Understanding Trauma-Informed Care: An Encore Episode with The Still Waters

In this episode of The Still Waters Podcast, Julie and Teri switch roles as Julie interviews Teri about trauma-informed care. Teri explains how the approach shifts the question from “What’s wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?” and explores how trauma can shape behavior, relationships, health, and faith communities. Their conversation highlights common trauma responses, the importance of qualified professional support, and practical ways churches, schools, workplaces, counselors, and ministries can respond with wisdom, safety, and compassion.

00:00 Welcome and Introductions

01:13 What Is Trauma Informed Care

03:39 Defining Trauma vs Crisis

07:53 Symptoms and Body Effects

11:06 ACE Study and Homeostasis

13:09 Why Churches Must Prepare

22:09 Recognizing Trauma in Behavior

25:59 Future of Trauma Informed Care

29:25 Pornography as Ongoing Trauma

31:01 Closing and Resources

Contact The Still Waters Team 

www.stillwaterslife.com

Email us at:

• Julie@stillwaterslife.com
• Rufus@stillwaterslife.com
• Teri@stillwaterslife.com
• Abrielle@stillwaterslife.com
• Melissa@stillwaterslife.com
• Chris@stillwaterslife.com

Let us help you find healing and wellness at The Still Waters.

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:31

Welcome to today's podcast with the Stillwaters. And we have a very exciting, well, and an informative podcast for you today. And guest today is usually the host. And so I thought, hey, uh, it's time for her to get to share her expertise. And uh welcome Terry White to the Stillwaters podcast. Well, thank you. I'm glad to be here. Yes, uh yeah, you're you're always here.

Speaker 2 0:58

I am always here.

Speaker 1:00

But we're gonna give you a break of of trying to interview people because uh I I know that can, you know, that that takes a little bit of uh just a lot of thought. And this and this this kind of stuff we're talking about today comes so easy for you. We're gonna talk about trauma-informed care, which you know, I know, but I don't know that the people who need to know right know.

unknown 1:27

Right.

Speaker 1:29

Uh so let's let's share the let's share the news. Let's share uh what this is about. So when I'm talking about trauma-informed care, uh what is that?

Speaker 1 1:41

So I think that you said we you know, I know, but a lot of people don't know. But I do think that's changing because we've had a lot happen to our world in the last few years that was out of the ordinary, um, with the pandemic and everything that all the fallout from that. And so we have a culture society of of mental issues that people are dealing with, trauma. I mean, if you think about it, technically, we all were traumatized through, you know, but when we talk about trauma-informed care, that is an approach to working with people that have been through trauma. So that can be anybody. That can be a parent, that can be a teacher, it can be a counselor or a coach, it can be an employer, it can be a church leader, it can basically be anybody that is gonna have to deal with individuals that have been traumatized in some way. Um, so you could call those people care providers. Um but when it comes to trauma-informed care, it's a shift in our perspective on how to deal with people that have been through trauma.

Speaker 2 3:01

Okay.

Speaker 1 3:02

So a lot of times people will use the question, what's wrong with you? Like if if somebody's having a problem, they'll say, What's wrong with you? But when you're approaching it from a trauma-informed care perspective, instead of saying what's wrong with you, you're saying you're going to say, What happened to you? Okay, big difference. Little bit of a difference there, yeah. So um, so it basically approaches a person from their entire scenario, I guess is the best way to say it, because people can experience trauma in any time of life. Okay, so you might meet somebody who has trauma in their history, but it's not current. Maybe it happened long time ago, you know, but even if it happened a long time ago, it still can affect them. And so trauma-informed care is just the um the way we approach that person.

Speaker 4:00

Okay. Do you think there is a I think to define trauma? Because some people, as we as you and I know, sometimes that word becomes buzzwords. Like there's a lot of things that become buzzwords, and everybody decides they've been traumatized. Um, you know, but I when I think of trauma, I think of some kind of event that changed the trajectory of your life in some way. It became embedded in you. It it wasn't when you got your feelings hurt, it wasn't when you had a spat with somebody, but this this changed changed everything about you. Um what would you say are some traumatic events where where this would help people to understand when we talk about trauma-informed care, we're caring for people who had trauma. What are some of the trauma things that you've seen?

