Module 6

Question 1

Intergenerational Trauma

Answer 1

• Trauma is generally understood as a person’s response to a major catastrophic event that’s so overwhelming it leaves that person unable to come to terms with it
• (1). In some cases, trauma is passed down from the first generation of survivors who directly experienced or witnessed traumatic events to future generations
• (2). This is referred to as intergenerational trauma, and can be passed on through parenting practices, behavioural problems, violence, harmful substance use and mental health issues

Question 2

Trauma

Answer 2

Trauma results from an event, series of events, or set of
circumstances that is experienced by an individual as physically or emotionally harmful or threatening and that has lasting adverse effects on the individual’s functioning and physical, social, emotional, or spiritual well-being

Question 3

Trauma informed practice

Answer 3

• Human services workers frequently encounter clients with a history of trauma.
• A way of providing services
• Recognize prevalence of early adversity in the lives of clients
• View presenting problems as symptoms of maladaptive coping
• Understand how early trauma shapes a client’s fundamental beliefs about the world and affects psychosocial functioning across the life span.
• Incorporates principles of safety, trust, collaboration, choice, and empowerment
• Avoids inadvertently repeating unhealthy interpersonal dynamics in the helping relationship
• Integrated into all sorts of existing models of evidence-based services across populations and agency settings, can strengthen the therapeutic alliance, and facilitates posttraumatic growth

Question 4

Responses to Trauma

Answer 4

Influencing factors:
- Biological resilience/ vulnerability
- Severity of the trauma
- Developmental stage at time of trauma
- Social context before and after the event
- Prior and subsequent life events

Question 5

What do Trauma Survivors Need?

Answer 5

• To have trauma acknowledged.
• To have particular vulnerabilities understood and respected.
• Not to be retraumatized or blamed

Question 6

Trauma Informed (info from tute)

Answer 6

▪ Family violence is a form of complex trauma. It is interpersonal and experienced in what should be a caring relationship.
▪ Trauma-informed practice is grounded in an understanding of, and responsiveness to, the impacts of trauma. It emphasises physical,
psychological and emotional safety for both service providers and individuals and creates opportunities for individuals to rebuild a sense of control and empowerment.
▪ For Aboriginal Victorians as First Nations Peoples, the devastating impacts of colonisation and the dispossession of land and children has resulted in an accumulation of intergenerational trauma. Many people from migrant and refugee backgrounds have traumatic experiences of dispossession, persecution and marginalisation. When cumulative intergenerational trauma is untreated, individuals do not receive the holistic healing they require to heal.
▪ A trauma-informed service system demonstrates an understanding of how trauma impacts the life of an individual who is seeking services – whether as a person with lived experience of family violence or a perpetrator. It is strengths-based and responds to the impact of trauma emphasising the physical and emotional safety of the individual, while rebuilding a sense of control and empowerment. - A trauma-informed service system recognises the risk of vicarious trauma and burnout for workers and minimises this risk by encouraging self-care and providing worker support systems.

Question 7

TIC Practitioners

Answer 7

• attune to the possibility of trauma in the lives of everyone seeking support
• apply the core principles of safety, trustworthiness, choice, collaboration and empowerment (Fallot and Harris, 2001)
• accommodate the vulnerabilities of trauma survivors including people from diverse backgrounds
• minimise the risks of re-traumatisation and promote healing
• emphasise physical and emotional safety for everyone
• recognise coping strategies as attempts to cope
• collaborate with clients, and affirm their strengths and resources
• recognise the importance of respect, dignity and hope
• focus on the whole context in which a service is provided and not just on what is provided.
• Respect the `seven commitments’ – the guiding values of the Sanctuary Model developed by Bloom and colleagues – non-
  violence, emotional intelligence, social learning, open communication, social responsibility, democracy, growth and change
  which should apply to all trauma-informed contexts regardless of the particular approach of the service