What Are the 5 Principles of Trauma-Informed Care?

What Are the 5 Principles of Trauma-Informed Care?

If you or someone you love has experienced trauma, you might wonder: What are the 5 principles of trauma-informed care? How are the main principles of trauma-informed care different?

For starters, the main principle of trauma-informed care is to ensure that no part of the treatment causes further harm or re-traumatization.

This means facilities and therapists have to bear in mind things like:

  • How a particular smell, image, or physical space might cause stress and triggers
  • What type of tone, demeanor, posture, or volume might cause triggers and bring up the emotion of the original trauma

An effective mental health treatment center near New Jersey, like Water Gap Wellness Center, works hard to avoid any unintentional circumstance or situation that might lead to triggers and might run the risk of you experiencing your trauma all over again. This takes extra dedication and an intensive mental health program. 

 

What is Trauma-Informed Care?

Trauma-informed care is an approach to therapy founded on the idea that trauma can cause long-lasting psychological, neurological, and emotional effects. Understanding that a person has experienced trauma can help mental health care providers cultivate a treatment plan that works with a client like a partner, helping them as they heal and grow. 

The knowledge that an individual has experienced trauma should change the relationship between the therapist and the individual. The more information and knowledge that occurs within the relationship, the better the treatment outcomes.

 

What Are the 5 Principles of Trauma-Informed Care?

But what are the 5 principles of trauma-informed care, and how do these main principles of trauma-informed care work?

Safety

The right facility will always ensure that physical and emotional safety are at the forefront of all treatment. If you or someone you love has experienced any type of trauma, you need to know that you will be emotionally and physically safe, but your trauma will be taken into consideration in every session, and your personal needs not overlooked.

Trustworthiness

The main principles of trauma-informed care require you to feel safe with your provider. That safety is imperative. If you don’t trust your provider to remain stable, aware of your triggers, supportive, and without judgment, you won’t feel safe enough to open up and explore your most vulnerable side. Clear expectations and consistent boundaries have to be ever-present.

Choice

You can feel empowered with this principle of trauma-informed care by being able to make choices in terms of your treatment. With trauma, part of you and your power is taken away temporarily, so the healing process needs to have that control be regained. The right treatment facility will give you that control so that you can determine:

  • How long do you want to stay
  • What level of care you received
  • What therapy you use

Collaboration

You need to have genuine collaboration with your therapist. Your therapist should rely on their intuition and their empathy. Your traumatic experiences will be different from someone else, and that’s why your care needs to bear in mind the individuality of your circumstances.

Empowerment

A guiding principle of trauma-informed care is empowering you to build on your strengths and develop healthy coping skills moving forward. That resilience gives you something that you can fall back on when things get difficult, when you are triggered, or when it seems impossible to move forward.

 

How to Find Trauma-Informed Care near New Jersey

Knowing answers to questions like what are the 5 principles of trauma-informed care are only the first step. The next is to find a mental health retreat near New Jersey that specializes in the 5 principles of trauma-informed care. 

At Water Gap Wellness Center, we offer an extended care program for mental health and substance abuse treatment near New Jersey. We specialize in providing the most intensive level of care in the area. A major part of that program focuses on a structured, step-down approach so that you can get the level of care you need most at the moment. Our talented staff will help you realize your potential and how unique and valued you are as an individual, no matter what you have experienced. We provide treatment for self-care and trigger identification using the five principles of trauma-informed care.

Let Water Gap Wellness guide you in your recovery from trauma. You deserve to live a happy, healthy life.

About WGWC

Water Gap Wellness Center offers expert and compassionate treatment for mental health and substance abuse at our Pennsylvania facility, just outside New Jersey, a short drive from New York. Contact us to learn more about how we can help you today. 

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