Speaker 1 4:51

Yeah. So I think it let's go back a little bit because I think the word trauma is a buzzword, like you said. And especially with teenagers, boy, I hear that all the time. I was traumatized for this, and and it it does get confusing because people think it's just a matter of your feelings got hurt or something like that. But there's so much more to it than that. But when you start working within the trauma-informed care world, then they distinguish between what we would call a crisis and trauma. So a crisis is kind of a type of trauma, but um they're distinguished because a crisis would be something that's like a short-term. Okay, like an acute situation. Exactly, exactly. So let's think about, let's think about that. I don't want you to get upset, but let's think back to the 70s. I was in the 70s, so are you. That would be considered a crisis. That was an unexpected short-term thing. It's not something that lasted years and years and years, it's something that came up, went the storm system, demolished a town, and then was over, right? And then they had to rebuild. So that's a crisis, a sudden death in the family. That's a crisis. It's traumatic to a certain extent, but it's a it's not something that is long-term. So when we're really talking about trauma, we're really referring to something that has a long-lasting emotional effect. So I guess you could argue that the Dina Tornado had a long-lasting effect on certain people that were there, you know, that saw it or experienced it. But um, when we're talking about trauma though, we're really talking about something that goes even deeper than a crisis. Something that is, so you asked for example, so like any type of abuse that's long-term that happens repeatedly. Um, you think about um combat uh soldiers that are in combat that that are dealing with repeated situations where their life is at risk or threatened, or even medical conditions that are life-threatening. So that's really the difference. And so, you know, you can experience a tornado, live through it, not get hurt. It can you still have memories of it, of that crisis, but it's not necessarily something that overwhelms your body and your system, right? Whereas if you're abused over and over and over repeatedly, whether it's physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, doesn't matter what kind of abuse it is, but it's over and over and over that causes trauma in your body, it causes trauma in your nerve system, yes, um, which can result in a lot of fear on the part of the person who experienced that. And it it affects how they feel about themselves, it affects how they look at things in the world and how they view other people. So we've got to understand that there's a little bit of a difference there. Does that make sense?

Speaker 8:01

Yes, absolutely makes sense. I think that helps that helps the audience kind of understand the the the path we're going on here. So there's there's different types of trauma, right? I think it kind of in and how you explain that. So um, but there's there's symptoms to trauma. And that when and so when we're talking about trauma-informed care, how do we know what the symptoms are of trauma to even know what kind of care we're talking about? What are some symptoms?

Speaker 1 8:33

Oh, well, there's a lot of different symptoms. So it can affect, like I said, it affects your body, it affects your nervous system. So when your nervous system is out of whack, I guess is the best way to affect it. That's a good thing. That can that can affect you your sleep patterns to where you can't sleep. You could have insomnia, it can affect your ability to focus. So, you know, if you're a student, you can't necessarily focus in school, um, which could be um could be or could not be connected to uh attention deficit disorder. Um, so mood disorders. Some people that are traumatized will experience suicidal ideation depending on what the trauma was. Um, it can also lead to addiction because people start learning to cope with their experiences and not necessarily coping in healthy ways. So they might turn to drugs and alcohol, um, which can turn into addiction. Um, so there's all sorts of things. And I know you've read that book, The Body Keeps the Score, which is an excellent book to explain it. But the big thing about that book is that um it focused a lot on abuse and how that affects our bodies. But I did so much research when the soldiers came back from Vietnam that they were dealing with PTSD, and um saw that people that have been abused were exhibiting the same symptoms as soldiers who had been in combat that were experiencing PTSD. And so that that was real eye-opening to me to recognize and understand what PTSD was. You know, nightmares, flashbacks, sleep problems, all the different things. We mentioned the suicidal ideation, and we know with our soldiers we're having a crisis because many of them are committing suicide like they've never done before. So there's some truth behind all of that. Um, blood pressure, heart rate, issues, abdominal issues, all of those things can be trauma related.

Speaker 10:32

Oh, yeah. Yeah, that gut response. I was thinking of too uh uh attachment disorders, especially with children who have gone through a childhood where perhaps they didn't get their emotional needs met or their physical needs met. Um, and as they grow up, they have learned just by having to adapt how to survive. So they're in survival mode all the time. And and that when that goes into adulthood, and then you start having relationships, you you you've got a whole set of trauma for a many, many years based on maybe 10, 15 years of an attachment issue. So it goes, it runs very deep. Yeah, yes, very deep. It runs very deep, and it has affected more people than I think they realize.

