Trauma Informed Care

Trauma is a result of physical or interpersonal injury that comes in a myriad of ways, but a hallmark of trauma is pain with inhibited healing.

Paula is a gifted healer that has studied trauma from the inside out. She has an instinctive, informed, gentle-yet-firm approach that promotes and speeds healing. The primary caveat being that the traumatized must be willing to trust for the duration of the session. 
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Some injuries can take time to be willing to trust, and that's okay. When you are ready, Paula is here.

Traumatic Injury

Traumatic injury can affect the body, select body tissues, and aspects of the mind or emotions, which in turn may result in chronic health problems.
Trauma can be a difficult subject, but addressed directly and succinctly, we can learn from trauma and learn to reduce it.

Natural Trauma

Life is filled with traumas of the "natural" variety, like death, accident, injury, illness, catastrophic weather events, etc.
Natural traumas are, ultimately, easiest for the mind to accept, cope with, and heal from.

The more we avoid thinking about the reality of life's natural traumas, the more traumatized we will be when they inevitably happen. Neither do we want to morbidly obsess about them.

The logical, caring approach is to never take good times for granted, so that when the inevitable happens, we can calmly do what needs to be done, then allow ourselves time to heal.

Unnatural Trauma

Because we humans still refuse to do right by each other, life is also filled with man-made, highly preventable, traumas of the "unnatural" variety, like lies, controlling and manipulative behaviors, abandonment, gaslighting, wolves in sheep's clothing, etc. 

Unnatural traumas are almost impossible for a good-minded person to accept, cope with, and heal from. Unnatural traumas cause a sticky tangle of mental, emotional, and physical pathology, often in the form of depression, anxiety, inflammation, nervous system disorders, autoimmune disease, and antisocial behavior. 

The more we avoid learning about or doing anything about the many nuanced ways trauma invades our lives, from the family all the way up to our governing institutions, the more unnatural traumas will grow like unchecked mold. Neither do we want to go on a proverbial witch hunt against such behaviors.

The logical, caring approach might be to make select core values, that are scientifically sound, a global priority in our homes, schools, jobs, and recreational areas. The key, being that we define and maintain firm, flexible boundaries around those core values. This is a choice each individual could make that would help rebuild trust between all of us.
  • Unnatural traumas come from unhealthy interpersonal relations. 
  • Unnatural traumas are easy to hide and hard to prove.
  • Unnatural traumas are most often sanctioned, noncriminal, covert abuses, many of which get labeled as corruption.
  • Unnatural trauma is abuse.

Interpersonal Trauma

A primary example of an unnatural trauma is when your trust is repeatedly betrayed by someone that represents an important part of your identity. We all can inadvertently betray someone's trust on rare occasions, but abuse is when our trust is repeatedly betrayed. Betrayal takes many forms when seen from the surface, but underneath all ongoing betrayal is a form of trust abuse.

Trust Abuse

Being falsely accused or misjudged with no apparent concern for the truth is a toxic, unnatural abuse of trust. When an innocent is falsely accused or misjudged, it is also an insidious form of gaslighting. "Innocent until proven guilty" is a wise mandate that would curb this problem, from the home and work family as well as the courts, but has been losing ground due to the slow, steady normalization of covert abuse.

Covert Abuse

Covert abuse is most easily defined as suffering from something you cannot prove or change. Covert abuse is common where a person has authority over others, and that includes health professionals, both mainstream and alternative. When you suffer abuse from the very people who are supposed to help, protect, and care about you, life can become a living nightmare. 

Covert Abuse Examples

If you were in genuine need of help, and were disbelieved, misjudged, told it was all in your head, or scoffed at, you were abused. If this happens too often, it can worsen your health. Certainly, you would lose trust in the professional, yet might also succumb to the pressure of trusting them, anyway, because they are professionals. It is a vicious cycle seen more often in mainstream medicine than in alternative medicine, which might explain, in part, the draw to alternative medicine for so many people.

If you have gone to a healthcare professional and they pressure you to do as they say, including coming in for regular/frequent visits, you are at risk of being abused or taken advantage of. Oddly, this can happen more in alternative medicine than mainstream.

