We have talked about being “trauma informed” and how being informed is not the same as being equipped to assess for, diagnose and definitely not enough to treat. We even briefly talked about how typical talk therapy can do more harm than good, but is all that most therapists understand or are trained to do.
A major reason for this is that talk therapy is “top – down”, which means cognitive/brain work before addressing anything in the body – if anything in the body is even addressed at all. Trauma work requires “bottom to top” – body work before brain to be successful because much of the memory is stored in the body. The body-stored memories trigger and take over much faster (as in a nano-second, that’s all that is necessary) before the brain knows what is going on. The result is that the brain gets hijacked by fear in the body, and the body takes over.
To be “Informed” means to be aware of’
To be “Equipped” is another matter altogether.
Recently a movement has begun to promote understanding and identify those who are trauma-informed and those who are truly trauma equipped. We thought we’d share their chart to help others understand the significant differences. You will likely have to click and download to see the full chart, but it is eye-opening.
So if you are wondering why you have been in therapy for some time but are not improving that much, ask yourself if you might need someone with more specific training. Not every therapist feels called to pursue advanced training in trauma.
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