Why focus on trauma?
When we don’t understand what a person is up against we find ourselves shaming and blaming the person for using their survival strategies.
Survival strategies are whatever the person has to do to survive the trauma. When we have a basic understanding of how trauma affects the brain and body we grow our capacity for empathy, patience and creativity.
The key to trauma-informed care is shifting our mindsets by asking “what happened to you?” instead of “what’s wrong with you?” Asking the question: “What did this person do to survive?” helps to unmask ways in which survival skills show up as “bad behaviors.”
Watch the videos below to understand more about where to start when it comes to understanding how we might respond in a way that does not shame or blame the person for their actions, but help them to grow resilience.
ACE Study
with Sarah Buffie
Unmasking Survival Skills
Learn more about nervous system response to trauma and what to do about it.
The Body Keeps the Score
Learn more about the research on trauma shared in the book written by Bessel van der Kolk, MD, “The Body Keeps the Score”