Speaker 1 11:25

Right.

Speaker 11:26

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 11:27

Yeah, so the eighth study is one that we we know that it stands for adverse childhood experiences, and it's a simple test that you can take, where I think there's about 10 questions um that will ask about things that have happened to you in your childhood. And so most people will have more than one trauma in their life, and so the result of that um assessment is that the higher your ACE score is, the higher your chances of having difficult later on are gonna be. Um, so that's been really interesting research to um oh yeah, learn about, especially when it comes to children. And so that, you know, so that helps us to, you know, have a greater appreciation for the safety of children, um, you know, especially when they're dealing with what you mentioned, you know, yeah.

Speaker 12:24

And so and you know, when we're talking about homeostasis and trying to understand how life needs to be balanced and what a typical balanced life would look like. And that doesn't mean we're always balanced, but when you've got when you've got people who are who or children who've been raised in a certain way, that that homeostasis is in constant flux. You just never know what's going to happen from one day to the next. You have someone who is either going into that hyper-arousal state or they go into the hypoarousal state because they've never learned how to come to homeostasis, how to come to a level of balance. And and so their whole life is is just trauma pieces over and over and over. But they don't think that way, right? Because that's that's how they just live. That's normal for them. It's just normal. Yeah, they don't know any different. They don't know any different. So it's amazing. So, you know, um I'm gonna ask this. I'm gonna ask this question. Do you think churches need to be aware of trauma-informed care?

Speaker 1 13:35

Oh, yeah, I but I believe churches need to be aware of trauma-informed care. I've tried to be vocal about that a bit, actually. No, this is your chance. Okay. Well, so why, Terry? Why do churches need to move? Because there is so trauma is so prevalent in society. Um, and so when we have incidents in life that occur that we would call or label traumatic, whether it's a crisis or whether it's trauma. Most of the time, if you are a person that is um a religious believer of some sort, regardless of what denomination you're at, right? Most of the time people will turn to the church first to help. And the problem that we run into is that when we turn to the church leadership, I'll say I'll call it that, they don't necessarily appreciate trauma or are educated on trauma or know what to do with it, or know how to handle it. And because of that, then they're not approaching this person from a trauma-informed care perspective. And so that can end up causing more harm for that person. Okay. So I'll give you an example. So um, I went to a workshop one time where Ali was talking about this, and she was talking specifically about within religious communities, and she said, Okay, a young woman goes to a youth gathering with people from their church that she her youth group or whatever, and she's raped by one of the other teenagers. Okay, so she goes home and she tells her parents. Well, obviously her parents are upset. Yes. Um, her parents should call the police first thing, but instead they go to the church the next day and talk to whoever they is considered their leadership at that point. Um, I think this lady particularly said they went to like a church secretary or something like that. Well, that person doesn't know how to handle that. So that person passes it off to another person in leadership. Well, that person doesn't know how to handle it, you know. So maybe it was a preacher, minister of some sort. Well, if that person doesn't know how to handle it, what does that person do? Well, they pass it off to an eldership. Well, they don't know how to handle it. So what what do you do? You know, they're they don't know what to do. Well, once again, in that situation, they should have called the police first. Ah, yes. That would have been the first move that they should have done. But if this scenario had been different and someone within what we're calling leadership, somebody who's helping to run that church, right, was trauma-informed, trained in trauma-informed care, or even knew what it was, then the whole scenario would have been different. Because one, they would have probably said, you need to call the police first. Second, they would second, they would have said, okay, we're not equipped to handle this, but we can help find someone that is equipped that can help you, you know, whether that's a counselor or whether that's the person getting to a doctor, you know, just different resources. But oftentimes when stuff like that happens, we're just we're not prepared for it because we kind of believe that kind of stuff doesn't happen within our religious communities, but it does happen. Oh, yeah, all the time. Um so yes, I think back to your original question, should churches be trauma-informed? I don't remember exactly how you ordered the question, but yes, they should be, they should have someone. In fact, I tell people, I told somebody this just recently, this uh man was getting ready to be appointed as an elder, and he was just talking to me about it. And I said, Well, I hope that um, you know, one of the people, one of the other people that are classify as an elder would be um educated in that, you know, so that when you have things come to you, that at least one of you will be able to go, you know what, we're not ready, we're not equipped to handle this. We can help this person spiritually and help encourage them to look to Christ, but we can't help them with the trauma, and that's what they need. They need help with the trauma. Right. So it's just like if a person came to the elders and said, I've got cancer, you know, I need I need your help. Okay, well, they're not doctors, right? Assuming they're not doctors, they can't help them, but they can pray for them, they can study with them, they can encourage them, they can weep with them, right, but they're not equipped to give them chemo or do surgery on them or whatever. So it's the same sort of thing, you know, they need to be able to um outsource, I guess is the best way to say it.

