Addiction treatment often goes hand-in-hand with trauma therapy. Substance use and traumatic experiences are often closely linked, which means that an effective rehab needs to offer trauma-informed care to patients.
It’s common to hear new patients ask, “What is trauma-informed care?” If you’re looking for the right treatment program, it’s a good idea to understand how the trauma-informed care approach to substance use can have a significant impact on your recovery outcome.
Woodland Recovery Center understands that providing patients with trauma-informed care is essential both for healing trauma and overcoming addiction. Call 662.222.2989 today to learn about substance use treatment and trauma therapy at Woodland Recovery Center.
What Is Trauma-Informed Care?
At a high level, trauma-informed care refers to treating patients while prioritizing the fact that they may have lived through traumatic experiences. The approach aims to recognize that certain treatment approaches can be unhelpful or even re-traumatizing.
When a patient is offered this form of treatment, they gain a sense of autonomy and empowerment. These experiences can contribute to the patient’s overall sense of well-being and can gradually help them heal from the effects of trauma.
This type of care is a treatment approach that can be used in many different fields. Substance use, therapy, and medical care, in particular, are fields in which it can be easy for a patient to feel stripped of autonomy.
By offering these essential services through the lens of trauma-informed care, patients can have their basic needs met. Treatment professionals from a variety of fields are able to play a role in facilitating the healing of trauma.
The Core Principles of Trauma-Informed Care
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) lays out the six core principles of trauma-informed care. These are:
- Peer support
- Transparency and trustworthiness
- Safety
- Historical, cultural, and gender issues
- Voice, choice, and empowerment
- Collaboration and mutuality
The wording of these principles can appear dense at first glance, but they summarize some fairly basic concepts.
First, trauma-informed care should strive to provide an environment in which the patient feels safe and supported, with a sense of community. Then, the patient should be given a sense of autonomy, with the ability to make choices concerning their own care.
Finally, this form of care should be attuned to—and acknowledge—historical and cultural issues that might play a role in the patient’s lived experiences, especially pertaining to traumatic events they’ve lived through.
The Importance of a Trauma-Informed Care Approach
Ensuring that care is trauma-informed helps healthcare professionals serve their patients’ best interests. In the field of behavioral health services, it’s particularly important.
Creating an environment that fosters safety, autonomy, support, and understanding is essential for helping trauma survivors overcome substance use disorder. However, this form of care is only the first step.
A truly effective approach to addiction treatment should also provide targeted treatment designed to help patients heal from unresolved trauma. If you or a loved one are a trauma survivor seeking addiction treatment, services to look for in a potential rehab include:
- Comprehensive trauma-informed care
- Trauma therapy
- Eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR)
- Dialectical-behavioral therapy (DBT)
- Co-occurring disorder treatment
It’s an accepted fact that unhealed trauma is often a chief contributing factor in why substance use disorder develops. When an individual with a history of trauma enters rehab, it’s essential that the addiction treatment they receive is offered through the lens of trauma care.
Start Healing Today with Trauma-Informed Care at Woodland Recovery Center
At Woodland Recovery Center, we understand that both traumatic experiences and addiction are topics that can be difficult to ask for help with.
Our compassionate treatment professionals follow a trauma-informed care approach, striving to ensure every patient receives the support that can lead to healing.
Call 662.222.2989 or contact us online to learn more about trauma-informed addiction treatment and trauma therapy at Woodland Recovery Center.
