Trauma Informed Care
To book an appointment or if you have questions,
I’m a believer in a collaborative approach to treatment meaning I will encourage your feedback. I want to create a safe space for people to feel that they can attend to their health issues and trust that their needs will be respected. Consent is integral to the treatment process and the treatment can be modified to best meet the clients’ needs.
Recently, a greater understanding of the effects of trauma has been emerging from the healthcare community and some policies have been introduced around the idea of ‘trauma informed’ care. I think that recognizing the needs of clients with a history of trauma is key to facilitating a positive and therapeutic experience. In my understanding, this is about sensitivity for the client’s experiences and empowering the client to participate in their own healthcare.
This can simply be voicing concerns of discomfort or pain with the knowledge that adjustments are perfectly fine and treatments can be adapted if, for instance, emotions arise that need attending to. Safe space is key so we can work with what is emerging in a collaborative way.
Acupuncture is gaining wide acceptance as a treatment method for ptsd and is valuable for it’s ability to work on a non-verbal level. Trauma can be viewed as energetic patterns that have developed along with our neurologicial ‘wiring’ and response systems. Acupuncture works with these energetic systems to rebalance the bodymind and release constrictions.
This is some of the most essential work we can do. As one teacher writes:
“Our history of trauma, bound within our body, may haunt our present life as chronic feelings of sadness or despair, as distracting bouts of fury or as spells of terror. But it can also be present as numbness, as a chronic static in our perceptions, as if we were always slightly removed from ourselves and our surroundings. This pain, whether it is conscious suffering or that slight sense of unreality, is often mistaken for our basic nature but it is not our basic nature. Just as an open hand is hidden within a fist, our true nature, with it’s innate capacity for happiness, love and wisdom, is hidden within our pain and numbness.” Judith Blackstone
