Trauma Informed Practice

Trauma-Informed Practice in Addiction Treatment
Xueqi Gao
Suffolk University

Trauma-Informed Practice in Addiction Treatment
Currently I am working with clients with substance use disorders at an all men residential treatment program. I had developed my theoretical orientation from Albert Ellis’s Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), Aaron Beck’s Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), and Carl Roger’s Client-Centered Therapy (CCT). Combining examining faulty thinking, distinguishing thoughts, emotions, and behaviors, and practicing distress management skills, I have seen significant progress clients have made in recovery. The Rogerian idea of providing a warm and safe environment for client to express feelings and thoughts
The ABC model Ellis presented clearly expressed the ideal of how feeling, thinking and behavior “are never pure, but accompany and holistically influence and integrate with each other” (Ellis, 2001, p. 19). He argued that it’s the beliefs (B) of adversity or adverse situation (A) that caused disturbance behavioral consequences (C), rather than that those situations create problems. Beck had a very similar idea to that of Ellis: situation does not directly decide how people feel; rather, the perception mediates between the situation and the feelings or how people respond (Beck, 1995). He claimed that forming core beliefs and intermediate beliefs (i.e. rules, attitudes) from early developmental stages is a learning process for individuals, and these beliefs later influence automatic thoughts when facing an event. The cognitive behavior approach teaches the client to discriminate faulty thinking from rational thinking, to challenge and test out validity of beliefs, and to replace dysfunctional thinking with healthier alternatives that lead to less disturbing emotions or destructive behaviors. It also stressed counseling techniques and teaching clients skills to achieve these goals. I sometimes call on clients to hold on to a statement or a belief for a moment and ask of that belief is actually 100% true, and client usually could see the irrational beliefs. Many clients believe that if they
221). When such an environment for individuals to become aware is limited, one develops regressive emotions or disruptive behaviors. Rogers emphasized that changes only occur under certain environmental and therapeutic conditions. After many research, he concluded, that therapists who are genuine and who provide clients unconditional acceptance, caring, and accurate empathic understanding have more successful therapy than other therapists. Roger (1959) considered that achieving congruence between ideal self and actual self is one of the most important counseling goals and that incongruence causes internal confusion, makes people vulnerable to psychological problems, and raises anxiety, maladjustment, and distortion of awareness. Therapists should provide the environment for clients with complete freedom to explore every portion of the mind and freedom from threats. As the individual gradually explore experience and became more realistic in one’s perception, one can become more accepting of oneself “as is” (Rogers,