Understanding trauma

The word trauma is used in different ways by different people. In the context of trauma-informed care, trauma occurs when the human body responds physiologically ("fight, flight or freeze") to a stressful situation and does not have enough internal or external resources (resilience) to cope with the physiological stress being experienced.

When these traumatic experiences are extreme, or occur during childhood development, the body's stress response can become disconnected from the original source of trauma, becoming chronically overactive, or problematically reactive, even in situations where a stress response is not desirable or appropriate.

"Children are traumatized whenever they fear for their lives or for the lives of someone they love. A traumatic experience impacts the entire person - the way we think, the way we learn, the way we remember things, the way we feel about ourselves, the way we feel about other people, and the way we make sense of the world are all profoundly altered by traumatic experience."

Source: Creating presence

With appropriate resources and supports, many people can learn to manage this physiological stress response to improve their quality of life. This is what trauma-informed care is all about.

Delivering trauma-informed care

Trauma-informed care is one model for human service delivery that attempts, through its philosophical, clinical, and operational approaches, to make care providers aware of the impact of trauma and the importance of building resilience.

At a basic level, an organization that has adopted trauma-informed care asks, "what's happened to you?" instead of "what's wrong with you?" when designing and delivering human services.

There are many different approaches to trauma-informed care, but they all share four core principles:

  • everyone knows and is aware of trauma and its impact
  • everyone needs to feel morally, socially, physically and psychologically safe
  • everyone involved in care feels that there is choice, collaboration, and connection
  • plans of care include strengths and skill-building to develop resilience and coping skills

Trauma-informed care at the Child and Parent Resource Institute (CPRI)

Committing to an organizational model of trauma-informed care is consistent with CPRI's vision for child and youth developmental and mental health care in Ontario in which providers of care consider the biological- psychological- and sociological- ("biopsychosocial") perspective. This vision also gives children and youth a voice, by asking "what happened to you" instead of "what's wrong with you?”

The approach to trauma-informed care that the Child and Parent Resource Institute (CPRI) uses is called the "Sanctuary ModelTM." If you receive services from CPRI, this model may be used throughout to guide how we interact with clients, and each other. Learn more by visiting CPRI’s The Sanctuary Model™ webpage.

Upcoming events

Learning opportunities are possible through a partnership between the Volunteer Organization of CPRI, Western University and CPRI.

Resources

Research

Books on Trauma-informed care

  • Creating sanctuary: Toward the evolution of sane societies.
    By Routledge. Bloom, S. L. (2013).
  • Destroying sanctuary: The crisis in human service delivery systems.
    By Oxford University Press.  Bloom, S. L., & Farragher, B. (2010).
  • Destroying Sanctuary: The Crisis in Human Service Delivery Systems.
    by Sandra L. Bloom, Brian Farragher
  • Restoring sanctuary: A new operating system for trauma-informed systems of care. Oxford University Press. By Bloom, S. L., & Farragher, B. (2013).
  • Coping with Trauma-Related Dissociation: Skills Training for Patients and Therapists (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology).
    By WW Norton & Company. Boon, Suzette, Kathy Steele, and Onno Van Der Hart. (2011).
  • Cultural competence in trauma therapy: Beyond the flashback.
    By American Psychological Association. Brown, L. S. (2008).
  • Treatment of complex trauma: A sequenced, relationship-based approach.
    By Guilford Press. Courtois, C. A., & Ford, J. D. (2012).
  • Healing developmental trauma: How early trauma affects self-regulation, self-image, and the capacity for relationship.
    By North Atlantic Books. Heller, L., & LaPierre, A. (2012).
  • The body keeps the score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma.
    By Penguin Books. Van der Kolk, B. A. (2015).
  • The body keeps the score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma.
    By Penguin Books. Van der Kolk, B. A. (2015).
  • Traumatic stress: The effects of overwhelming experience on mind, body, and society.
    By Guilford Press. Van der Kolk, B. A., & McFarlane, A. C. (Eds.). (1996).
  • Trauma stewardship: An everyday guide to caring for self while caring for others.
    By Van Dernoot Lipsky, L. (2010).

Books on resilience

  • Building resilience in children and teens: Giving kids roots and wings.
    By Ginsburg, K. R., & Jablow, M. M.  American Academy of Pediatrics. (2005).
  • Ordinary magic: Resilience in development.
    By Masten, A. S. Guilford Publications. (2015).
  • Working with children and youth with complex needs: 20 skills to build resilience.
    By Ungar, M. Routledge. (2020).

Online resources

Adverse childhood experiences

Child traumatic stress

Promising practices