What is Trauma Informed Counseling?
Trauma is our emotional response to a horrific event or set of circumstances that negatively impact our day to day lives and overall well-being. Although half of all individuals will be exposed to at least one traumatic event in their lifetime, cisgender and transgendered girls and women are more likely than men to experience various types of traumatic events including pain within their homes, unequal patriarchal society and norms, and institutional racism and discrimination.
Women are often silenced by fear and shame and will wait years if ever to seek support. Such denial or repression can manifest as physical illness, anxiety, depression, toxic relationships, substance use, disordered eating, and make women twice as likely to develop post-traumatic stress disorder.
Trauma can disrupt our sense of control, connection, and meaning. Trauma-informed counseling is recovery through restoring a sense of safety, trust in the therapeutic relationship, empowerment, recreation, and connection.
Who is it for?
HWP provides trauma counseling services to adolescents (13 years old+), young adults, and adults.
Focus Areas
Areas addressed in counseling include, but are not limited to:
- Mood stabilization or symptom reduction (anxiety or depression)
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Grief and loss
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Internalized oppression
- Identity and self-development
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Issues of self-worth and self-esteem
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Radical self care
