LP TRCWho is this training for

Who This Training is For

The physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual effects of trauma are experienced regardless of the age, culture, religion, or the gender of the person who has experienced or witnessed trauma. Individuals in each of the groups listed below have the potential for experiencing post-traumatic stress. If you are a professional or semi-professional working with, or would like to work with, individuals from any of the following or similar groups, this training is of great value to you. If you are a professional or semi-professional choosing to be more trauma-informed, this training will most assuredly meet your learning and skill-attainment goals.

Individuals in these and other group have the potential for PTSD

Residential school survivors
Survivors of political terror and/or torture
Active or retired military, firefighters, police officers
Active or retired health professionals who respond to trauma: nurses, EMTs
Victims of child abuse
Adult survivors of child abuse
Victims of bullying
Those abusing alcohol or other drugs
Those at risk for suicide
Those attempting to heal after a traumatic loss
Those with uncontrollable anger and fears
Those involved in domestic violence
Those grieving sudden, tragic or multiple deaths
Those unemployed following a difficult life event

Click to read “On Being Trauma – Informed.”

On Being Trauma-Informed

It is important for all professional and semi-professionals to be Trauma and PTSD-informed

Trauma and Post-Traumatic Stress (PTSD) comes in many forms. It can result from a single blow event, such as witnessing a sudden or tragic death or being involved in an accident. The effects of trauma can be cumulative, such as resulting from child or wife abuse, or when involved with constant tragedy such as what happens to emergency providers and therapists. In theory, any kind of sudden catastrophic or unexpected event, any violent, horrific, life-threatening force has the potential to overwhelm the usual coping strategies, leaving the person vulnerable to emotional distress. When these forces are of such nature, we speak of disasters. When the overwhelming forces are of human making, we speak of atrocities.

· The effects of trauma are experienced physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

· The effects of trauma significantly impact social relationships, including both work and family relationships.

· Trauma affects the ability to pay attention to, and retain information; thus interfering with learning and the development of a solid future.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

A diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress (PTS) may be applied when a traumatic event leaves a person with lasting symptoms. Some of these symptoms include feelings of intense fear, including a persistent expectation of further danger, and feelings of helplessness and powerlessness. Those who have experienced trauma that results in post-traumatic stress are often plagued by distressing memories, flashbacks and night terrors, and many continue to struggle with the same powerful emotions they experienced at the time of the trauma. Some who have experienced trauma continue to use the same self-protecting means they initially learned, including the use of alcohol and other drugs, to numb the emotional, mental, spiritual and sometimes physical pain.

Click to read “Trauma Affects Personal and Work Relationships.”

Trauma Affects Personal and Work Relationships

©Jane Simington PhD

The three major categories of symptoms resulting from trauma can significantly interfere with both personal and work relationships. These categories of symptoms: hyper-vigilance, intrusions, and constriction, result from the reconditioning effect of trauma on the nervous system. People who experience hyper-vigilance have, for the most part, lost their normal baseline for expressing emotions. They are easily provoked by the least irritation and can respond with anger that turns to instant rage. The hyper-vigilant person is hyper alert, easily startled and always feeling under attack. The experience of trauma is not relegated to the past, but continually intrudes into the present, making the person re-experience the traumatizing events as though they were reliving them. These symptoms continue during the night causing poor sleep and night terrors.

The symptoms of hyper-vigilance and intrusions make the person maladaptive to a life of safety and security. Attempting to adjust to these feelings, and to control the pervasive fears and anxieties, traumatized persons begin to live a constricted life. Having lost trust in everyone and every situation, they begin to fear all contact with others. This inner turmoil often results in their withdrawal from the world and in the termination of social contacts, resulting in a dissolving of personal and work relationships.

