Getting to Know Respire: Trauma Informed Care
Trauma informed therapy is an approach to care that incorporates the effects of trauma on our lives including systemic and generational trauma such as racial violence and genocide.
What: Trauma informed clinicians seek to understand “what happened to you” as opposed to “what is wrong with you.” Trauma informed therapy holds several key principles: safety, transparency and trust, peer support, collaboration, empowerment, and cultural/historical and gender awareness.
How I use it: At Respire, trauma informed therapy is a mindset - how we approach everything. We integrate trauma informed principles into every step including the website, scheduling and fee process. We want to be transparent, safe, and collaborative from the moment we make contact throughout your therapy experience.
Application: In sessions this means allowing clients to make decisions about their own care, support them in creating relationships and accessing their community support, addressing relationship issues in therapy with compassion and non-judgement, and genuinely holding space for clients to process and explore the areas most important to their life. We work collaboratively to create a plan of care that helps you meet your goals including discussing appropriate frequency of meetings and offering flexible scheduling when available. We understand at the core that safety and relationship are the path to healing.
Training: I was introduced to trauma informed therapy while in graduate school and applied those principles while working with youth in a pediatric clinic. I received supervised training and experience while working at San Francisco's YMCA Urban Services providing support to youth with severe chronic truancy issues and then further experience while working with detained youth at San Francisco Juvenile Hall. I currently also work within the SFDPH system of care and receive regular training and experience working with folks impacted by trauma including community based and domestic violence. In 2019/2020 I pursued certification as a clinical trauma professional and maintain the certification through continuing education and experience annually. As a clinical supervisor I support my Associates in learning and applying these principles as clinicians and also seek to provide trauma informed clinical supervision, knowing many of our clinicians have experienced trauma themselves.