What does it really mean to be Trauma Informed

And my existential crisis around my work in the world...

Being trauma informed is not just understanding the impacts of abuse and neglect on the nervous system.  Being trauma informed also means having a clear and solid understanding of systems theory and not only how it applies to family systems but how it applies to society, government, and oppressive cultural systems as well as our more intimate relationships. Being trauma information requires we see all the ways we are traumatized, all the ways our relationships and ability to relate with each other are impacted by poverty, racism, ablism, transphobia, misogyny, classism, and the greater oppressive trifecta of white supremacy, capitalism, and patriarchy.

Since its inception, psychology has looked and “mental disorders” as an individual issue, a flaw in character, a personal chemical imbalance. Freud himself gaslit his female patients by concocting the theory that all girls want to have sex with their fathers (to explain away the accusations of sexual abuse as “pure fantasy”). The pract…