Where do you even start when looking for a therapist or more specifically, a trauma therapist? The difficulties of this in British Columbia are magnified as the counselling industry is not regulated and therefore anyone, including your neighbour, could call themselves a therapist or trauma therapist!
So, what does this mean for you? Unfortunately, it means gathering a bit more background information and asking some questions during consultations or phone calls with potential therapists. Below is a helpful list of things to ask, listen for, and consider when you are looking for a potential therapist:
- Do you have formal trauma training? What is it?
While Registered Clinical Counsellors are required to have a Master’s degree, trauma training isn’t mandatory and sometimes is not even included in the coursework! It is worth asking questions such as “what type of formal trauma training do you have?” and to listen for modalities such as “eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), lifespan integration (LI), observed experiential integration (OEI), internal family systems (IFS or parts work), sensorimotor therapy, somatic work, and many other modalities that are studied and effective for treating trauma.
- What are the key steps to how you do trauma therapy?
“Trauma” is a hot word these days and appears in a lot of places. It can be helpful to ask therapists how they treat trauma. Things to listen for include the words “safety” and “stabilization”, which is one of the first and critical steps to trauma therapy. Creating safety within the therapeutic relationship (between you and your therapist) and safety within yourself (between your brain and your body) are vital to starting this journey and healing past wounds.
- Do you use techniques or a specific psychotherapy?
This question is similar to asking about formal trauma training (question #1). There are specific modalities, such as EMDR or LI or IFS, that that allow for trauma processing and have been researched and proven effective for treating trauma. If a therapist is telling you Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) or Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) is sufficient for treating trauma, that may be a red flag as those are helpful tools in conjunction with a modality that allows for processing that actual trauma.
- How many hours a month do you practice trauma therapy?
This can be a helpful indicator to determine how familiar and how much time a therapist spends treating trauma in therapy. You want to listen for double digits and the more the better! The more familiar a therapist is with trauma work, the more likely it is that they have all the things on this list that you may want in finding a true trauma therapist.
- How many hours of consultation/supervision do you engage in monthly and how many hours of training do you do each year?
Registered Clinical Counsellors are required to do a certain amount of professional training each year to keep up with their registration. This piece is important as there are always new developments and new tools in therapy. Having a therapist that is engaging in ongoing training means you are getting one that is informed on that latest and the greatest. This does not mean that other therapies are not effective or useful, this just means that your therapist is committed to engaging and keeping up with new/updated trainings and research.
Consultation/Supervision is where therapists seek the advice of someone more experienced than themselves. It is important to find a therapist that is engaging in regular supervision (minimum 1 hour a month) so that they are providing the best (and safest) service to you and practicing in an ethical manner. Consultations/Supervision is also a time for your therapist to reflect about their practice with their clients and an opportunity to ensure their resources and information are up to date.
This is by no means and exhaustive list but could be a useful starting off point in helping you find the right trauma therapist for you!
– Fisher, J. (2017). Healing the fragmented selves of trauma survivors: Overcoming internal self-alienation. Routledge.
– Wounded Warriors TRP-1. Facilitator: Carolynn Turner.
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