Did you know that up to 70% of adults will experience a traumatic situation in their lives? About 20% of these people will develop a mental health disorder or a trauma-related response because of that situation. This response may include substance use disorders. Addictive drugs seemingly numb unhealed pain, but they do not truly help people heal from that pain. Because most people need help healing from trauma, it makes sense that trauma-informed care should be an essential part of professional mental health and addiction treatment programs.
Trauma counseling can ease distressing and debilitating symptoms of substance use disorders and other mental health issues. While many different types of therapy and forms of care can be highly beneficial for people with addictions, trauma-informed care is often part of customized addiction treatment programs. Finding mental health therapist jobs is easy at Behavioral Health Jobs when you are beginning your search for a new position.
What Is Trauma?
Mental health professionals refer to trauma as the exposure to threatened or actual situations involving serious injury, sexual violation, or death in one or more of these ways:
- Directly experiencing the situations
- Experiencing extreme or repetitive exposure to negative details of the situations
- Learning that the situation occurred to a close friend or family member
- Witnessing the situations in person as they occurred to others
Some examples of traumatic events include car accidents, mass shootings, natural disasters, and sexual assault. Trauma results from situations that severely threaten or violate the safety of a person or their loved ones. Many people seeking therapy or counseling could be suffering from the impact of traumatic situations. Professional therapists and counselors should work to prevent additional trauma that could occur while treating their patients.
What Is Trauma-Informed Care?
Trauma-informed care is when mental healthcare providers engage with a patient to allow for effective treatment without the danger of retraumatization. Therapists and counselors can offer trauma-informed care only when they know the trauma their patients have experienced and understand how situations in the past negatively impact their patients’ current lives. The principles of a trauma-informed approach when it comes to mental health care include:
Safety
Treatment providers and organizations should make their facilities safe and offer therapy and counseling to allow patients to feel safe.
Transparency and Trustworthiness
Therapists and counselors must be honest and open about the therapy and counseling process and the rules that govern the service.
Peer Support
To help patients feel safe, therapists and counselors can incorporate stories of others who have experienced similar trauma in their treatment of their patients. This strategy can also help patients trust the therapy or counseling process and feel hopeful about their recovery.
Mutuality and Collaboration
Therapists and counselors should serve as partners, not authorities, seeking to assist rather than direct patients throughout their healing journey.
Empowerment, Choice, and Voice
To assist patients in recovery, therapists and counselors should encourage and recognize patients’ choices, voices, and strengths. The treatment process must work from the belief that patients are resilient and can take charge of their healing journey.
Historical, Cultural, and Gender Awareness
Therapists and counselors should be aware of and set aside any pre-determined assumptions about patients’ identities. Mental healthcare providers should not treat or respond to patients based on assumptions about their historical, cultural, or gender-based experiences. Instead, therapists and counselors should respond based on the unique narrative patients provide to them.
Learning to Perform Trauma-Informed Care
Helping people heal from the trauma they experienced can be enriching. If you are interested in assisting people to heal from trauma, you can find a wide variety of jobs in the behavioral health field.
Some popular jobs that use trauma-informed care include:
- Mental health counselor
- Social Worker
- Psychologist
- Marriage and family therapist
- Substance abuse counselor
- Child and adolescent psychiatrist
Find a New Career at Behavioral Health Jobs Today
If you are interested in pursuing a career that uses trauma-informed care, start your search on Behavioral Health Jobs. You can browse through our extensive job database to find the perfect position. Also, upload your resume so employers can easily find you when they are searching for candidates. Create an account today and take the first step in your new career.