Paula's Trauma-Informed Care

  • She will never lie to you. In fact, she has been described as "honest to a fault."
  • She will never force you or manipulate you into taking her advice. In fact, she is nearly famous for telling clients, "Don't listen to a word I say, but if something resonates with you, by all means go check it out for yourself."
  • She is here for you, but she will never manipulate you into seeing her. Directness is her forte.
  • Her bottom line is making a difference in your health and well being, and making a living - not making a profit.
  • If you arrive in a traumatic state, she will shift healing gears and attend to disbursing the trauma, first. Regular healing therapy does not work while trauma is alive, and it is pointless and even damaging to try. This method of hers is so effective that even highly traumatic conditions like frozen shoulder have been 80% improved in just one visit.
  • If you have trauma-based reactions like ticklishness or fearing to be touched, you will be respected. In fact, these reactions are often trust based, and Paula is highly skilled in shifting an untrusting body into a trusting state, which is a healing state.

​Breaking The Trauma Cycle

Paula provides this information not only to ease the fears of traumatized newcomers to her practice, but to spread awareness that too much of what society has normalized lowers both our well being and our happiness. The traumatized suffer enough and not for good cause, yet suffering can help us become smarter, stronger people if we are willing to face the problem, gently yet firmly.

The good news is that we can heal ourselves from unnatural traumas, but we must be willing to face the truth of our abusers: They know what they are doing and they don't care who they hurt; their bottom line is all about themselves and their narrow tribe.  

Just because covert abuse is difficult to prove, we can still make a difference by refusing to remain blind and by setting firm, flexible boundaries around our core values. We can also refuse to allow the normalization of betrayal-style attitudes and behaviors that lead to so much unnecessary suffering. 

Above all, we must be brave enough to face the problem without becoming like our abusers. Take a stand or get away if it is safe, yet wish no harm and do no harm. 

​World View Change

Often we have two extreme views of our world: People are either all good underneath, or all bad.
Neither is true.
Down deep, everyone is who they choose to be.
Life is difficult, too often resulting in people who become entirely selfish or selfless. This leads to societal imbalance like we see, now.
Despite life's difficulties, though, we can each choose to want to be a good and useful member of society, caring about both ourselves and each other - as members of the human race - with a good-natured attitude. The key is to never give up, at least not for long.
When we finally and collectively choose to never give up, those "unnatural" traumas will become and remain a thing of the past.

Trauma Resources

Sadly, yet fortunately, trauma informed education is widely available today. Listed here are a select few favorites for their exceptional, direct insights and solutions. They have been chosen, in part, because the authors have lived their experiences, healed, and gone on to make it their mission to help others. This is a situation where victims are best served by those who have lived it, recovered from it, and know how to teach it.
  • Safe Relationships Magazine with Sandra L. Brown, M. A. - Note especially the recordings on the right column where she discusses "super traits" - which shines a needed light on the problem and language of codependency. Sign up for her newsletter for ongoing reminders, education, and support, for this educator is on the right healing path.
  • The MEND Project - Healing from Emotional Abuse - This is a faith- and spiritual-based resource that speaks plainly and truthfully about the problem, which can be more detrimental when it happens inside the institutions that are supposed to represent love and safety.
  • The MEND Project - Trauma Bonding Explained - In faith based relationships the trauma bond feels even more impossible to escape from. Whether faith-based or not, this is an all-encompassing excellent article to begin the awakening process that begins the healing process. 
  • Eckhart Tolle is one of the most gentle educators on the issue of the source of our suffering: The negativity in our own minds. Paula discovered that trauma can cause one's thinking to get "lost", and yet with clarity we can address our own thinking and find our way back home - to ourselves. General negativity isn't the problem, for life is full of both positives and negatives that are as necessary as positive and negative numbers are to mathematics. Our thoughts, positive or negative, become toxic when we cross the line into judgment. Examples of judgement come in the form of blame, complaints, false guilt, etc. Judgment is behind both suffering and the abnormal development of ego. When we discipline ourselves from crossing the line into judgment, while still being aware of reality, the suffering ends. Sadness will always be a natural part of life, but suffering is what we do to ourselves and each other through judgment.