Trauma-Informed Health Care When You’re Not “Doing Therapy”

Trauma-informed care is more than just the newest catchphrase: It’s a paradigmatic shift away from delineating the traumas themselves and aids the clinician in focusing on a person having traumatic responses. In health care, where long-term trauma therapy is not often the focus of work, it’s necessary to help clinicians better understand how trauma-informed care can help them provide more attuned and more regulating interventions, no matter how short the session time—or even if you’re sitting on a patient’s bedside commode for the meeting. The role of trauma-informed stabilization and psychoeducation in health care will be explored. Recognizing how our bodies respond to adversity, and how this manifests in and is impacted by the experience of illness and health care, can better inform targeted, short-term interventions and crisis work.

The class is experiential and may be evocative, and requires focused, active participation and reflection. Two continuing education hours will be offered upon completion of the course.