My Approach to Trauma Recovery

Trauma Focused versus Trauma Informed

Alex Penrod, MS, LPC, LCDC

Trauma is a broad topic, making it sometimes confusing to understand what a trauma therapist does or how to know who is a trauma focused therapist vs a trauma informed therapist. With generalist therapists, Instagram influencers, and self-proclaimed guru’s all speaking authoritatively on the topic, my hope it to give you an overview of the essentials of quality trauma therapy. This page will help narrow it down to the key concepts in the approach and training involved. It begins with a fundamental knowledge base and then translates into a working model of evidence based therapies and strategies to help heal trauma over a long-term time frame.

Trauma Informed

The research on Adverse Childhood Experiences conducted by Felitti et al. showed a clear relationship between childhood trauma and a myriad of mental, emotional, behavioral, and physical health problems later in life. We often think of trauma as something that’s “in our heads” from the past, but the reality is that it changes the brain and body in ways that can continue to manifest in present time unless addressed. Trauma can manifest in a wide range of issues in a person’s life that sometimes may not seem immediately related to the past. Understanding the connection between developmental trauma and the problems that bring adults into treatment or therapy is a key part of being trauma informed.

Trauma Focused

Being informed and aware of the impact of trauma is a cornerstone of good clinical practice. But having the specialized skills and training to assist someone with engaging in trauma therapy over the long-term is a key difference in what makes a trauma focused therapist. There’s no replacement for brief and practical therapeutic skills that help people stabilize from their most immediate problems in life, but taking healing a step further into the deeper origins of patterns, symptoms, and engrained unconscious beliefs is where a trauma focused therapist becomes essential. 

From this perspective, my philosophy is two-fold:

1. The immediate issues in a person’s life that are causing them distress should be focused on until a sense of safety and stability is achieved. This may involve other professionals and services that are not specific to trauma therapy. To use a more tangible analogy, it’s akin to treating someone in the hospital in a hypertensive (high blood pressure) crisis. We need to prioritize immediate needs to reduce the current risk and distress level and come back to baseline.

2. Many people stop here, some will be ok, some will find themselves in crisis again. While I support each individual’s autonomy to choose what is right for them, I believe doing the deeper work of trauma healing gets to the roots of the surface level symptoms for long-term relief and freedom. This is akin to getting to the root of why a person is having high blood pressure and treating the underlying issue.

If you’re looking to move into the deeper work of trauma healing, it’s important to consider the difference between a “trauma informed” generalist versus a “trauma focused” specialist. A trauma informed therapist knows about the impact of trauma, a trauma focused specialist has committed their practice to deliver trauma therapy.

The training of a trauma focused specialist includes:

• Advanced knowledge of the neurobiology of trauma, the nervous system, dissociation, and the effects of trauma on the body.

• Ability to assess and differentiate between single event PTSD, complex PTSD (C-PTSD), dissociative disorders, and Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). Tailoring treatment to the crucial differences in these trauma related diagnoses.

• Training beyond one modality or basic EMDR. Trauma therapy often requires a range of approaches.

• Working within a 3 phase model:

  • Safety and Stabilization

  • Memory Reprocessing

  • Reintegration

I take an empathetic and warm approach to my clients with the utmost respect for their judgment. When it comes to how fast to move, how much you can tolerate to process, and what your goals are versus the protocols of treatment, I listen to you first and foremost.