The Importance of Trauma-Informed Therapy
Sometimes our children face challenges that call for professional help. The challenges can include anxiety, depression, family conflict, and emotional or behavioral changes. Especially for children impacted by adoption or foster care, these struggles are often connected to past trauma. That’s why trauma-informed therapy can make a meaningful difference in helping your child begin to heal.
What Is Trauma-Informed Therapy?
With trauma-informed therapy, the therapist understands how trauma impacts the whole child, and shapes every part of therapy around that understanding. Rather than asking, “What’s wrong with this child?” a trauma-informed therapist asks, “What has this child experienced, and what do they need to feel safe?”
In a trauma-informed setting, a therapist recognizes the signs and symptoms of trauma and works actively toward solutions. Throughout this process, the therapist takes care to avoid re-traumatization. They also teach children and parents/caregivers regulation activities they can use at home.
Trauma-Informed vs. Traditional Therapy
While traditional therapy may be acceptable for some, some of its methods can be more harmful than helpful. This may include asking your child to recount their trauma in detail or sharing their trauma in a group setting. For children impacted by trauma, this can reinforce fear rather than healing.
Trauma-informed therapy moves at the child’s pace. It places safety, trust, and connection first, so the hard work of healing is on a foundation that the child can rely on.
Why It Matters Even for Children Adopted as Infants
It’s easy to assume a child welcomed home through adoption as an infant hasn’t experienced trauma. But separation from a birth parent, even very early in life, can lead to attachment trauma. Its effects may not show up until later in life, which is why a trauma-informed lens is valuable for children impacted by adoption and foster care.
For children and teens who have experienced adoption and/or foster care, you should consider seeking a counselor who specializes in adoption through a resource like this directory from the Center for Adoption Support and Education.
What Is TBRI®?
At Show Hope, we partner with the Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development (KPICD) in our support of TBRI (Trust-Based Relational Intervention®). As the KPICD puts it:
“TBRI offers a practical, compassionate approach to helping the whole child heal. Grounded in best practices from neuroscience, attachment theory, and developmental research, TBRI helps caregivers address children’s physical, emotional, and development needs—offering what punitive approaches cannot: connection, regulation, and lasting change.”
TBRI can be incredibly helpful in the home, and you can also find a therapist who is a TBRI Practitioner to help you and your child incorporate these principles to find healing.
Help Paying for Therapy
Costs should never stand in the way of a child getting the help they need. Show Hope offers Medical Care grants to select mental health providers to help lower the medical barrier to adoption. Visit showhope.org/medicalcare care to learn more.
There Is No Shame in Seeking Help
As you, your child, and your family walk this journey together, remember there is no shame in therapy or counseling. Children and teens, especially those who have been impacted by adoption and foster care, can have unique, complex needs, and professional help is most needed. This is—in no way—a reflection of you as a parent and caregiver, and as you seek a therapist or counselor, you must remember that truth and embrace it.
