A Multi-Phase Safe Trauma Treatment

A Multi-Phase Safe Trauma Treatment    By: Angela Englander June 8, 2015

Phase one: Education about the therapeutic process

Discussing goals

Making a plan for treatment

The client and the therapist form a working partnership and start figuring out how to work together effectively

 

Phase two: Focusing on emotional competence

Emotional awareness

Learning about the importance of emotions

Learning what emotions feel like in the body

Learning what triggers emotions and how to regulate emotions

Learning your limits with emotional intensity

Developing effective emotion regulation skills

The emotional intensity rating scale

 

Phase three: Understanding dissociation

Managing stress effectively

Anchors, grounders, and transitional objects

Developing a feeling of safety

CBT and DBT skills building exercises are incorporated

Body awareness

 

Phase four: Working through the trauma at a safe pace

 

• It is extremely important not to jump into talking about the trauma before the right skills are in place. If emotion regulation skills, a sense of safety, patient-therapist trust, and a comfortable pace are not in place this can be very painful and destructive for the client! Rushing in to talking about a traumatic situation will cause high levels of distress and pain for a client. If the client is not able to regulate that stress, they may re-experience the trauma in their mind which is re-traumatizing.