Speaker 19:07

Yeah. I I I think that's excellent. You know, uh, I've had a couple uh men who are in the process of becoming leaders in their congregation who have asked for how can I be more prepared? Which I it's rare that that happens, but I'm just so grateful for anybody who seeks to learn more on how to take care of the people that they are either overseeing, they're in it interacting with. And in that scenario, you're describing a crime, and this can be a problem too. There, there are groups who who don't want to report crimes, you know, and and we talked about mandatory reporting. I mean, that is we have to report things. That's it's against the law if you don't. And um, so this is why it's it's this serious. It's this serious because not only does it involve um the legal system, and and we are to uh submit ourselves to governing authorities, as we, those of us who are believers. The other piece of it though is that when people have been either they've been raped or they've gone through sexual abuse, or there's been a child that's gone through sexual abuse, uh, we're telling them that what happened to you is really not important. And we're telling them that you have to learn how to repress any kind of feelings that you have that have affected you from this traumatic event. And that's what we're telling people. And so they go through the rest of their lives. Some that's what some are telling people, the rest of their lives, thinking that they didn't have the worth and value someone show up for them and help them in in their recovery. And there's these like, well, we just have to forgive. Do we have to forgive? True. Uh, we just pray about it. Should we pray? True. However, what I see is so many people do not understand the science of our bodies that God created. So there's just so much to this, and I think this is just it's just an excellent, excellent topic.

Speaker 1 21:18

Um can I can I point out that um you mentioned the science, and uh this I agree with that completely that a lot of people are not aware of the science, and we we don't have time to go into all the details of that today, uh, which I'm sure our audience will be happy for us not to. But um, but the fact of the matter is is that I don't know, we just have so much more of the science now than we had say when we were growing up. And so, you know, unless you don't believe in science, um, then you know, I guess you could dismiss it. But the science backs up, you know, how our bodies are affected with the care technique. So I I think it's a blessing that we have that, is I guess is what I'm trying to say. We have it's a blessing that we know more about our bodies now than we did before, so that when these things happen, we can know how to better help people.

Speaker 22:20

Absolutely. Absolutely. Yes. Yes. And understand and have a list available of people that you can send them, you know, if um that they'll need so for um therapists or clinicians or coaches, um, and and I would say even teachers in the school system, how uh how are they going to recognize uh a person that that has some trauma going on with them, doesn't want to talk about it. What do you what do you suggest? What what do you suggest they do?

Speaker 1 22:53

So I think the thing is when someone has trauma in their background, their behavior is different. So you mentioned the classroom, let's just use as an example. So when I was growing up, and when you were growing up, classroom management in a classroom was basically focused on rules and behavior, right? So you obey the rules, and if you don't, there are consequences. Okay, fair enough. I'm a rule person too, but there's always a reason for behavior. And so with trauma-informed care, the the perspective has shifted in that, okay, if a child is exhibiting some kind of behavior, once again it goes to back to what's not what's wrong with you, why are you doing this behavior, but what happened to you to cause this behavior. And so, I mean, I think the same thing could be applied into a church setting or or counseling room. And if you are in the position um of being a caretaker, once again, a teacher, a counselor, employer, a church leadership, whatever, a parent, then it's important how you word yourself. Right. Um, and so being able to know the right questions to ask a person, you know, about their behavior, and not making the assumption that this child or adult even is a bad person, and not assuming automatically that they're just sinning because of what they're doing. But why is this happening? What happened to you to cause you to have this behavior? Why are you acting out in this manner? Um, so that's that's critical. That is really critical, uh, especially for children who have experienced it. So it's just kind of a different way of thinking about things. Um, and then of course, with a counselor or coach, it really comes down to the questions. So people will come to counselors and coaches for different reasons, right? And a lot of times they'll come to them for what or what they the counselor or coach thinks is one reason, but then it'll switch because the counselor or the coach is trained to ask the right questions to really dig and help figure out what's really going on in their head and why they are saying the things they're saying or behaving the ways that they're behaving. So that goes back to the trauma-informed care. Not what's wrong with you, but what happened to you. And so um, language is really important with all of this.

