Relationship hygiene is another way we can engage in trauma informed practices. The trauma-informed practice of relationship hygiene focuses on you and your relationship partners. Relationship hygiene cuts across the personal and the professional aspects of life. We engage in relationship hygiene when we prioritize relationships that are safe, stable, nurturing, and reliable. With this trauma-informed practice, we consciously choose relationships that have a solid foundation. Relationships that have a solid backing are rooted in mutual respect, sensitivity, and support.
Trauma informed care is designed to help individual people, communities, and organizations respond to the psychological overwhelm that people experience.
When you hear the word “trauma” you often think of something physical. Traumatic life events can cause physical harm. And even emotional distress. Psychological trauma happens when a negative event overwhelms a person’s ability to cope. That event can be an injury. A biking accident. The loss of a loved one to death or divorce. Experiencing or witnessing domestic violence. Surviving child abuse. Or having a family member go to prison or jail.
All those life events are adversities. And many people experience several of these events in a lifetime. Some people experience all of those adversities.
Adversity has the potential to hurt or slow development. But trauma takes adversity a step further. An adversity becomes trauma when dealing with hardship makes it difficult to respond in healthy ways to everyday life demands and stressors. Every person responds differently to a single adversity or to hardships that add up over time.
Trauma informed practices help people feel seen, heard, supported, and connected as they work to carry-on with daily life while dealing with overwhelming adversity.
To learn more about the trauma-informed and equity-focused work at Youthcentrix® Therapy services, visit us online at www.youthcentrix.com.
Youthcentrix® provides allied and behavioral health services to individuals, consulting to organizations and a learning lab to accelerate your mastery of trauma informed and equity-focused practices.
Our Master Trauma Informed Practices Accelerator Program is open for enrollment in schools and healthcare organizations. Enroll your school or healthcare organization here.
If you are a business leader interested in bringing trauma informed care and diversity, equity, inclusion, and antiracism (DEIA) to your organization reach out to Denise by emailing denise@youthcentrix.com.