Trauma can be at the center of a number of maladaptive behaviors. Focusing on just the behaviors and not addressing the history, conditions, and things that sustain the trauma does not allow for holistic healing of the person. The clinical teams at CIVIQ Health have training in trauma-informed therapy as well as a dedication to treating a trauma survivor with compassion and dignity as they are more than their trauma or resulting behaviors.
Trauma can be any experience or result of an event that is severely distressing. Essence of trauma-informed therapy applies to trauma-informed care on the part of providers. At CIVIQ Health we value and support all clients in providing a safe place for them to address their addiction and/or mental health needs in a collaborative atmosphere with empowering staff supports. CIVIQ Health values the empowerment that clients can gain in their resiliency after surviving a trauma. This focus on client’s choice and staff’s transparent and trusting approach to harness resiliency to cope, adapt and reduce effects of trauma.
Trauma-Informed Care
The above-mentioned safety, transparency, choice, supportive collaboration and empowerment are all principles of trauma-informed care CIVIQ staff hope to integrate into the trauma therapy for addiction and trauma-focused therapy for adults. Staff draw from a multitude of styles contributed by trauma experts including Bessel Van Der Kolk and Gabor Mate. The work of Van Der Kolk and Mate explore and define trauma in the view of how trauma-based therapy should be thought to include events, the effects of the events, the change in how new events are experienced, how the trauma is felt and stored in the body, as well as how trauma can effect behavior (namely in the formation and occurrence of addiction).
The Diversity and Complexity of Trauma
A long-term study of Adverse Childhood Events (ACE Study) asserts that 12.5% of questionnaire participants in the study report four of more adverse events occurring in their lifetime. This information has been used to cite a possible increase in lasting impacts. These can be ways that can manifest in a number of ways such as, but not limited to, the experience of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, anxiety, depression, inter-relationship problems, addiction issues and others. These can be responses of clients to adjust to the traumatic or disturbing event. A trauma-informed therapist will consider behaviors with a trauma-informed approach and address them with more than behavioral modification. This looking at the whole person allows for a deeper exploration of the clients attempts to survive after a trauma that may no longer be beneficial. When the client is ready to grow beyond this trauma-focused therapy for adults in substance use programs harness their strength and resilience they already posses to affect change that can happen in thoughts, feelings, and behavior.
Addiction Treatment and Trauma Therapy
Trauma-focused therapy for addiction involves identifying the behavior of using any substance as a response to a traumatic event. When examining substance use through focusing on the response to trauma rather than a behavior independent of past experiences, as well as considering that substance use is related to the coping of a past trauma, it allows the clients to be seen as individuals that can be empowered through their strengths to reach their recovery goals. While engaged with the supportive and empowering staff and clinicians at CIVIQ Health, clients are invited to explore and realize the impact of traumatic events they have undergone in a safe and supportive place. The clinicians make efforts for the clients to be seen and understood as a person more than just their trauma. This invitation and observation of clients as people who wield strength and power to affect their futures allow them to work to reestablish safety in a supportive environment. This safety should allow clients to identify aspects of what triggers their trauma responses and any other impacts on themselves, their relationships, or their operations in their daily lives. Upon these realizations the clients can work with the clinicians to develop new healthy coping skills that can be practiced in therapeutic communities are varying levels of care. The goal when these skills can be integrated into the clients’ lives would be able to decrease traumatic symptoms and continue the practice of them to effect and change their daily experience and improve emotionally, cognitively, behaviorally, and relationally.
Clinicians and staff at CIVIQ health are dedicated to the trauma-informed therapy model and staff are dedicated to providing a safe, accepting and empowering environment with which clients can gain insight into themselves and harness their power to succeed.