Translating Trauma-Informed Principles into Social Work Practice

Social Work ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
pp. 288-298
Author(s):  
Jill Levenson
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Service Delivery ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Trauma Symptoms ◽  
Trauma Narratives ◽  
Helping Relationship ◽  
Trauma Informed Care ◽  
Trauma Informed ◽  
And Coping

Abstract Trauma-informed social work is characterized by client-centered practices that facilitate trust, safety, respect, collaboration, hope, and shared power. Many agencies have adopted trauma-informed care (TIC) initiatives and many social workers are familiar with its basic principles, but it is challenging to infuse these ideals into real-world service delivery. This article offers 10 trauma-informed practices (TIPs) for translating TIC concepts into action by (a) conceptualizing client problems, strengths, and coping strategies through the trauma lens and (b) responding in ways that avoid inadvertently reinforcing clients’ feelings of vulnerability and disempowerment (re-traumatization). TIPs guide workers to consider trauma as an explanation for client problems, incorporate knowledge about trauma into service delivery, understand trauma symptoms, transform trauma narratives, and use the helping relationship as a tool for healing.

Reflections of stress in US abortion narratives

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 533-556 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mickey Sperlich ◽  
Gretchen E Ely ◽  
Rebecca S Rouland ◽  
Connor A Walters ◽  
Max Carwile
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Traumatic Stress ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Trauma Informed Care ◽  
Trauma Informed ◽  
Work Education

A trauma-informed, thematic analysis that identified stress-related themes evident in 39 personal abortion narratives from the Tennessee Stories Project in the United States is presented in this paper. Using the Braun and Clarke model of thematic analysis, guided by the trauma-informed social work framework, researchers examined these narratives to identify stress related themes.FindingsAn overall theme of stress and traumatic stress was found to be present throughout the abortion narratives. These themes were categorized into subthemes, including: (a) existing life stressors preceding the abortion experience, (b) stressors while trying to access abortion services, (c) stressors while obtaining abortion services, and (d) stressors arising after the procedure.ApplicationsThese results suggest that stress and traumatic stress were reflected in these abortion narratives throughout the abortion seeking experience. This finding supports the need for social work practice responses that are designed to address and eliminate stress during the process of seeking and obtaining an abortion in the United States. A trauma-informed framework is recommended for guiding social work education about abortion, social worker interactions with clients who are seeking abortions, and the development of abortion policy in the United States in order to better align the abortion seeking experience with the principles of trauma-informed care.

scholarly journals White trauma: tracing trauma informed recovery and white supremacy in social work practice

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Randi Paxton
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Qualitative Research Study ◽  
Trauma Informed Care ◽  
Trauma Informed ◽  
Structural Disruption

This qualitative research study examines how five prominent recovery oriented community based organizations talk out loud about themselves, their service population and recovery. Using a critical discourse analysis, pervasive discursive patterns were revealed through thematic analysis. This study details the way in which trauma-informed care quietly manifests alongside the same guiding principles as the recovery model, creating a compounded site of power whereby one lives both inside and outside the bounds of the other. The purpose of this study is to call attention to the illusive nature of these widely-celebrated models, disrupting the unchecked, institutionalized supremacy of the whiteness that prevails within. Applying the concept of creaming to social service provision in Toronto, this study makes the claim that white trauma is centred within recovery oriented service construction and provision given it causes the least structural disruption. This process ultimately sustains the feel-good culture that envelops recovery based and trauma-informed social work.

scholarly journals Contemporary Trauma Theory and Trauma-Informed Care in Substance Use Disorders: A Conceptual Model for Integrating Coping and Resilience

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 186-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Revital Goodman
Keyword(s):  
Substance Use ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Substance Use Disorders ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Trauma Theory ◽  
Traumatic Experiences ◽  
Childhood Experiences ◽  
Trauma Informed Care ◽  
Trauma Informed

National data of children’s exposure to traumatic experiences are alarming. Research asserts the interconnectedness between experiencing childhood trauma (CT) or adverse childhood experiences (ACE) and developing substance use disorders (SUDs) in later adulthood. Trauma definition and contemporary trauma theory (CTT) provide the foundation for trauma informed care (TIC) in social work practice with co-occurring trauma and SUDs. TIC re-conceptualizes SUDs as a mechanism to cope with the effects of trauma. Coping and resilience are relevant factors to the ramifications of CT on SUDs, and are the manifestation of key TIC principles. Integrating TIC practices aimed at enhancing coping and resilience into treatment for co-occurring trauma and SUDs is needed in order to negate the devastating impact of trauma and propel recovery. Conclusions and implications to social work practice are discussed.   

scholarly journals White trauma: tracing trauma informed recovery and white supremacy in social work practice

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Randi Paxton
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Qualitative Research Study ◽  
Trauma Informed Care ◽  
Trauma Informed ◽  
Structural Disruption

This qualitative research study examines how five prominent recovery oriented community based organizations talk out loud about themselves, their service population and recovery. Using a critical discourse analysis, pervasive discursive patterns were revealed through thematic analysis. This study details the way in which trauma-informed care quietly manifests alongside the same guiding principles as the recovery model, creating a compounded site of power whereby one lives both inside and outside the bounds of the other. The purpose of this study is to call attention to the illusive nature of these widely-celebrated models, disrupting the unchecked, institutionalized supremacy of the whiteness that prevails within. Applying the concept of creaming to social service provision in Toronto, this study makes the claim that white trauma is centred within recovery oriented service construction and provision given it causes the least structural disruption. This process ultimately sustains the feel-good culture that envelops recovery based and trauma-informed social work.

Promoting Evidence-Based, Trauma-Informed Social Work Practice

2019 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 645-657 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua P. Mersky ◽  
James Topitzes ◽  
Linda Britz
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Trauma Informed

Psychoeducation

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Walsh
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Research Evidence ◽  
Coping Skills ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Professional Values ◽  
Skills Development ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Education Support ◽  
And Coping

Psychoeducation, which describes a range of direct interventions that are focused on participants' education, support, and coping skills development, has become extremely popular in social work practice since the 1970s. Such programs are delivered in many service settings and with many types of client populations. This article includes a definition of the term, a review of its origins in social work practice, its range of applications, the practice theories, and professional values from which it draws, and a review of the research evidence for its utility.

A Centennial of Mary Richmond’s Social Diagnosis: A Celebration and Contemporary Assessment of a Seminal Work

2019 ◽  
Vol 100 (3) ◽  
pp. 233-247
Author(s):  
Manny John González ◽  
Caroline Rosenthal Gelman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Growth And Development ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Subsequent Growth ◽  
Seminal Work ◽  
Helping Relationship ◽  
Full Century

Mary Ellen Richmond is often credited with developing social work as a profession in the United States. In this article, we focus on Richmond’s Social Diagnosis, revisiting this hallmark of social work practice a century after its publication and tracing its foundational ideas at the root of the conceptualization and practice of subsequent giants in social work. Our aim is to recenter and retrace these formative ideas so crucial to the origins of social work as a profession and its subsequent growth and development by examining Richmond’s understanding of social diagnosis, evidence-informed practice, and the helping relationship. A full century after the publication of Richmond’s far-reaching Social Diagnosis seems the most apposite time for such a review and revisit.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document