Problem: Reflection activity
Use the text box below to record your reflections on the following questions.
Why do you think self-blame works so closely with secrecy to impact children's mental health after trauma? Need Assignment Help?
What strategies do you use to help children to move beyond the effects of self-blame or secrecy? What else would you like to do?
What is your understanding of trauma-informed practice and how does it relate to the context of your work?
Helping children to find the language to describe their experiences
'If children don't have a vocabulary to describe their life's experience ... if young people aren't able to sequence and tell other people their life experiences, how do they then give meaning to those life experiences and how do they process and understand what has happened to them?'
- Kate Headley, Child speech pathologist
Helping children to describe their experiences - both positive and negative - is an important element of trauma-informed practice. This does not mean that all practitioners or educators should be asking children if they have experienced trauma. Rather, trauma-informed practice acknowledges that many children who present to services have at least one experience of trauma and that services have a responsibility to help children tell their stories in safe and meaningful ways.
Children all communicate at different stages and in different ways. When family members, educators or practitioners can find the ways that best support their communication style, children may become more confident in sharing their hopes, preferences, concerns and worries.
References:
Berliner, L., & Kolko, D. J. (2016). Trauma informed care: A commentary and critique. Child Maltreatment, 21(2), 168-172.
Sweeney, A., Filson, B., Kennedy, A., Collinson, L., & Gillard, S. (2018). A paradigm shift: Relationships in trauma-informed mental health services. BJPsych Advances, 24(5), 319-333.
New South Wales Government (n.d). What is trauma-informed care? [Web page]. Accessed 24 September 2024.
Wall, L., Higgins, D., & Hunter, C. (2016). Trauma-informed care in child/family welfare services (CFCA paper no. 37). Australian Institute of Family Studies.
Australian Institute of Family Studies (2014). Effects of child abuse and neglect for children and adolescents (CFCA resource sheet). Australian Institute of Family Studies.
National Child Traumatic Stress Network. (n.d.). Complex trauma: Effects [Web page]. Accessed 24 September 2009.
Hervatin, M. (2021). Complex trauma through a trauma-informed lens: supporting the wellbeing of infants and young children. Emerging Minds.
Lippard, E., & Nemeroff, C. (2020). The devastating clinical consequences of child abuse and neglect: Increased disease vulnerability and poor treatment response in mood disorders. American Journal of Psychiatry, 177, 20-36.