Re-Imagining Mental Health Care for Survivors of Trauma
August 3, 2022 2:00 PM Eastern Time
Presenter: Aaron Smith, PhD, LMHC, NCC
Description: In an increasingly unjust world, counselors are seeing a wide range of traumas emerge in their work with clients, from institutional traumas of betrayal to historical cultural traumas. Fortunately, there have been some important advancements in how trauma is conceptualized and treated over the last decade, from embracing trauma-informed praxes to integrating cultural factors in trauma-work with survivors. It is incumbent upon all trauma-workers – and humanists, more broadly – to continuously hone their skills so that they are prepared to meet the demands of this ever-growing epidemic.
This presentation begins with a list of several myths about the treatment of trauma, such as the idea that approaching the trauma narrative is a necessary component of treatment or that manualized approaches rooted in Western psychological models provide the greatest chance of success. Then, we will explore the principles of trauma-informed care outlined by the National Center for Trauma-Informed Care (2018) and examine several ways that well-intentioned counselors recreate traumatic narratives in counseling. These include things like pressuring redemptive narratives, over-emphasizing the role of individual choice/responsibility (at the cost of embracing well-known socio-ecological determinants of mental health like institutional racism and discrimination), and under addressing historical cultural traumas in clients of marginalized identities. And at the center of all these conversations, special attention will be paid to the importance of preventing re-traumatization via the treatment process in people of marginalized identities.
Presenter Bio: Dr. Aaron J. Smith is an eight-year veteran of the United States Marine Corps infantry and an Associate Professor of Counseling and Psychology at Western Washington University (WWU) in Bellingham, Washington. He is the director of the Warrior Wellness Lab – a Veterans mental health research lab – and interim co-director of the Center for Cross Cultural Research (the organization that started the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology). He is also a co-host of The Thoughtful Counselor Podcast where he has interviewed international experts on the treatment of trauma such as Judith Lewis Herman, Daniel Siegel, Lee Mun Wah, Sebastian Junger, and many others. Dr. Smith and his students’ program of research in the Warrior Wellness Lab has focused on how trauma impacts meaning-making processes in survivors and what implications this has for various indicators of mental health. Finally, Dr. Smith has been a proud member of the Association for Humanistic Counseling (AHC) since 2010.