How the 'Trauma-Informed' Trend Falls Short (madinamerica.com)

Former Member 11/18/185:41 AM

Increasingly, it is becoming fashionable for mental health agencies and practitioners to become “trauma-informed.” Ostensibly, this is a good thing. But what is happening, in reality, is far from ideal.

There is a pressing need to understand how things such as abuse, poverty, oppression, injustice, racism, and other adversity impact our mental health and overall well-being. Common sense, of course, would tell us that it essentially drives a person mad over time. But in this day and age, common sense is perceived as juvenile or less-than “science.”

Regardless, it’s imperative that any person or system in a helping position consider the context of suffering and what has happened in a person’s life that led to his or her current state of mind.

The thing is, this is time-consuming, complex, highly subjective, and individual — everything the system is designed against.

What appears to happen in reality when an organization or individual clinician becomes “trauma-informed” is that old formulas simply get re-mixed with all the trauma ingredients and check-boxes and with none of the actual meaning. It becomes yet another way to advance one’s career and feel good about oneself while pretty much doing nothing different. It’s once again about boxing-in human beings being human beings. Read more...

Read More of Noel Hunter's article at:
https://www.madinamerica.com/2...AFS1A0uMfO8i_UQ0yU80

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Ruth A RondonMember

Cheryl Miranda posted:
Ruth, it would be great to have your perspective on this. Personally, in my healing journey what I have experienced is the so-called experts' superiority and their dumbing down of the survivors.
Do write your article, it would be really helpful.

Hi Cheryl. It's soo nice to hear from you again! I'll work on that article. Yes, it's necessary. Thank you Cheryl. Onward eh? 😉

11/20/183:27 AM

Former Member

Ruth, it would be great to have your perspective on this. Personally, in my healing journey what I have experienced is the so-called experts' superiority and their dumbing down of the survivors.

Do write your article, it would be really helpful.

11/19/188:08 PM

Ruth A RondonMember

This is great. As I network and forge ahead in my anti-human trafficking work, I get so discouraged. The movement is not stuck, its still moving but it's moving backward. I should write an article about it. I find an environment is being created that makes it easier for predators to prey than for victims to heal. Since I went on TV many have reached out to me, even victims who still live "in hiding". I can't tell their stories but let me say this: There are so many oxymorons in HT, example, "Dangerous "safe" house", "predatory advocates". The street and Hollywood mentality is so hard to break and big money still reigns.

11/19/1811:15 AM

Former Member

Mary L. Holden posted:
An excellent article. In the past, I worked with a healer who said that often, the best thing to do for another person who's suffering effects of trauma is to first be a nonjudgmental observer. I'm not a doctor nor a scientist, but maybe that is the best place to begin...no judgment, just love?

My fave author/psychotherapist M. Scott Peck has written in his book, 'The Road Less Traveled' “mental illness is caused by an absence of or defect in the love a child required from its parents for maturation.” And in order to be healed, the patient must receive the genuine love of which the patient was deprived. Moreover, if the therapist cannot genuinely love a patient, then genuine healing will not occur.

11/18/1810:30 PM

Mary L. HoldenMember

An excellent article. In the past, I worked with a healer who said that often, the best thing to do for another person who's suffering effects of trauma is to first be a nonjudgmental observer. I'm not a doctor nor a scientist, but maybe that is the best place to begin...no judgment, just love?

11/18/188:55 PM