Clinician burnout and secondary traumatic stress are growing concerns in the behavioral health field. A trauma-informed system of care is an organizational framework that acknowledges the effects of traumatic events and integrates the information to create policies and design practices that avoid re-traumatization. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has identified six principles of trauma-informed care that can be applied not only to clients but also to clinicians. Establishing a trauma-informed system of care for clinicians ensures their wellness and recovery, fostering a sustainable and resilient workforce. A trauma-informed system of care for clinicians may include:

Creating a physically and emotionally safe environment

• Ensuring clinicians have designated safe break areas
• Acknowledging clinicians’ core needs and strengths
• Normalizing self-care and mental health support
• Promoting psychological safety by encouraging open dialogue without fear of judgment or retaliation

Promoting Trust and Transparency

• Ensuring open communication regarding policy changes, hiring new employees, and available resources, including resources to support clinicians’ mental health.
• Using multiple communication channels such as emails, company website, human resources, workshops, etc., to share wellness initiatives.

Implementing Peer Support

• Leadership can provide opportunities for clinicians to bond with each other can promote peer support. Also, when staff experience periods of emotionally dysregulated leadership can brainstorm with the team what they need from each other as they deal with the trauma.
• Provide training and coaching to prevent errors and build competence.
• Offer supportive check-ins to share challenges, coping strategies, and useful tools and resources.

Enhancing Collaboration and Mutuality

• Promoting collaboration between managers, leaders, and clinicians.
• Being intentional about clinical supervision as a partnership with the supervisor and clinician discussing their roles in supervisory sessions. Clinicians should also have a voice in developing their individualized learning plan.
• Providing the support that clinicians need to complete daily tasks.
• Supporting clinicians by viewing challenges as opportunities of growth.

Supporting Empowerment, Voice and Choice

• Prioritizing autonomy and professional growth.
• As often as possible, leadership can make a concerted effort to assure clinicians have a voice in decisions which impact them.

• Creative brainstorming sessions with the team can be an empowering activity that encourages staff to share their thoughts and ideas.
• Providing leadership training to equip supervisors with trauma-informed management skills.
• Establishing clear pathways for career advancement.

Celebrating Uniqueness

• Recognizing the uniqueness of each clinician and their expertise.
• Creating spaces where clinicians feel seen and respected regardless of their identity enhances overall workplace morale and well-being.

Effective Resources for Clinician’s Wellness, Organization and Productivity

Apps:

• Headspace is a guided meditation and sleep aid app to manage stress.
• Calm designed to help lower stress and anxiety with more than 100 guided meditations, sleep stories for deeper, more restful sleep and exclusive music tracks for focus.
• Moodfit helps users improve their mood and overall well-being through mindfulness exercises, daily activities, and personalized resources for building resilience, de-stress, get motivated, avoid procrastination, and dispute cognitive distortions.
• Evernote support with organization of notes, and project planning. The reminders and notifications keep you on track wherever you go, across computers and on all your mobile devices.

Books:

• Reducing Secondary Traumatic Stress presents a model for supporting emotional well-being in workers who are exposed to the effects of secondary trauma.
• The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth, by Amy C. Edmondson. The book explores how fostering psychological safety within organizations can enhance learning, innovation, and growth. 
• Free to Focus: A Total Productivity System to Achieve More by Doing Less, by Michael Hyatt- a productivity system helps overwhelmed leaders achieve what matters most so they can succeed at both work and life.

Websites with Educational Information and Therapy for Clinicians:

• NAMI provides wellness resources and strategies.
• Therapy Aid Coalition delivers pro-bono individual and group therapy for healthcare professionals and first responders. 
• The Emotional PPE Project free mental health support for healthcare professionals.

Creating a trauma-informed workplace for clinicians is not just possible—it is essential for the well-being of the staff, clients and the organization. By embedding SAMHSA’s six principles into workplace culture, organizations can ensure that those providing care receive the support they need. When clinicians thrive, clients receive better care, strengthening the entire system.

References

Bloom, S. L. (2016). Creating Sanctuary: Toward the Evolution of Sane Societies. Routledge.

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). (2023). Practical guide for implementing a Trauma-Informed Approach. Retrieved from https://library.samhsa.gov/sites/default/files/pep23-06-05-005.pdf

Trauma Informed Oregon. (n.d.). A Trauma Informed Workforce: An introduction to work force wellness. https://traumainformedoregon.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/A-Trauma-Informed-Workforce_An-introduction-to-workforce-wellness.pdf

About the Authors

Mark Sanders, LCSW, CADC, is an international speaker in behavioral health whose presentations have reached thousands throughout the United States, England, Canada, Spain, Lithuania, West Indies, and Guam. He is the recipient of five behavioral health lifetime achievement awards, including the prestigious NAADAC Enlightenment Award. He is the founder of The Museum of African American Addictions, Treatment and Recovery, which was honored as the 2023 winner of the Faces and Voices of Recovery Innovations In Recovery Award. He is the author of 5 books on recovery and has enjoyed a 30-year career as a university educator.

Isa Vélez Echevarria, PsyD, is a Puerto Rican clinical psychologist. She is the Ohio State Project Manager for the Great Lakes Addiction, Mental Health, and Prevention Technology Transfer Centers managed by the Center for Health Enhancement Systems Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. During her pre-doctoral internship at Children’s Institute in Los Angeles, CA, she was certified as an Interpersonal Psychotherapy Clinician. She was trained in Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Family Therapy. In addition, she provides telehealth services to underserved communities in Massachusetts and Puerto Rico.