As a trauma survivor, I intuitively understand that boundaries, safety and choice are necessary ingredients to working with anyone on the effects of trauma. I am happy to say that most Reiki practitioners are safe people who respect boundaries and are willing to meet their clients where they are. My fellow practitioners go above and beyond to meet the needs of their clients and truly live by the credo of “first, do no harm”. So why are Trauma Informed practices even necessary?
The answer is simple: even the best of us make mistakes, forget and sometimes even disregard the signals that we get from ourselves and our clients about what is really going on. And no matter how empathetic a Reiki practitioner is, some of how we have been taught to do our work has the potential to trigger the threat response of those who have experienced trauma. In other words, we can always, always do our work better.
Over the last few years, I have served as an informal advisor to a person working with trauma victims. They do their work in an organization that has adopted Trauma Informed principles to guide how they deliver services. I do not do any work in the organization, but I do help this person understand the point of view of traumatized people, and shed light on their behavior and choices.
Quite to my surprise and deep appreciation, I got healing from witnessing others working within those principles and seeing how it helps clients overcome their threat response, their natural assumption that nowhere and no one is safe. Trauma Informed principles form the foundation for healing and empowerment, no matter what service you are delivering. In short, Trauma Informed principals are a kind of healing modality in and of themselves!
Nowhere is safe (potentially) for a person who has experienced severe trauma
This advisory role changed me, and when I stepped back in to my work as a Reiki teacher and practitioner, I found that I could no longer do that work in the same way. I now understand so much more about the need to be sensitive to trauma survivors, and to consider that many of us have some trauma in our experience.
I knew immediately that getting as much formal training in trauma interventions and trauma informed practices would serve my clients in a new and deeply healing way. I also realized that like any global level set of principles, Trauma Informed Practices is itself a healing modality and would blend beautifully with Reiki.
Trauma Informed Practices is itself a healing modality
Reiki has been a source of solace to me on many levels – it has given me specific and concrete tools I can use with myself and others to give back to me some agency over my life and my boundaries. It has helped me reframe the challenges I have faced to be learning experiences and not soul crushing defeats. My Reiki practice has also expanded how I view myself: as a teacher, a supporter of others and a facilitator of hope. And yet, as I set about to create materials for my latest group of students, I saw gaps – places where we as practitioners can and should be doing more to create safety and empowerment.
Healing (not medical cures or treatments) comes from the ability to be with that which needs healing and to stay present. We all have tools, and many healers collect dozens of healing modalities in an attempt to find just the right thing. What is different about Trauma Informed is that it is indifferent to the kind of healing modality(ies) you practice – it is a framework to create the best possible outcome for your healing. Even if you are fortunate enough to not carry any significant trauma, don’t you want to set your healing up for success?
Trauma Informed is a framework to create the best possible outcome for your healing