Empowering individuals to heal and break the trauma cycle.
Highlights:
- Trauma is not just an event that happens to us, but all the changes accompanying it on a bodily, mental, and emotional level.
- The trauma-informed healthcare approach recognizes the impact of trauma on a person’s physical, emotional, and psychological well-being.
- A key aspect of trauma-informed healthcare is creating safe environments.
- Trauma-informed health care creates safe and supportive environments for people, empowering them and promoting their autonomy.
Just before entering the doctor’s office, he could sense all the judgment in the air. First, the looks the doctor gave him and the way that she didn’t even want to help him get on the exam table. Then, just when he could lie down, she touched his belly and told him that his health condition was all his fault and he would die. “This is why you have hypercholesterolemia,” she said.
Traumatized and completely unmotivated, he left the office and went home. He couldn’t believe that someone considered a health professional could be so cruel and superficial. He felt ashamed and humiliated. Even though he has taken the initiative to care for his health, her harsh words made him afraid to go back for help and feel that it was all his fault.
Unfortunately, this often happens in the world of health. “It is not your fault to receive this type of treatment,” explains Montserrat Sánchez Mejorada, a nutritionist specializing in developmental psychology and an expert in trauma-informed health care. People battling diseases often encounter prejudice, discrimination, and traumatic experiences.
It is not your fault to receive this type of treatment.
Montserrat Sánchez Mejorada
Trauma “is not just an event that happens to us, but all the changes that accompany it on a bodily, mental and emotional level.” These changes are almost instinctive when faced with the sensation of a threat to survival, from a fight and flight response characterized by the release of adrenaline and other hormones to finding ways to escape, such as seeking security in food or an addiction. Also, there may be a freeze response with deep fear. This response is experienced by avoiding attention or being unable to decide. Finally, a fawn response may be presented, manifesting as being accommodating to others or unable to say no.
Montserrat, also the founder of “Semillas de Compasión”, has moved away from traditional nutrition methods and found a more compassionate and flexible nutritional approach for all body types. She explains that traumas make people “feel like they are completely helpless in the face of a situation or event.” Therefore, she recommends trauma-informed healthcare. This approach recognizes the impact of trauma on a person’s physical, emotional, and psychological well-being.
Traumas make people feel like they are completely helpless.
Montserrat Sánchez Mejorada
A key aspect of trauma-informed healthcare is creating safe environments. Both physically accessible spaces to all types of people and psychological security, so they can talk about their thoughts and concerns without fear of being judged. In addition, seek to empower the patient and promote their autonomy.
Understanding that trauma can lead to disconnection from oneself and others is essential. Additionally, responses must be made in a considerate way, focusing on supporting the person based on their specific needs and putting their feelings and experiences at the center of the decisions. Finally, care providers should be aware of not re-traumatizing the person.
Little by little, a space can be created in which the person can reestablish a connection with themselves, thus beginning to heal.
Montserrat Sánchez Mejorada
Trauma-informed health care creates safe and supportive environments for people, empowering them and promoting their autonomy. “Little by little, a space can be created in which the person can reestablish a connection with themselves, thus beginning to heal.”
