Looking Through a Trauma-Informed Lens
At Friend To Friend, we work with clients of many backgrounds and with many different experiences. In order to offer the most supportive services, we use a trauma-informed lens. This means that we are committed to creating an environment that fosters safety, trustworthiness, peer support, collaboration, empowerment, and that takes into account the cultural, historical, and gender issues that people face. It also means that we recognize that peoples’ behavior can often be rooted in a trauma response.
What is Trauma? Trauma is defined as an emotional response to an awful event. Traumatic events are understood to be events that overwhelm our “usual” coping mechanisms and often leave us feeling powerless. These events can include natural disasters, physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, war, car crashes, and many others. Reactions to trauma can be both immediate and long-term. Immediate reactions include feelings of shock and denial and long-term reactions can range from experiencing flashbacks, nightmares, and feelings of guilt, to challenges with relationships and physical manifestations of symptoms such as headaches and stomach aches.
According to the National Council of Behavioral Health, 70% of adults in The United States have experienced some type of traumatic event at least once in their lives. As a counselor at Friend to Friend, I interact daily with survivors of traumatic experiences. The experiences can range from the acute trauma of experiencing a recent sexual assault to the more chronic trauma of experiencing years of ongoing domestic violence to the complex trauma of experiencing abuse as a child and then later experiencing an additional assault or act of violence.
I have learned that just as peoples’ reactions to trauma can be different, so are their coping mechanisms. Thankfully, as pervasive and widespread as the experience of trauma is, with the right combination of therapy, support, and self-compassion our brains have the amazing capability to heal from trauma. At Friend To Friend, we hope to provide all of our clients with an opportunity to access services that encourage and promote a journey that allows healing and hope.
-Winona Coveney, MSW, LCSWA