The more trauma-informed we are, the more we recognize how traumatic events recondition the nervous system, resulting in difficulty in the maintenance of healthy personal relationships. Being trauma-informed makes us also more capable of recognizing why traumatized persons often drop out of the work force, resulting in downward financial concerns, which in turn can create overwhelming feelings of disempowerment, hopelessness and unworthiness. The more we understand these cycles, the more we recognize that, as we help traumatized people heal from the three major categories of symptoms: hyper-vigilance, intrusions, and constrictions, the more we block those cycles and help them regain quality personal and work relationships.

Click to read “Relationship Between Childhood Trauma and Suicide.”

Childhood Trauma and Suicide

Numerous studies demonstrate that a history of physical or sexual abuse in childhood can increase the risk of suicide in adolescence and adulthood (Dinwiddie; 2000; Mironova, 2011; Brauser, 2014). One study showed that non-abused children had a lower prevalence of lifetime suicide attempts (6.0%) than did those that were physically abused (11.7%), and as compared to those that were sexually abused (14.8%), or if they experienced both types of abuse (32.2%). This study indicated that the risk of suicide in later life is related to the frequency of abuse during childhood and the identity of the abuser (Nauert, 2016).

Repeated abuse was generally more strongly associated with suicide attempts than a single occurrence of abuse. Furthermore, sexual abuse by an immediate family member (such as a father, stepfather or brother) carried the greatest risk. Abuse perpetrated by an extended family member (uncle or cousin) carried an intermediate risk, while abuse by an unrelated individual (an acquaintance, romantic partner or stranger) carried a weaker risk (Nauert, 2016).

Trauma reconditions the nervous system and can make the person maladaptive to a life of feeling safe and secure. The person experiencing the effects of trauma often does not have a normal baseline for emotion. This means that anger turns instantly to rage, and fear becomes instant terror. Another major symptom of trauma is the invasion of the past into the present. The traumatized person often relives the events and the associated emotions during waking, as pervasive fears and dread, and as nighttime terrors.

A further symptom becoming more widely recognized is the spiritual emptiness experienced following trauma. There is a growing awareness that following trauma, a part of the self may need to be reclaimed. In many Indigenous cultures, it is believed that when trauma happens, a part of the self can stay trapped in the place of trauma. Those who feel they have left a part of themselves at the trauma scene often voice that their lives feel incomplete and empty and that they are plagued by dreams of searching and longing.

This accumulation of symptoms can make the life of someone who has experienced trauma seem unbearable and not worth living. Many who have been traumatized use drugs and alcohol, to numb the responses; others slash and even burn themselves attempting to release the trapped emotions and get an endorphin release which will ease their suffering for a time.

When these attempts no longer work, suicide can become an option, and for some it can seem like the only way out of the constant misery they can no longer cope with.

References

1). Brauser, D. (2014). Child Sexual Abuse Linked to Suicidal Behavior. Pediatrics. Published Online April 14, 2014.

2). Dinwiddie S, Heath AC, Dunne MP, Bucholz KK, Madden PA, Slutske WS, Bierut LJ, Statham DB, Martin NG. (2000). Early sexual abuse and lifetime psychopathology: a co-twin-control study. Psychological Medicine, Jan;30(1):41-5

3). Mironova P, Rhodes AE, Bethell JM, Tonmyr L, Boyle MH, Wekerle C, Goodman D, Leslie B. (2011). Child physical abuse and suicide-related behavior: A systematic review. Vulnerable Children & Youth Studies, Volume 6, Issue 1, pp. 1–7.

4). Nauert, N. (2016). Suicide Risk Among Abused children. British Journal of Psychiatry, 9.

Cross Cultural Training

Numerous First Nation Canadians from across Canada have become Certified as Trauma Recovery Counsellors (CTRC). Many have attended the Trauma Recovery Certification Training offered in St. Albert, Alberta, many others have completed the training in their home communities when it was delivered on their site by Dr. Jane Simington and her professional staff.

Amazing Feature

Click to read “On Being Trauma – Informed.”

Click to read “Trauma Affects Personal and Work Relationships.”

Click to read “Relationship Between Childhood Trauma and Suicide.”

Cross Cultural Training

Trauma Recovery Certification Graduates from Various First Nation Communities in Canada