The Importance of Trauma-Informed Care Training and Psilocybin Therapy

Trauma is like a little seed those exposed to it carry around. Sometimes, it can grow to affect our subconscious and conscious perceptions and interactions with ourselves and the world around us. 

Trauma responses may continue even after the traumatic event has occurred. To encourage healing and recovery from trauma and patterns caused by trauma responses, treatment may need to be centered around a trauma-informed care approach. 

In this article, we discuss the importance of trauma-informed care training and how it may be vital to psilocybin facilitator training and therapy. 

What Is Trauma-Informed Care?

Trauma-informed care is an approach that incorporates an individual’s entire life experience, background, and self-perception when treating trauma. 

It is rooted in the groundwork that trauma plays a significant role in the existence of society and that many people have it and respond to it in different ways.

However, instead of viewing this trauma from the perspective of “what’s wrong with you,” trauma-informed care centers the conversation around “what happened to you.”

Trauma-informed care strives to:

• Highlight the ubiquitous impact of trauma and recognize different paths to recovery.
• Acknowledge the way trauma manifests and how it affects patients, family, and staff.
• Avoid retraumatization during every step of the treatment and healing process.
• Pursue and incorporate new knowledge about trauma into policies, procedures, and practices. 

Why Is Trauma-Informed Care Training Important?

According to the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry (JAAP), roughly 51% of people in the general population in the United States have been exposed to trauma. 

With over 166 million people carrying some form of trauma, many go untreated or are entirely unaware that their trauma is affecting other parts of their lives and behavior. 

Trauma-informed care helps shift our societal perspective about how trauma demonstrates itself from person to person. It also helps trauma-affected individuals shift their response to it so they break out of unhealthy patterns caused by trauma. 

Trauma-informed care training (TICT) allows human and health professionals to understand an individual’s frame of mind and life experience during interactions and treatment, leading to better engagement, care, and outcomes. 

Several professionals that typically attend TICT include:

• Behavioral health service providers
• Prevention specialists
• Program administrators
• Physicians and nurses
• Educators

During trauma-informed care training, you may be expected to learn:

• About trauma and how to heal from it
• Different types and levels of trauma
• How trauma experiences affect mental and behavioral health
• The signs and symptoms of trauma
• How trauma affects all individuals involved in it 
• How to avoid retraumatization during treatment
• Practical strategies applying trauma-informed knowledge and care

At Cognitive Clinical Training, we dedicate a large portion of our curriculum to trauma-informed care. We believe it is essential that our graduate facilitators are able to host clients in a safe and understanding environment that addresses trauma as a part of the healing process. 

All our facilitators graduate from our facilitator program with tools and knowledge on how to effectively address and handle trauma during psilocybin treatment. Learn more about our programs today. 

What Are the Four R’s of Trauma-Informed Care? 

One of the central concepts of trauma-informed care is the four R’s, which are:

• Realizing how trauma affects the individuals and surrounding communities
• Recognizing how trauma manifests differently from patient to patient
• Responding to clients with a trauma-informed approach
• Resisting and avoiding retraumatization during care

These foundational notions allow human and healthcare providers to adopt universal treatment policies that better address varying forms of trauma in unique individuals. 

The 6 Core Principles of Trauma-Informed Care 

Let’s discuss the following six core principles of trauma-informed care training while acknowledging how they are incorporated into psilocybin therapy. 

#1: Safety

It is vital that therapeutic psilocybin consumption is hosted by staff that facilitates a physically and psychologically safe environment for healing. 

Staff ensure that the setting and all interpersonal interactions occur with impunity and security. 

Any trauma that is brought forth as a result of the therapy will be handled as cautiously, harmlessly, and informatively as possible. 

#2: Trustworthiness and Transparency

During psilocybin therapy, TICT enforces that all organizational operations and decisions are conducted transparently, with the goal of maintaining trust between the individual and staff. 

