Information
Trauma results from an event that a person sees as harmful or life-threatening and that affects mental, physical, social, emotional, or spiritual well-being, like the sudden, unexpected death of a loved one, or a gunshot or stab wound. Sometimes people experience lasting distress from trauma – Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
For example, people who have been through trauma may experience
- Flashbacks—reliving the trauma over and over, including physical symptoms like a racing heart or sweating
- Bad dreams
- Avoiding thoughts or feelings related to the traumatic event
- Having difficulty sleeping
- Having angry outbursts
Counseling can help people understand these painful emotions and the triggers for them, and reduce the distress of PTSD. Counseling services reduce the risk someone who has been through trauma will retaliate or be re-injured.
Violence is a recurrent problem
Without intervention, up to 41 percent of people injured by assault will be reinjured within five years. Up to 20 percent of patients treated for violent injury will be killed within five years. The Hospital-based Violence Intervention Program (HVIP) – which provides...
The Connection Between Trauma, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Violence
Between 1995 and 1997, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and Kaiser Permanente (a large HMO) surveyed over 17,000 mostly white, mostly college-educated, middle class adults with good health insurance and measured how many people had experienced abuse, neglect, or...
About TF-CBT and Trauma
Our services are based on the Sanctuary model and the Trauma-focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) model. As a result, we are focused on supporting adults and youth as they build the knowledge and skills to manage the symptoms of their traumatic experience....
How childhood trauma affects health across a lifetime
Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, Surgeon General of California talks about how knowledge of the science of ACEs informed her pediatric practice. ACEs create ways of interacting with the world that can limit a person’s ability to fully function in their lives– affecting their...