiety and mood spectrum which are likely linked to developmental experiences/deficits.