What Is Trauma Ready Therapy?

It’s Friday afternoon at 4:45pm. You’re about to go on a trip and are finishing your last session  of the day with a fairly stable client you’ve been treating for adjustment disorder with depression and anxiety. And then it happens. Your client shares information about their past they have shared with no one else. They tell you this, and they are looking at you expectantly for your response. 

If you are imagining (and/or experiencing) anxiety trying to wrack your brain for what your past trauma training told you to do, then congratulations! You are human. You are also not alone in this. Experiencing an emotional and physiological response to what a client has shared is very normal, and it means you are empathetic.

What creates the difference in this scenario is how you respond to this very vulnerable and real moment. 

A trauma informed therapist can still respond to this in a way that appears dismissive, even if that is not the intent. A trauma ready therapist can respond in a way that helps the client feel heard and understood while responding to and respecting their own needs as a very human, and not robotic, therapist. 

Authenticity and managing one’s own nervous system is the beginning key to this. This practice is not well taught in most grad school programs, and is a consistent work-in-progress. With this said, focus on these areas can help therapists answer questions such as “How do I do my own self-care?” “How do I manage my own nervous system?” “How do I hold space for these difficult conversations in a way that respects myself and my clients?”

I am here to share how to be a Trauma Ready therapist with other providers who are afraid of burnout and overwhelmed from scenarios like the one I just described. It’s not easy, but it is easier to build a sustainable and healthy practice ready for the different scenarios we face. 

I hope you’ll continue to join me as I continue to share more! What would you like to know more about?