Trauma-Informed Care

By VeriScorePrep Team · 5 min

Trauma-informed care (TIC) presumes that any client may have a trauma history and adjusts the environment and practices to prevent retraumatization and support healing.

The SAMHSA six principles

1. Safety: physical and psychological; the client feels respected and free.
2. Trustworthiness and transparency: decisions and their rationale are shared.
3. Peer support: shared experience as a source of credibility and hope.
4. Collaboration and mutuality: leveling power differences; the client is a partner.
5. Empowerment, voice, and choice: the client's preferences shape decisions.
6. Cultural, historical, and gender issues: recognize and respond to identity-specific experiences.

Why presume trauma?

Trauma is far more common than clinical history suggests; many do not disclose. Asking is not required to provide trauma-informed care, but operating from the presumption is.

In practice

• Environment: calm, predictable, with attention to lighting, noise, and privacy.
• Interactions: explain what you're doing and why; ask permission before touch or procedures.
• Choice: offer options wherever possible; even small choices restore agency.
• Triggers: recognize and de-escalate; offer grounding.
• Power: examine your own; trauma-informed care asks the worker to manage power consciously.

Trauma-specific interventions

EMDR, trauma-focused CBT, somatic approaches — these address trauma directly. TIC is the foundational stance; trauma-specific treatment is the deliberate work on the trauma itself.