How to Be Trauma Informed and Why It’s Absolutely Necessary
By Abby Albrinck
When I was an undergrad, I spent a semester interning at a local nonprofit that educated mental health professionals about the impact of trauma and the importance of being trauma-informed. I only took the internship to pad my resume for grad school applications. But the lessons I learned during that internship changed my life.
As I learned about trauma and why we need to better understand it, I began to think about applying these ideas to the Catholic Church. In these concepts, I saw the potential to transform the way we minister to others and become a shining ray of healing to the world.
But I also noticed the Church has sometimes failed in being trauma-informed.
Despite these failures, I genuinely believe that being trauma-informed can help the Church to reach more people with Christ's healing love. It can transform how we evangelize, minister, and interact with others for the better.
This topic is challenging, and it may bring up unpleasant feelings for you. If it does, I invite you to take breaks while reading to process your feelings and experiences if you need to. Know of my prayers for you and that you are not alone.
Why Being Trauma-Informed Is Important
Many research studies have demonstrated that, unfortunately, trauma is very prevalent in our world. One critical study showing the prevalence of trauma is the ACE study, as Donna Jackson Nakazawa describes in Childhood Disrupted.
This study began because Vincent Felitti, one of the researchers, noticed that many patients he was working with at an obesity clinic had experienced some form of childhood trauma. As a result, many confided that they would overeat to soothe the unpleasant feelings caused by reminders of their trauma.
He presented these initial findings at a conference. After that presentation, he and the CDC created a more extensive study to examine the underpinnings of this pattern.
In this study, participants completed a physical, a questionnaire about their health and health history, and a questionnaire about experiences of childhood trauma.
There were ten questions on the latter questionnaire, and they covered the following topics:
Emotional abuse
Physical abuse
Sexual abuse
Witnessing violence towards their mother
Someone in the home suffering from addiction
Someone in the home suffering from a mental health issue
Parents’ divorce
A family member being in prison
Neglect (both emotional and physical)
The results of the study were shocking. Two-thirds of the thousands of participants answered yes to at least one of those questions, 40% had two or more "yes" answers, and 12.5% had four or more "yes" answers.
The researchers also found connections between a person's "ACE score" and multiple health and behavioral problems, including:
Learning or behavioral problems
Mental health problems
Leading causes of death such as cancer and heart disease
Suicide attempts
Substance abuse
Unintended pregnancy
Risky sexual behavior
Harmful coping mechanisms such as smoking and overeating
As a person's number of "yes" answers increased, their risk of developing these problems also increased.
What's shocking is that the sample was not representative, and was made up of white, upper-class, educated, and insured people. These findings were from among a group that, arguably, would not have had as much trauma exposure. The reality is, the numbers are likely much higher among the whole population than those reported here.
What Do Those Findings Mean for Us as Catholics?
These findings mean that most people in our pews have an ACE score of at least one, and possibly higher. So, they will likely be affected by those experiences in some way. When we add in other forms of trauma and adversity both in childhood and adulthood, this means most people we encounter have experienced some form of trauma. So, this should inform how we approach ministering to others.
How do we do that? Through a trauma-informed approach.
What Does It Mean to Be Trauma-Informed?
To understand the word "trauma-informed," we first need to understand retraumatization.
Retraumatization, as defined by the University of Buffalo's School of Social Work is when something (like a particular situation) resembles a person's trauma in such a way that their original feelings and experience of the trauma reappear, and they reexperience it. The purpose of being trauma-informed is to avoid retraumatization because, unfortunately, it often occurs because of unintentional mistakes. It is critical to avoid retraumatization because it can exacerbate the adverse effects of trauma.
With this definition in mind, we can move to the definition of trauma-informed. According to Trauma Informed Oregon, to be trauma-informed is to:
Recognize that the majority of people have experienced some form of trauma
Understand how this may affect people
Use that knowledge to create safe spaces that avoid retraumatization and keep in mind the effects of trauma.
There are a couple of different principles of being trauma-informed, as the University of Buffalo's School of Social Work describes. These include:
Safety: Making people feel safe physically and emotionally.
Choice: Letting people have control over what they do and what happens to them.
