A comprehensive review of the litera- ture on complex trauma suggests seven primary domains of impairment ob- served in exposed children: attachment, biology, affect regulation, dissociation (ie, alterations in consciousness), behav- ioral regulation, cognition, and self-con- cept.
These 4 Cs are: Calm, Contain, Care, and Cope 2 Trauma and Trauma-Informed Care Page 10 34 (Table 2.3). These 4Cs emphasize key concepts in trauma-informed care and can serve as touchstones to guide immediate and sustained behavior change.
Part 1: Five B's of Child Physical Abuse: Bruises, Burns, Bones, Bellies, and Brains (Webinar)
So, as discussed in the definition, there are three parts to trauma: event, experience of the event, and effect.
Healthcare organizations, nurses and other medical staff need to know the six principles of trauma-informed care: safety; trustworthiness and transparency; peer support; collaboration and mutuality; empowerment, voice and choice; and cultural issues.
SAMHSA defines trauma as the three Es: events, the experience of those events, and the long- lasting adverse effects of the event.
The trauma-informed approach is guided four assumptions, known as the “Four R's”: Realization about trauma and how it can affect people and groups, recognizing the signs of trauma, having a system which can respond to trauma, and resisting re-traumatization.
The Five Guiding Principles are; safety, choice, collaboration, trustworthiness and empowerment. Ensuring that the physical and emotional safety of an individual is addressed is the first important step to providing Trauma-Informed Care.
Acknowledge the Trauma
This first step is usually the hardest: to admit that the trauma did occur. If you have spent years avoiding thinking about a traumatic childhood event, or insisting to yourself that “it wasn't that bad,” it can feel devastating to acknowledge the truth.
PTSD can be divided into four phases: the impact phase, the rescue phase, the intermediate recovery phase, and the long-term reconstruction phase. The impact phase encompasses initial reactions such as shock, fear, and guilt. In the rescue phase, the affected individual begins to come to terms with what has happened.
Within this post, we will explore six components of trauma recovery based upon neuropsychotherapy: Relating, Resourcing, Repatterning, Reprocessing, Reflecting, and Resilience.
Time management is considered as a key factor to reduce mortality in trauma patients. The 'golden hour' is a concept that critically injured patients are required to receive definitive care within 60 min from the occurrence of injuries, after which mortality significantly increased.
Emotional Trauma Symptoms
Psychological Concerns: Anxiety and panic attacks, fear, anger, irritability, obsessions and compulsions, shock and disbelief, emotional numbing and detachment, depression, shame and guilt (especially if the person dealing with the trauma survived while others didn't)
Safety is perhaps the most difficult part of the trauma recovery process. If you do not feel safe in your body, environment, or relationships, then you will not be able to healthily process the trauma experience(s).
Activities like yoga or exercise have been shown to be beneficial in healing from (or at least alleviating) the effects of trauma. Taking on hobbies you're interested in, such as painting, boxing, a dance class or just going for daily walks, can also be part of self-care.
For trauma survivors, one of the effects of becoming embodied means they begin to FEEL more, and that, unfortunately, can mean at times there is increased emotional discomfort, particularly anxiety, which can be distressing, disheartening and hard to bear.
People affected by trauma tend to feel unsafe in their bodies and in their relationships with others. Regaining a sense of safety may take days to weeks with acutely traumatized individuals or months to years with individuals who have experienced ongoing/chronic abuse.
This can be caused by stressors that are similar to the environment or circumstance of the original trauma, such as smell, physical space, lighting, imagery, memory, or even a new relationship that mimics a previously traumatic one.