What is Trauma-Informed Therapy?
Image by Pietro De Grandi
If you are struggling with your mental health and looking for a therapist, it can be extremely confusing. There are so many different models of therapy available that it’s hard to know which one to pick. Here are a few guidelines to help you in making the right choice:
First, make sure your therapist is accredited by one of the professional bodies, like the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) or British Association for Behavioural & Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP).
Unfortunately, counselling and psychotherapy is still a poorly regulated industry in the UK, so anyone can call themselves a ‘counsellor’ or ‘psychotherapist’. Make sure they are properly trained and ask which body they are accredited by before booking an initial session
Never feel pressured into booking an initial session – or if you do have a first session, into booking another. Ask yourself, do you feel comfortable with this person? Do you feel safe? Do they seem confident, professional and experienced?
Ask them exactly what their method is and which techniques they will offer to help you. If their answers are vague or unconvincing, find another therapist
If you have a trauma history, it’s extremely important that you choose a trauma-informed therapy. We know from all the research that just talking about past traumas, in great detail, can be unhelpful and even retraumatising.
That’s why, in the 1990s, there was a revolution in the trauma-therapy field, with a number of therapies being developed, designed specifically to help people with the cognitive, emotional, neurological and bodily experience of trauma
Trauma-informed therapies include compassion focused therapy (CFT); trauma-focused CBT; schema therapy; internal family systems therapy; sensorimotor psychotherapy; somatic experiencing therapy; Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy; dialectical behaviour therapy; trauma-informed stabilisation treatment; polyvagal-informed therapy; and trauma-sensitive mindfulness
All of these therapies can, in their different ways, help treat trauma-related conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), complex PTSD (CPTSD), dissociative disorders, eating disorders, substance abuse and personality problems
I hope that helps – wishing you luck on your healing journey, whichever of these therapy models you choose.
Warm wishes,
Dan