It is only with trust, transparency, and understanding that psilocybin therapy may be conducted in the first place.

Along with a stringent consent procedure, clients must be fully informed of the process while building trust with facilitators during the preparation phase. 

#3: Peer Support

Peer support, complemented by mutual self-help, plays a key role in establishing a treatment basis that prioritizes safety, trust, hope, and collaboration. 

Building a therapeutic framework that encourages these values may help individuals open up about their trauma and lived experiences to promote recovery and healing. 

Utilizing support to allow individuals to organically confide in staff may help avoid retraumatization or further traumatizing experiences while pursuing psilocybin therapy. 

#4: Collaboration

While employing psilocybin therapy to address trauma, a mutual partnership between staff and clients must be established. 

This collaboration must also acknowledge the power differences between all involved, no matter the significance of the role. From administrators and facilitators to service workers, this core principle recognizes that everyone has a role to play in a trauma-informed approach. 

#5: Empowerment

Through psilocybin therapy and trauma-based healing tactics, clients are supported in their shared decision-making, choices, and goals while determining the plan of action they need to move forward with their healing. 

As psilocybin facilitators, we are entrusted with the responsibility to empower individuals and promote the belief that we are all resilient and able to heal from trauma. 

Instead of being controllers of recovery, psilocybin-assisted staff are facilitators of recovery. 

#6: Humility and Responsiveness 

Trauma-informed care requires all staff to actively work against biases and stereotypes while providing care. 

Trauma has many different forms, some of which may be influenced by experienced discrimination or prejudices based on race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, age, disabilities, etc. It is vital that therapeutic facilitators recognize historical and societal trauma while responding to a client’s trauma experience. 

Understanding Trauma-Informed Care in Psilocybin-Assisted Experiences

Trauma-informed care establishes that the recovery and healing from trauma should be embraced by a holistic perspective. This means that as trauma-informed care providers, we must recognize how trauma can affect a person’s mental, physical, and emotional health as a whole. 

Psilocybin-assisted experiences grounded in a trauma-informed care approach allow facilitators to address the unique, multi-faceted needs of each client. By weaving together the biological, psychological, social, and behavioral threads, psychedelic therapists and facilitators can promote comprehensive and effective healing. 

Trauma-informed care training is vital to psilocybin-assisted experiences, not only as a practice but as a philosophy. By recognizing the deep interconnectedness of our experiences, the profound societal impact of trauma, and the incredible efficacy of psychedelics in mental health and behavioral health treatments, we can continue to improve trauma care therapy.

As the field of psilocybin-assisted experiences in a legal framework continues to evolve, trauma-informed care will stand as a guiding light toward more compassionate, empathetic, and efficacious trauma-based therapy. 

Studies have already suggested that trauma-informed care may be an anchor for safe and reliable psilocybin therapy and facilitated consumption. 

Cognitive Clinical Training includes training on trauma-informed care because we understand the potential power psilocybin has to reform trauma responses or exacerbate them. 

By centering psychedelic experiences around trauma-informed care, we can continue to impact the lives of trauma-affected individuals and safely guide them toward a path of healing. 

Learn More About Psilocybin’s Adult Use Model and Trauma-Informed Care Training at Cognitive Clinical Training 

As psilocybin facilitators, we have a unique opportunity to help support individuals who have experienced trauma. 

In the process of acknowledging the prevalence of trauma and its impact on society, we may be able to move past our own trauma while learning how to be kinder, more compassionate human beings. 

If you are interested in receiving your trauma-informed care certification while undergoing psilocybin facilitator education, Cognitive Clinical Training invites you to apply to one of our two programs. 

We offer an eleven-week on-campus program or a one-year hybrid in-person and online program. Both will help prepare you to become a certified and licensed Oregon psilocybin services provider. 

To pursue psilocybin facilitator training in Oregon or learn more about our trauma-informed care training, speak with one of our admissions administrators today. 

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