Over seventy percent of adults have struggled with at least one traumatic event, and thirteen million have PTSD annually because of their trauma.
Many people fail to get the help they need because they are afraid of re-traumatization, where the therapy or treatment itself reinforces traumatic experiences or causes secondary trauma. Healing can only occur where this fear is taken away and clients are given the power to control their recovery.
What is Trauma-Informed Care?
Trauma-informed care offers a form of therapy that is centered around the unique needs of those who have experienced trauma. With trauma-informed care, clients can enjoy trauma healing by building safety and trust with their care center and therapists. Clients also receive empowerment through their direct participation and control over treatment.
Trauma-Informed Care Provides Trauma Healing
Trauma healing is an essential part of any recovery. Without addressing any underlying trauma, it can continue to manifest in the form of:
- Mental health symptoms
- Physical symptoms
- Triggers
These triggers or symptoms can lead to the need to self-medicate with drugs or alcohol, encourage a relapse, and cause compounding secondary issues like the development of depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, or health problems related to poor sleep quality.
With trauma healing, you can combat any underlying trauma contributing to your overall mental and physical well-being while also improving your chances of a successful recovery and long-term sobriety.
Trauma-Informed Care Offers Safety and Trust
When you work with trained facilities for your dual diagnosis needs, you get a chance to work with professionals you trust and build safety in your therapeutic environment by making choices about things such as locking or unlocking doors, sitting in certain positions, meeting at certain times of day, or anything else relevant to your needs.
Healing services are adapted to your responses and your views in whatever way helps set you up for safety and trust from the beginning to the end of your program.
Trauma-Informed Care Empowers Clients
For many clients, trauma has taken away their sense of control and power. A significant aspect of trauma-informed care is to give that empowerment back by letting you make decisions and choices about your interactions with staff members and your treatment program.
With trauma-informed care, you might:
- Choose what information you want to be shared with other providers
- Decide what information about your trauma you want others to know
- Determine the type of therapists with whom you want to work
- Choose how you want to be addressed, what sounds are acceptable, and what words might not be
- Inform your therapists which responses you need from them in order to better support your recovery
Why Choose Liberty House
With Liberty House, we address dual diagnosis needs by offering trauma-informed care. When you reach out to our team, we provide an initial assessment to determine the most appropriate level of care. We’ll start you with a detox program, after which we will transition you to the remainder of your residential care plan.
We work hard to offer clients unique addiction and mental health therapies that ensure good physical and psychological well-being. For example, our programs can provide:
- Disease education
- Health education
- Diet and nutrition
- Physical wellness and health programs
- Sleep and hygiene education
- Stress management
- Physical therapy
- Physical wellness education
Each of these programs can be added to your individual, group, and family therapy plans.
Review Your Therapy Plan
With trauma-informed care, you actively review your recommended course of action and any therapies therein. You’ll have an opportunity to involve yourself directly in planning how your services are received to some extent, making sure that you feel safe and empowered in your individual and group therapy sessions.
Select Safe and Trustworthy Team Members
You’ll also have a role in choosing the professionals with whom you work. Building safety and trust is an essential part of trauma-informed care, and that can only be achieved when you are involved in determining which team members would offer the best therapeutic relationship for you.
Each person struggles with trauma individually, so there might be a specific gender with which you are more comfortable or just a personality type.