Are There Psychiatrists Who Specialize in Trauma? What Does That Entail?

Summary: Yes, there are psychiatrists who specialize in trauma. Treatment for trauma entails following the evidence-based principles and guidelines for trauma-informed care established by mental health experts.

Key Points:

Trauma-informed care was developed to treat patients with post-traumatic stress disorder.
The principles and guidelines for trauma-formed care have been codified and defined to help people with various trauma-related mental health disorders.
There are three essential principles and six core guidelines for treating people with a history of trauma.
The goal of trauma-informed care is to establish a relationship, atmosphere, and system whereby patients feel safe and secure in addressing past trauma in order to process it and move forward.

What is Trauma?

To understand trauma-informed care, and find psychiatrists who specialize in trauma, we need to understand exactly the word trauma means in the context of mental health and mental health treatment.

Mental health experts from the American Psychological Association (APA) offer the following definition of trauma:

“…any disturbing experience that results in significant fear, helplessness, dissociation, confusion, or other disruptive feelings intense enough to have a long-lasting negative effect on a person’s attitudes, behavior, and other aspects of functioning.”

Events mental health experts consider traumatic include adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). ACEs are defined by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) as events that occur between birth and age 17 and include, but are not limited to:

Experiencing physical, emotional, or sexual violence and/or abuse
Experiencing physical or emotional neglect
Witnessing or experiencing domestic violence
Witnessing or experiencing neighborhood violence
Experiencing the divorce of parents
Living with a family member with alcohol or substance use disorder
Living with a family member with serious mental illness
Losing a close family member/death of someone important
Having a member of the family incarcerated

The mental health consequences of ACEs and trauma include:

Increased risk of:
- Anxiety disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Depressive disorders, including major depressive disorder (MDD)
- Mood disorders, including bipolar disorder I & II
- Personality disorders
- Alcohol or substance use disorder
Difficult/rocky relationships with family
Problems establishing and maintaining fulfilling peer and/or romantic relationships
Difficulty finding and keeping gainful employment
Attenuated/impaired academic and/or vocational achievement

What is Trauma-Informed Care? Core Guidelines

In 2014, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) released a publication called TIP 57: Trauma Informed Care in Behavioral Health Services. The TIP – treatment improvement protocol – established a set of best practices for treating people with mental health diagnoses with a history of trauma. Based on this publication, mental health experts established three guidelines for trauma-informed care:

Guideline 1:

Providers must fully realize and understand the significant effect of trauma on mental health.

Guideline 2:

Providers should be trained to recognize the signs and symptoms of trauma.

Guideline 3:

Providers must avoid re-traumatization during the treatment process.

Those guidelines set the tone for any treatment center that offers support for victims of trauma. We follow those guidelines here at BACA when supporting children, adolescents, or adults with a history of trauma.

In addition to those guidelines, mental health experts established six foundational principles that help providers offer effective support to patients with a history of trauma.

What Does Trauma-Informed Care Entail? Core Principles

The following principles inform the work we do with any patients with trauma-related diagnoses:

Principle 1: Safety

Our first goal is to help our patients feel safe and comfortable during treatment. This is essential in establishing an atmosphere conducive to healing and growth.

Principle 2: Trustworthiness and Transparency

We’re completely honest and open with all our patients in all phases of treatment. We explain the what and why of everything we do in treatment. This helps them understand their treatment, which engenders trust both in their therapist and the therapeutic process. Without that mutual trust, we don’t make progress: it’s as simple as that.

Principle 3: Peer Support

When trauma survivors meet and share experiences with other trauma survivors, it improves treatment outcomes. When our patients attend a trauma survivor’s group and hear stories of resiliency and success in the face of extremely difficult or challenging circumstances, it gives them hope for the future, and confirms their belief that they, too, can heal and move forward from past trauma.

Principle 4: Collaboration and Mutuality

This principle works on the concept that healing happens through positive relationships, and relationships work best when the people involved work together within a predetermined, agreed upon structure toward a shared goal. In trauma-informed care, it’s crucial that patients see and feel a sense of cooperation and community during treatment. That includes respect between patient and provider, of course. It also includes respect between and among all members of our clinical and support staff.

Principle 5: Empowerment, Voice, and Choice

When we work with a patient with a history of trauma, we follow their lead. We don’t pretend to have all the answers: our job is to help them look within, and, with the help of evidence-based therapeutic techniques, discover their answers independently. We’re facilitators, rather than directors or controllers. Our role is to help patients develop independent self-efficacy, and become the primary drivers of their own healing process.

Principle 6: Cultural, Historic, and Gender Issues

There are two parts to this principle. First, the personal: we understand the way we grew up – our home culture, our attitudes, our default positions on various topics – influences the way we experience the world and helps shape our opinions. We also understand that everyone has a different home culture and experience, and everyone’s experience is equally valid. Therefore, it’s critical to respect and honor the culture and traditions of all our patients, no matter how different they are from our own. Second, the institutional: it’s also critical that we accept the reality of historical and institutional trauma, and understand that it can play a very real role in the personal experiences of our patients with trauma-related mental health diagnoses.

There Are Psychiatrists Who Specialize in Trauma Informed Care

We have them here at Crownview Medical in San Diego. We offer the best possible support for patients with a history of trauma, and create a safe and supportive atmosphere where they can learn, heal, and grow.

If you or someone you love has a history of trauma and need professional mental health support, please call us here at Crownview Medical. We know how to help. Remember: the earlier someone with a mental health disorder gets the professional support they need, the better the outcome.

Angus Whyte

Angus Whyte has an extensive background in neuroscience, behavioral health, adolescent development, and mindfulness, including lab work in behavioral neurobiology and a decade of writing articles on mental health and mental health treatment. In addition, Angus brings twenty years of experience as a yoga teacher and experiential educator to his work for Crownview. He’s an expert at synthesizing complex concepts into accessible content that helps patients, providers, and families understand the nuances of mental health treatment, with the ultimate goal of improving outcomes and quality of life for all stakeholders.