Trauma-Informed Care

On March 10, 2016 I attended a Trauma-Informed Care training at SDSU. The training was organized  by a second year student of the School Counseling Graduate Program. Shout-out to Christine Ma! 

I was very interested in this topic because I have worked with students in the past who have dealt with trauma yet, I was not aware or certain how to work with them on an individual basis. The training was provided by the local non-profit Harmonium which serves youth and families in many different capacities.

As a current student of the School Counseling program I felt like being more aware of the different ways to approach students/clients dealing with trauma was necessary to become a better advocate for them and their education. As a future school counselor it is important for me to be knowledgable in many different areas since our students will all be facing different challenges.

When talking about trauma informed care I think it is important to understand how all individuals have their own experiences with trauma. Something that was traumatic for an individual can be different for someone else. There are many environments to use the trauma-informed concept. For me it would be in a community where there are many risk factors affecting students while at school.

I thought of students who have experienced trauma outside of school. Some examples of this is domestic violence, sexual abuse, physical abuse, death in the family, accidents etc.

Learning about the different types of trauma can help me understand how I can provide support. There will be times where trauma is system induced and I like knowing that I can provide further outside supports besides in school support/counseling.

I envision a trauma informed community and school climate to consist of building relationships that care and are compassionate. To see more of the similarities between each other than the differences. Students all face different challenges or trauma’s but certain feelings are similar. To understand find that similarity means that you are showing compassion and willing to understand that situation.  I also plan to incorporate collaboration to a lot of the work I do as a counselor. Working with teacher, administrators and outside community resources will create a common purpose to help students succeed. It can also build a common language between the different fields.