Restorative Center

 “You just lose hope that real help is available.” It’s a common refrain I hear in my counseling practice.  Sometimes it refers to mental health treatment that isn’t trauma-informed.  Sometimes it refers to systems that people are navigating that aren’t built on a trauma model of care.  Ultimately, it might look like this: An individual has a lifetime of trauma that has resulted in a belief that the world isn’t safe.  They’re referred to a counseling agency, but they go for their intake with little hope that it will do any good.  Maybe they were forced to go to counseling as a teenager because they were seen as the “problem” that needed to be fixed.  Or maybe they have other experiences with counseling that just weren’t helpful.  Maybe they grew up with rigid beliefs that you don’t talk about family issues with someone outside the family.  They show up for the first hurdle, their long Medicaid intake process where they’re asked many invasive ...