Trauma is real and painful. The grief that happens as the result of trauma is also real and painful.
Trauma-Informed Care is an important topic, so let’s talk about how the Grief Recovery Method can work with TIC and the emotional effects of trauma.
What is trauma
Trauma is an event that causes psychological, spiritual, physical, emotional, or mental harm. Examples of trauma are death, abuse, or natural disaster. Whether you lose a person through death or divorce or experience a loss of safety due to child abuse or illness, it is a trauma event. A traumatic event could also be called a loss event.
What is Trauma Informed Care
TIC recognizes what trauma is and how it impacts people physically and mentally. It offers tools on how to talk to people who have been through trauma, so as to minimize the chance or retraumatization.
What is grief
- Grief is the emotional response to a loss or trauma.
- Grief is the normal and natural emotional reaction to loss or change of any kind. Of itself, grief is neither a pathological condition nor a personality disorder.
- Grief is the conflicting feelings caused by the end of or change in a familiar pattern of behavior.
- Grief is the feeling of reaching out for someone who’s always been there, only to discover when I need her [or him] one more time, she’s no longer there.
- Grief is the feeling of reaching out for someone who has never been there for me, only to discover when I need them one more time, they still aren’t there for me.
We believe that trauma is what happens and that grief is the normal emotional response to it.
What is Grief Recovery Method
The Grief Recovery Method is the action program for moving beyond death, divorce, and other losses. Participants are taught specific, evidence based, actions, so they can recover from loss or trauma.
The Grief Recovery Method gives people new tools and skills that can give them the ability to recover from losses that brought them to the program.
The bonus is that when new losses occur, people will be better equipped to address their feelings so that the trauma and grief don’t continue to keep them heartbroken for years to come.
How can the Grief Recovery Method add to Trauma Informed Care?
Trauma Informed Care talks a lot about resilience. Resilience does not mean “being strong” for others. It means adapting and learning new skills that help people recover and improve the quality of their lives, so they can move forward.
The Grief Recovery Method is that set of tools.
A person’s life is forever changed after significant trauma, but the grief, sadness, or heartbreak that comes with it doesn’t have to be the new normal.
As professionals, parents, friends, and caregivers, the more we know the more compassionate we can be. We must recognize trauma and understand how powerful the impact of that trauma is on people’s physical, mental, and emotional health. Trauma Informed Care is a great step toward recovery.
The Grief Recovery Method is a great next step!
Written by Allison James
Sourced: https://www.griefrecoverymethod.com/blog/2020/05/trauma-informed-care-and-grief-recovery-method