Collaboration: Working with others to make decisions
Trustworthiness: Being clear and consistent and being respectful of boundaries.
Empowerment: Focusing on strengths and empowering others by teaching them valuable skills.
Finally, according to Trauma-Informed MD, being trauma-informed also involves promoting resilience. Resilience is "an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change, " or heal from the effects of trauma. We can promote resilience by "reducing sources of stress, strengthening core life skills, and supporting responsive relationships."
How Can We Apply This Approach?
As a Church
Unfortunately, the Church has struggled to be trauma-informed in public and subtle ways.
Publicly, the Church has struggled to be trauma-informed regarding the tragedy of the clergy sexual abuse crisis, as its handling of this crisis has sometimes been retraumatizing. Unfortunately, some bishops covered up allegations against priests. Many who have faced abuse in childhood may have encountered similar coverups. For example, adults may not have taken them seriously when they tried to come forward. When bishops or others cover-up allegations of sexual abuse in the Church, this could cause retraumatization for someone who has faced abuse, as these circumstances could resemble their original trauma. Also, unfortunately, the Church has sometimes avoided ministering to those who have been victims of this abuse, holding them at arm's length to avoid litigation.
There is also a lack of training for priests, lay ministers, and others working and volunteering in the Church regarding trauma. For example, many seminary curriculums do not include training on the impacts of trauma and ministering to those exposed to trauma. In addition, many lay ministers do not receive training about the effects of trauma or how to be trauma-informed in their ministry. All this could lead to inadvertent retraumatization.
There are, however, many places in which the Church has been strongly trauma-informed. For example, many ministries help individuals heal from trauma's effects. A great example is the John Paul II Healing Center. The Church has also been strong in promoting resilience. The Church has always been a leader in education, feeding the hungry, providing support for the poor, and more, and through these essential ministries, it has helped promote resilience. Finally, in response to the sexual abuse crisis, US dioceses have implemented child protection policies. These policies have helped to promote the feeling of safety for children.
With the above in mind, we can identify some next steps for the Church to improve in being trauma-informed:
Improving training for Church volunteers, lay ministers, and priests regarding the effects of trauma and being trauma-informed. This training could also include learning about mental health resources in the community, how to improve resilience, and how to walk with people on their healing journey.
Continuing to strive to be a leader when it comes to promoting resilience. This nurturing of resilience could include parishes working to offer parenting classes, support groups for foster parents, financial literacy classes, and more.
Making mental health resources and support for trauma survivors known through bulletins, preaching, and announcements.
Trauma-Informed MD has other specific suggestions for churches here, including special considerations about ministry needs and how to run programs for each age group, so those participating feel safe. This article has other considerations for Catholic parishes, including ideas for referring people to mental health services and showing support for trauma survivors.
Just imagine how powerfully healing and loving we as a Church can be if we strive to apply the principles of being trauma-informed constantly. If we are a place of healing and love, people will be drawn to the Church, and therefore into Christ's love.
As Individuals
Being trauma-informed is not just an approach for institutions. It is also an approach to be used in all aspects of our individual, day-to-day lives.
We can be trauma-informed by:
Educating ourselves about the effects of trauma to recognize them in ourselves and others.
Seeking healing if we have faced trauma and encouraging others to do the same if they disclose their stories to us.
Applying trauma-informed principles as we feel called to in our unique settings. For example, if we volunteer for youth ministry, we could advocate for trauma-informed practices. If we work professionally in the Church, we could advocate for training for ourselves and our colleagues. We could also donate to organizations that promote resilience, or talk to our priest about what we have learned about the effects of trauma.
When we as individuals choose to be trauma-informed, our collective efforts help make the Church more trauma-informed.
Conclusion
Being trauma-informed is a lifelong journey, and so is healing. As a Church, we should be a beacon of light, hope, healing, and love, and this is just one means of doing so. As women, with our sensitivity, receptivity, and other gifts, we are in a powerful position to lead the Church in becoming a place that is trauma-informed and healing.
I challenge you to take the principles of being trauma-informed and think of 1 to 3 ways to apply them in your own life and ministries. Just imagine how powerful it could be if we all did so and then encouraged others to do the same!
