Trauma Informed Care

Trauma informed care means taking into consideration past trauma and any resulting coping mechanisms when working with a student in our therapeutic milieu.  The idea behind “trauma-informed” care is pretty straightforward:  When the care La Europa provides is informed by a basic knowledge of how traumatic experiences and traumatic stress may impact our students, many things are likely to turn out better.  Most of the students at La Europa have experienced some kind of trauma, whether it be big or small.  Our clinical team and residential staff are taught about trauma informed care and provided skills to support a student who has a history of trauma.  To support our students, La Europa provides the following trauma informed services:

• EMDR: Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a psychotherapy treatment that is designed to alleviate the distress associated with traumatic memories.  EMDR helps students at La Europa heal as they process difficult traumatic events and life experiences.  Studies have shown that psychological or emotional trauma can be stored in our brains just like physical trauma can be stored in our bodies.  Using specific and detailed protocols and procedures learned in EMDR sessions, therapists help their clients activate their nature healing processes.   Currently two clinicians at La Europa are EMDR Certified. 

• Trauma Group: In a group therapy setting, students who have experienced trauma may be able to more easily recognize and validate what another student is going through because of very similar experiences.

• Trauma Sensitive Yoga: The goal of trauma sensitive yoga is for trauma survivors to develop a greater send of the mind-body connection to help ease a student’s traumatic experiences and gain a better understanding of their own bodies.