Speaker 25:38

And sometimes a child will will say, oh nothing, or they'll make up something. I think it's just, you know, just note to self when a child is saying, oh nothing, you know, come back around at another time and just be servant, find another way to ask the question. Right. And I think that's one of the things that people have to learn as well, how to ask questions. And, you know, yes and no questions will not get you the information you're typically looking for or needing. Um, so it's it's learning how to ask questions.

Speaker 1 26:13

Right. There's and there's an art to that. I mean, it's not something that's easy.

Speaker 26:18

It has to be learned. Absolutely. So let me ask you, as we wrap things up, where do you see the future of trauma-informed care? I mean, where do you see this going? If it were to start making a lot of traction, what would that look like?

Speaker 1 26:35

Well, I think it is starting to start making traction because our education system is starting to uh utilize it quite a bit. And I I know uh workplaces, employers are starting to implement it and train their people in it more. Because I mean, if you think about it, we just earlier talked about everybody is affected by trauma, probably at one point or another in their life. Some people unfortunately experience more trauma than others. And um, but just because you've experienced trauma doesn't that doesn't have to define your whole life. And so if you are approached by an employer um from the perspective of a trauma-informed perspective, then you know that that employee will be more efficient at their work, you know, and so that's a positive outcome for the company that they're working for in the setting of a school. If if teachers and administrators can focus on the holistic health of the children that um they're dealing with, then that's gonna just help if they're looking at it from a trauma-informed perspective to help the student to be more well-rounded and to be able to um improve academically and emotionally and that sort of thing. And I think so. When we talk about the church, same thing, you know, if if we implemented more of a trauma-informed perspective with our people in our religious communities, then as a whole, our church bodies would be it, you know, healthier, I guess is the best way to say it. Absolutely. And that's the whole goal, right? It's for us as Christians to be focused on Christ and to be the best individuals that we can be so that we can be a positive influence on others. But if you know, it's really hard when a person is traumatized, it's really hard for them to think about getting out of that when they don't know how. Because they're not capable of doing that. And so if I'm in a religious community that's just saying you're not working hard enough, you know, you're not serving enough, then that can be harmful because they're not there yet. And so as they start to heal and get better from whatever they've experienced and work through and process the emotions that they've dealt with, then they become uh, you know, healthier and more efficient, if you want to say it that way, more efficient for the cause of Christ. But when they're not in a healthy place because of the trauma, they they can't. And so I see that a lot with people. Um I see a lot of people that are um trying to be servants for God. Um, but the approach that they're taking is you know, because they haven't worked through their trauma, they're not as efficient as they could be.

Speaker 29:44

Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. And I want to throw this one thing in there that as you were talking, I was thinking trauma in our children, traumatic events. I'm gonna throw, I'm gonna throw pornography in there as trauma creating for children, because when they're being exposed to the horrific evil with pornography at an age where developmentally they cannot handle that, right? Those are traumatic events. And this is why it's another reason why parents have got to be much more on this. Churches have got to be much more on this. Leadership, communities, you name it, we all have to do because we're creating we're creating children with trauma happening in their lives because of what we aren't catching or what we're not monitoring, or where we're just not as engaged with uh with what our children are seeing, which could be not only this the sexuality piece, but but the uh violent piece that goes with pornography. So, you know, trauma, uh if we want to look at trauma happening in our world, I would say it's happening multiple times a day with our kids who are access to pornography.

Speaker 1 31:06

Right. Because remember, the trauma is different from the crisis because the crisis short term, the trauma is long lasting repeatedly over and over and over again. And so that's pornography right there. Right there.

Speaker 31:20

Wow. Sad. Well, thanks, Terry, so much for all your your expertise. You do such a good job in this with uh clients. And I'm gonna say anybody out there that is affiliated with a congregation that has input with your leadership, uh, talk to them about having Terry come and work with either the the leadership or parents about trauma informed care. She could do workshops for you. So uh email her Terry at stillwaterslife.com. You you will not be sorry you did that because she is ready to do that. So thanks so much, Terry. All right, thank you.