Trauma Informed Care Pillar V – Empowerment, Voice, Choice

Trauma events are experienced differently by different people, and it is this concept that helps support this aspect of trauma informed care.  The experience of trauma is subjective to everyone and has a variety of experience and effect that needs consideration.  Some considerations of these experiences and ongoing effect are loss of individual power, loss of action, inability to speak up for personal safety and needs, and reliance on another in an unhealthy way for survival.  It is reminiscent of the dysfunctional rules of ‘don’t talk, don’t trust, don’t feel’ and it could be added ‘don’t act’.  Take no action, Keep Quiet, Trust No One, and Bury Feelings are steps to continue the experience and effect of trauma. 

Empowerment gives the ability to act on one’s decisions and best interest.  It is an act of taking one’s power back from a current or past perpetrator.  It is a movement from acting, following a ‘script’ or ‘conditioning’, to authenticity and movement into one’s own independence.  Development of empowerment can take time for some and for others, it may come naturally.  As it develops, one begins to build self-resiliency and internal resourcing to move into action.  In working with this concept, it is a beautiful thing to witness in the other when they can move into their own action such as recovery from substances, processing of buried hurts, or even acknowledge ‘I can do that’. 

Voice is speaking up for ourselves and stating our internal truth.  In trauma, we were possibly given messages or feedback of our expressions that may have included ‘that didn’t happen’ or ‘you are overreacting’ or ‘just get over it’.  Trauma messages remind the individual to ‘don’t talk about it’ and thus prevents flowing of processing and healing.  Voice allows us to express needs, wants, boundaries, and other protective measures.  In working with trauma and from a trauma informed perspective, giving the other the ability to use their voice and express held emotions can be beneficial on the healing path.  We begin to recover our authentic voice and become more aware of what the trauma voice sounds like. 

Choice.  When I think of this aspect, I think of a wild animal that is backed into a corner.  It will fight back.  This metaphor is like reduction of choices – the more that choices are taken away, the more likely one is to re-act or act-out.  This is not to excuse the behavior or to take away responsibility, rather it is to illustrate that choices can support the rational process and avoid the reactive process.  Trauma events can also have the experience of being reliant on others to make choices for us or to settle.  Part of choice is that we take responsibility for the outcomes, and we learn to avoid blaming the other or deflecting responsibility.  I have worked with several people who have stated in one way or another ‘I don’t have any other choice’ to which the challenge is recognizing that this could be a trauma reinforced cognitive block.  Challenging this block can be met with resistance, at times insight, and either way, it helps to move out of being choice-less and instead working with personal responsibility.