Hi Fr. Puthoff,
Yes, practice is definitely different than learning. It's an art that begins w/ a paradigm change in each of us. The best advice I can give is to consider the person you are talking to a traumatized version of yourself, get in their shoes (brain) and be as non-judgmental and supportive as you can. Respect and providing an environment of safety (environment includes staff attitudes/interactions) are paramount. Here are some resources that expand on that base.
Service Providers: qualities and characteristics essential to working with trauma survivors:
"Empathic--Able to talk openly--Self-aware--Flexible--Comfortable with the unknown--Willingness to learn from survivors--Willingness to connect emotionally with the trauma survivor’s experience of trauma--Willingness to step into the world of the survivor--Able to regulate own emotions--Able to treat the survivor as an equal--Good listener--Willingness to debrief" (p 59-61) toolkit
Principles of Sensitive Practice
A brief, empathic, validating response by a healthcare provider to someone who discloses a trauma history may be…
Communicating a Sensitivity to Trauma Issues
Please watch this video starting at 11:30 – end
http://acesconnection.com/video/trauma-informed-care-tic
Culturally Sensitive Approaches to Trauma
Trauma Informed Consequences in Practice
I targeted specific pages in the above toolkits but feel free to explore the documents more if you have time. Also we have a Trauma-Informed Toolkits page that can be found at http://tiny.cc/tic_tools.
Please let me know more specifics if I'm off target or if you need any additional help. If I think of any additional resources I will be sure to add to this thread.
Chris-Resource Admin